Stuck in boot sequence

[Hefemeister]

take a peek at your manual.
http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/socket775/P5N32-E SLI/e2929_P5N32-E_SLI.pdf
starting on page 143 or 5-27. It gives pretty good instructions on getting in. Once in you can check the status of the array.

 

[HarveyWallbanger]

Wll, I finally got some time over to test things. I'm beginning to think that I have narrowed it down to what the problem is.

- Tried with resetting CMOS again and entering the settings again. Result: Detecting array...
- Yanked the power supply to both discs. Result: Boot error.
- Supplied the no 1 disc with power. Result: Detecting array...
- Supplied the no 2 disc with power. Result: Got into the RAID Utility where I got an error since it only finds half of the array.
- Reconnected the no 1 disc with another power connector. Result: Detecting array...
- Reconnected both discs and exchanged the SATA-cable for the no 1 disc. Result: Detecting array...
- Gave up...

Now, I've gotten some suggestions that it is the mobo that might be faulty (or at least parts of it) but after conducting these tests I'm beginning to think that it is the no 1 disc that is the issue. What makes me confused is that that disc shows up in BIOS and in the POST before I set the system to use RAID, so the disc itself SEEMS to be functioning. But still something fails. Has the data on the disc that tells the system it is part of a RAID array been messed up? If so, what to do then? Or is it possible that the order was messed up last time I rebuilt the computer (even though I marked the disks)? If so the question is, why did it work a while and then sieze?

Tried to contact the ASUS support, but they don't do telephone support on mobo's. Bas*$£#¤s...

Any further ideas are accepted with gratitude!

 

[Hefemeister]

What really confuses me is that even if the disk is bad you should be able to get into the raid utility and see the array status.

 

[HarveyWallbanger]

Yeah well. I only get into the utility if I power off the no 1 disk. If the no 1 disk is up and running I only get stuck at the Detecting array prompt. You can't get into the utility until after the POST, and that seems to be AFTER the computer detects the array.

I don't know what the heck to do. ASUS don't telephone support motherboards. At least not in sweden. I'll give Samsung a ring and see what they think. Other than that I guess I'll have to call IT-Hantverkarna or something.

*sigh*

 

[Hefemeister]

I would try to disable raid in bios so it does not try to boot from it then see if you can get into the utility with both drives installed. Unfortunately it sounds like one of the drives is dead and that does not bode well for raid0.

 

[HarveyWallbanger]

Ok, disable RAID on the drives but enable RAID in general?

The irritating part is that I'll need to reset CMOS again to get into BIOS since that's after POST as well... Or at least after it tries to check the array...