Simviation Forum - issue with my new P6T?

Apr 8^th, 2009 at 2:41pm

eurowing Offline
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up, up and away
Laveen, AZ, USA

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Posts: 34

hi all,

i just assembled my new rig (asus P6t, i7 920, 6GB 1600 ram, GTX 280). i was quite surprised to see what has changed the last 3-4 years. no more serial port? no lpt port either? wow. and only one IDE controller? WOW where have i been the last few years??? i guess it's all SATA these days.

speaking of which, this is what i am a little worried about. this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822144160 is my old SATA raptor drive that i use for FSX. i have a dedicated xp/FSX installation on it which has worked well ever since. now i am trying to use the drive with the new computer, but i am having a little bit of trouble doing that.

i hooked it up on the SATA 1 port (there are 8) and every now and then when i boot the computer it takes a looooong time to auto detect the drive. this seems to be the case only on #1, when i connect it to #2 it always detects it quickly.

i made a fresh installation of xp on another IDE (ATA) hdd because windows would no longer boot with the new hardware. even safe mode did not help because it wouldn't let me install all the drivers.

now with the new xp installation (on the IDE drive) the computer is booting and it seems everything works fine. however, i can not access the SATA hdd from that installation. after a while windows told me that it found new hardware (the SATA hdd) but it is not showing in the explorer. i can not access it even though it shows under the hardware devices. it also seems that booting xp takes a lot longer with the SATA drive connected than wihout it.

i can't help it but i have a feeling that i may have an issue with the SATA (controller? connectors?) on the motherboard. or has the technoligy changed to an extent where AUTO settings for my almost 4 year old hard drive no longer work? there are plenty of SATA settings in the BIOS (is dated february or march 09) but i have them all on AUTO.

the fact that when i connect it to #1 it takes much longer to auto detect the drive makes me think that it might be a motherboard that should go back to the store (remember this is only every other or so boot). that is always quick when connected to #2, but even then i can't access it from windows. it does show in the BIOS, though.

hopefully someone can tell me what i might be doing wrong?

thank you!

Denis&&KPHX&&&&i7 920; ASUS P6T; GTX-280 OC; win7 64 bit; FSX SP2

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Reply #1 - Apr 8^th, 2009 at 4:03pm

NickN Offline
Colonel
FSX runs fine... the problem
is you or your system

Posts: 6317

you are hitting me at a bad time.. I will look at this later today as I get time

You need to read your manual about drives, the BIOS and also read the docs for the drives themselves

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Reply #2 - Apr 8^th, 2009 at 5:16pm

jwenham Offline
Colonel
Clear to Land... Are you
sure?

Posts: 266

eurowing wrote on Apr 8^th, 2009 at 2:41pm:

hi all,

i just assembled my new rig (asus P6t, i7 920, 6GB 1600 ram, GTX 280). i was quite surprised to see what has changed the last 3-4 years. no more serial port? no lpt port either? wow. and only one IDE controller? WOW where have i been the last few years??? i guess it's all SATA these days.

speaking of which, this is what i am a little worried about. this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822144160 is my old SATA raptor drive that i use for FSX. i have a dedicated xp/FSX installation on it which has worked well ever since. now i am trying to use the drive with the new computer, but i am having a little bit of trouble doing that.

i hooked it up on the SATA 1 port (there are 8) and every now and then when i boot the computer it takes a looooong time to auto detect the drive. this seems to be the case only on #1, when i connect it to #2 it always detects it quickly.

i made a fresh installation of xp on another IDE (ATA) hdd because windows would no longer boot with the new hardware. even safe mode did not help because it wouldn't let me install all the drivers.

now with the new xp installation (on the IDE drive) the computer is booting and it seems everything works fine. however, i can not access the SATA hdd from that installation. after a while windows told me that it found new hardware (the SATA hdd) but it is not showing in the explorer. i can not access it even though it shows under the hardware devices. it also seems that booting xp takes a lot longer with the SATA drive connected than wihout it.

i can't help it but i have a feeling that i may have an issue with the SATA (controller? connectors?) on the motherboard. or has the technoligy changed to an extent where AUTO settings for my almost 4 year old hard drive no longer work? there are plenty of SATA settings in the BIOS (is dated february or march 09) but i have them all on AUTO.

the fact that when i connect it to #1 it takes much longer to auto detect the drive makes me think that it might be a motherboard that should go back to the store (remember this is only every other or so boot). that is always quick when connected to #2, but even then i can't access it from windows. it does show in the BIOS, though.

hopefully someone can tell me what i might be doing wrong?

thank you!

