ASUS K8V Deluxe & Samsung SATA drive

aaf

Hi all,

Need help with this. I'm building my first pc. I have an ASUS K8V Deluxe motherboard and a Samsung SP1614C SATA harddrive. I have everything else installed and from what I can tell, installed properly. The question I have is which SATA connection on the motherboard do I connect to. I've read many's a thread on this and everyone seems to beat around the bush when asked this question. The manual is terrible as it only explains how to connect 2 SATA drives for RAID purposes. I have the SATA cable, but which connector does it go to: SATA1, SATA2, PRI_SATA or SEC_SATA? Also, what drivers do I need from the K8V Deluxe CD-ROM. I know you have to put them on floppy. I have tried the SATA1 connector and disabled the Promise controller in the BIOS. Which brings me on to the BIOS, which options do I then enable/disable in the BIOS from the following:

OnChip SATA Boot ROM - I think should be enabled
OnBoard Promise Controller - which should be disabled if I'm not using RAID?
Operating Mode[OnBoard IDE Operate Mode] - only appears when you're using the Promise Controllers
OnBoard LAN - I take it I should enable as I'll be using a 56k modem
OnBoard LAN Boot ROM - from what I've read, should be disabled.

I think that's everything. PC doesn't even reach POST stage when I'm connected to SATA1 and have Promise disabled. I have tried a few configurations so far to no avail. I have 2 sticks of 512MB Mushkin PC3200 Level 1 CL2 RAM in DIMM1 and DIMM3. Any help much appreciated. Won't be online again until Mon morning. Cheers

l3rian

If you are using the upper SATA1 connector then you should enable the on board SATA controller and disable the Promise controller.

You have to copy the SATA driver off of the mother board driver disk or download them from Asus. Then you have to make a floppy disk with them on it and have it ready when you begin to install Windows. Hit F6 right away when the install begins and load the drivers into the OS. I got the info off the Western Digital site. Works for me

the VIA SATA connectors run through the southbridge and is supposedly faster than the Promise controller


BIOS settings

on chip sata boot rom. Leave enabled if using via sata

onboard promise controller. enable if using disable if not
operating mode. If using promise controller single drive ide mode. Raid setup on the promise then RAID

Onboard LAN. For the onboard LAN disable if not using I got my cable modem plugged in it so it's enabled.

Onboard LAN boot rom disabled. Enable if your booting from a network drive.

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=29&threadid=1226300

I had to change the ram speed from auto to 333, to run it stable

aaf

Originally posted by l3rian
If you are using the upper SATA1 connector then you should enable the on board SATA controller and disable the Promise controller.

You have to copy the SATA driver off of the mother board driver disk or download them from Asus. Then you have to make a floppy disk with them on it and have it ready when you begin to install Windows. Hit F6 right away when the install begins and load the drivers into the OS. I got the info off the Western Digital site. Works for me

the VIA SATA connectors run through the southbridge and is supposedly faster than the Promise controller


BIOS settings

on chip sata boot rom. Leave enabled if using via sata

onboard promise controller. enable if using disable if not
operating mode. If using promise controller single drive ide mode. Raid setup on the promise then RAID

Onboard LAN. For the onboard LAN disable if not using I got my cable modem plugged in it so it's enabled.

Onboard LAN boot rom disabled. Enable if your booting from a network drive.

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=29&threadid=1226300

I had to change the ram speed from auto to 333, to run it stable

Tried everything above except RAM settings. It's not even getting to POST stage so I can't even start a Win XP install. Have ASUS drivers on disk and ready to go, I'm gonna use the non-promise drivers. Also read that anandtech thread but I'm still getting nowhere. Thanks for the advice though.

neokenzo

Originally posted by aaf
OnChip SATA Boot ROM - I think should be enabled
OnBoard Promise Controller - which should be disabled if I'm not using RAID?
Operating Mode[OnBoard IDE Operate Mode] - only appears when you're using the Promise Controllers
OnBoard LAN - I take it I should enable as I'll be using a 56k modem
OnBoard LAN Boot ROM - from what I've read, should be disabled.

I left everything as default on that part apart from the OnBoard Promise Controller which I disable.

You'd probably done this but have you connected the ATX 12V power to you mobo? Logically, I would put it on SATA1 if I was in your situation. I dont think the other sata ports applies. Also try changing you memory slot. I have my memory on DIMM2 and DIMM3. If all else fails, try borrowing someone's memory and use it on your mobo.

aaf

Originally posted by neokenzo
I left everything as default on that part apart from the OnBoard Promise Controller which I disable.

You'd probably done this but have you connected the ATX 12V power to you mobo? Logically, I would put it on SATA1 if I was in your situation. I dont think the other sata ports applies. Also try changing you memory slot. I have my memory on DIMM2 and DIMM3. If all else fails, try borrowing someone's memory and use it on your mobo.

I have connected that ATX 12V cable to the motherboard. I'll try putting the memory into different slots when I get home this evening. Cheers.

aaf

HAPPY DAYS!!! The beast is alive and well. I finally got it to work. Had to do a few things. Firstly, it was posting. I just couldn't see it because of the logo screen so I went into the BIOS - Boot Settings Configuration and disabled the Full Screen Logo and I also disabled the Quick Boot so I could see more info. It posts fine no matter which memory slots I use. I have Mushkin PC3200 Level 1 CL2 RAM which doesn't appear on the ASUS tried and tested list.

The other problem was that the Win XP Pro cd I had in the drive wasn't bootable. Well, it wasn't booting from the cd even though I had it listed as the 1st Boot Device in the BIOS. Then, I remembered seeing something on the microsoft download site a few weeks back. I downloaded the Win XP Bootable Floppy Disk download. It's an .exe which when executed requires you to have 6 pre-formatted floppies. Worked like a dream. However, when I booted from the first floppy, a message appears at the start asking you to press F6 if you want to load any third party drivers (ie drivers for my SATA HD). F6 didn't work so I let the installation go on. Half way through the 4th floppy, it asks for the Mass Storage device drivers on floppy so be sure to have the proper drivers on disk. I downloaded the VIA VT6420 (VT8237) SATA RAID Driver Package Version 2.20D WHQL (7.24mb) from the ASUS site and ran the MakeDisk.exe from the DriverDisk folder. This is for the non-promise drivers (ie if you only want to install 1 SATA HD like I did and not use 2 SATA's with RAID). Also make sure that your SATA cable is connected to the SATA1 connector on the motherboard and that you use the following settings in the BIOS:
OnChip SATA Boot ROM - Enable
OnBoard Promise Controller - Disable
OnBoard LAN - Enable
OnBoard LAN Boot ROM - Disable

I should also let you all know that I also used the latest BIOS from the website before I started with Win Xp installation. It's a self-executing .exe that you should run in DOS before you install Windows. I used an old Windows 98 Startup Disk to get into DOS to install the BIOS update before I ran Win XP floppy setup disks. Installed Win XP smoothly and now I'm downloading all the latest drivers for everything else like the Cool'n'Quiet drivers etc. Hope this helps anybody who may have problems with this motherboard and SATA drives. If you've any questions, go ahead and ask or PM me.:D