Here are a few things to look at:
In the BIOS in the MAIN tab look at Storage Configuration
Then SATA Configuration (SET IT TO ENHANCED)
and set CONFIGURE SATA as IDE
Does your drive have any set up software or utilities? If so you may need to load them as well.

Intel i7 940 2.93 clocked to 4.0ghz Asus P6T Deluxe 6gb OCZ 1600 8-8-8-24 EVGA GTX 260 Superclocked Edition Thermalright 120 CPU Cooler Power PC & Cooling 750w PSU 1 tb Seagate Barracuda HD 500 gb Seagate Barracude HD 22" Viewsonic Widescreen Track IR 4 XP Pro x64 www.fairtax.org

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Reply #3 - Apr 8^th, 2009 at 6:34pm

eurowing Offline
Colonel
up, up and away
Laveen, AZ, USA

Gender:
Posts: 34

SATA mode is set to enhanced and configured for IDE.
it is an oem drive so i have neither software nor a manual.

i have also checked the motherboard manual, nothing new in there. it is not very thorough anyways, just tells you what you can set - not why.

Denis&&KPHX&&&&i7 920; ASUS P6T; GTX-280 OC; win7 64 bit; FSX SP2

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Reply #4 - Apr 8^th, 2009 at 9:10pm

jwenham Offline
Colonel
Clear to Land... Are you
sure?

Posts: 266

Maybe this will help:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/159956/my_pc_doesnt_see_my_new_hard_drive.html

Intel i7 940 2.93 clocked to 4.0ghz Asus P6T Deluxe 6gb OCZ 1600 8-8-8-24 EVGA GTX 260 Superclocked Edition Thermalright 120 CPU Cooler Power PC & Cooling 750w PSU 1 tb Seagate Barracuda HD 500 gb Seagate Barracude HD 22" Viewsonic Widescreen Track IR 4 XP Pro x64 www.fairtax.org

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Reply #5 - Apr 8^th, 2009 at 9:19pm

eurowing Offline
Colonel
up, up and away
Laveen, AZ, USA

Gender:
Posts: 34

jwenham wrote on Apr 8^th, 2009 at 9:10pm:

Maybe this will help:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/159956/my_pc_doesnt_see_my_new_hard_drive.html

the hard drive is formatted and the other hints did not apply. i have a new SATA drive on the way and will see how that will perform with new partition/format. my SATA drive i can't format because i still need the fsx data on it.

thanks!

Denis&&KPHX&&&&i7 920; ASUS P6T; GTX-280 OC; win7 64 bit; FSX SP2

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Reply #6 - Apr 8^th, 2009 at 9:31pm

jwenham Offline
Colonel
Clear to Land... Are you
sure?

Posts: 266

Do you have your boot priority set properly, meaning that your drive that has FSX and your old OS not to boot first?

Intel i7 940 2.93 clocked to 4.0ghz Asus P6T Deluxe 6gb OCZ 1600 8-8-8-24 EVGA GTX 260 Superclocked Edition Thermalright 120 CPU Cooler Power PC & Cooling 750w PSU 1 tb Seagate Barracuda HD 500 gb Seagate Barracude HD 22" Viewsonic Widescreen Track IR 4 XP Pro x64 www.fairtax.org

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Reply #7 - Apr 8^th, 2009 at 10:22pm

eurowing Offline
Colonel
up, up and away
Laveen, AZ, USA

Gender:
Posts: 34

jwenham wrote on Apr 8^th, 2009 at 9:31pm:

Do you have your boot priority set properly, meaning that your drive that has FSX and your old OS not to boot first?

yes i do. i am booting from my IDE drive with a fresh xp installation. everything installed ok on that drive and i have all the updates installed.

when i am on that system i can see the SATA drive on the hard drive list (when i go to the hard drive properties and click on the hardware tab) but it's not showing in explorer. (it is also showing in the bios)

EDIT: i just had an idea. so i went and changed the SATA cable. guess what - now i can see the drive in the explorer and have access to the SATA drive! however, every time i boot i get this message: "one of your drives must be checked for consistency" and then chkdsk is performed on the SATA drive (that is before i get to the xp desktop). still weird. i only booted it up three times now but on these three attempts the SATA detection was quick.

so my new problem is: why do i get this message? i will have to do a fresh FSX install anyways so i will end up formatting the SATA drive after i have backed up the files that i need from it. i would think that hopefully with a fresh format the above mesage will no longer show?

Denis&&KPHX&&&&i7 920; ASUS P6T; GTX-280 OC; win7 64 bit; FSX SP2

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Reply #8 - Apr 9^th, 2009 at 6:59am

jwenham Offline
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Clear to Land... Are you
sure?

Posts: 266

I would agree with that. At least you can get you data off that drive before something else happens. Can you still RMA the drive or is it past its warranty period? Glad to see your making progress!

Intel i7 940 2.93 clocked to 4.0ghz Asus P6T Deluxe 6gb OCZ 1600 8-8-8-24 EVGA GTX 260 Superclocked Edition Thermalright 120 CPU Cooler Power PC & Cooling 750w PSU 1 tb Seagate Barracuda HD 500 gb Seagate Barracude HD 22" Viewsonic Widescreen Track IR 4 XP Pro x64 www.fairtax.org

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Reply #9 - Apr 9^th, 2009 at 8:43am

grizzard Offline
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Rio Tinto

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Denis,
One thought would be to clone your old drive to the new SATA when it comes in then use the new SATA as boot and see if that resolves the mobo question. HDCLONE works well for that purpose.

Intel i7 920 @ 4 Ghz- Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme Fan - MSI X58 Platinum- MSI Geforce 285 GTX 1 GB - 6 GB OCZ 1600 DDR3 1600 - WD VelociRaptor 300 GB - OCZ 700 Watt GameXstream - Samsung SyncMaster 2493 HM - Vista Home Premium

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Reply #10 - Apr 9^th, 2009 at 12:27pm

eurowing Offline
Colonel
up, up and away
Laveen, AZ, USA

Gender:
Posts: 34

my new SATA hard drive is scheduled for delivery tomorrow. i will get the data that i need off my old drive today (it's only a few files) and then see how the installation on the new drive works.

it would surprise me if my old drive had any issue because it has been working flawlessly more than three years until i put it into my new system. i don't really know about the warranty for the hard drive right now. returning the P6T would be easy though because i bought it at a local store (that's exactly why i buy most hardware locally rather than online - as long as it's a really good sale Wink

) .

good news is that the way things are progressing it seems more and more that the hardware (mobo) should be ok! i would really not like to take it all apart again...

Denis&&KPHX&&&&i7 920; ASUS P6T; GTX-280 OC; win7 64 bit; FSX SP2

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Reply #11 - Apr 9^th, 2009 at 2:15pm

NickN Offline
Colonel
FSX runs fine... the problem
is you or your system

Posts: 6317

Sounds like you got this under control

CHKDSK is showing up because Windows found a problem with the file structure and has it in its registry the disk needs to be checked.

I have seen this get 'stuck' too (stupid Windows)

I do not remember the reg entry which controls it.. would need to look it up

However

I would assign Windows to run a FULL CHKDSK, not the fast check and see if it finds errors

Right click the drive, select TOOLS then DISK CHECK, place a check in BOTH BOXES and allow it to run

That check can take an hour or so to complete.. very large drives several however when complete if no errors are found it may be an issue brought on by a defective SATA cable and that should clear it

It is possible you do have a damaged disk. If CHKDSK finds physical damage it will attempt to recover data off the damaged area of the disk and mark it so Windows does not use that area.. but thats not a perm fix.. its just to get you recovered long enough to get back online and get the data secure before a drive replacement

The Manufacture of the drive will also have disk maintenance and check tools for the drive at their website. Usually, if I find Windows has located something nasty i will run the manufacture test disk and let it confirm what Windows found before I junk a drive just to be sure

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Reply #12 - Apr 11^th, 2009 at 8:45pm

eurowing Offline
Colonel
up, up and away
Laveen, AZ, USA

Gender:
Posts: 34

hi all,

all seems ok with the computer. i have installed windows on the new drive and after i deleted the partition and created a new one and formatted the 'trouble' drive windows accepts it completely!

i assume that the cable had a problem that also messed up the file structure or something so that windows detected something wrong with the drive. the new drive is on SATA #1 now and the old one on another and right now everything works fine. what a difference one cable can make...

thank you all for your input!

i'll be back with more questions when i try to OC my sytem

regards,

Denis&&KPHX&&&&i7 920; ASUS P6T; GTX-280 OC; win7 64 bit; FSX SP2

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