Asus P4C800-E Deluxe BIOS setup problem

[--Lorien--]

Hello all!

My first post here, but it looks a very good forum!

I am having trouble with an Asus P4C800-E, I have built a system as follows:

Asus P4C800-E Deluxe
Intel 3.4ghz Pentium IV CPU
Zalman flower CPU cooler
Antec quiet 460w PSU
Antec Sonata Case
1GB Geil Memory
ATi Radeon X800 pro AGP card
Creative Audigy 2 THX sound card
70gb Western Digital Raptor SATA drive
Asus IDE DVD writer
Asus 802.11g wireless PCi card.

SATA drive is on the 1st SATA channel, and works fine, only other drive connected is the DVD writer which is on secondary IDE as master.

Windows XP installed and runs a treat, computer is nice and rapid, Doom 3 whips along on max settings, life is good .

Except I don't get to see a POST screen and can't enter BIOS setup, If I hold the delete key in whilst it is booting, the system shows the Promise fast track bios is not installed message then does the the scanning for IDE drives bit and then pauses, no BIOS setup, no nothing.

If the delete key is not held in, it loads windows from the SATA drive.

Trouble is, I want to add another IDE hard drive so that I can have some storage space on the computer, and so I need to change the boot order in the BIOS to stop it trying to boot from IDE before SATA.

I'm at work now, but soon as I get home I will crack on with it, does anybody have some suggestions as to what could be wrong?

Thanks for your time!

 

[BEST JD TCR]

when the computer boots up in the "power on self test" (POST) it will stop it will not load windows if there errors, any ways the "basic input output system" (BIOS) is not the CMOS inwhich you want to get into, the bios checks all devices hooked to the motherboard. if there is no BIOS on the motherboard (i dont know how there isnt) download one off the internet; or if there is one, press F1 or Del when the computer First starts.

 

[--Lorien--]

So it's possible that my motherboard has no BIOS installed and I need to install one before it will let me edit the CMOS settings?

I have a tool called afudos that I will use to install the latest BIOS from ASUS, if it works i'll post the result.

Many thanks for the help.

 

[gibant1]

Normally you keep pressing the del key, right from startup, After it does the promise controller, It should enter the bios/cmos.

If your motherboard display's the Asus picture, your should ALREADY have been pressing the del key.

 

[--Lorien--]

I dont get any asus pictures at all, even if I keep pressing the delete key, after the promise message and the ide scan it just goes straight into booting windows. When I hold delete in, it just freezes on the promise message.

 

[BEST JD TCR]

try press F1!

 

[--Lorien--]

try press F1!

Got to be worth a shot!

 

[BEST JD TCR]

come to think of it maybe a computer would run without a bios because all it does is checks all the input and output devices, so all it is; is a luxury. am i right, and even if there was no bios installed you could still get into the CMOS.

 

[gibant1]

It comes before the cmos, nothing works without a bios.

 

[BEST JD TCR]

YOU SAID

system shows the Promise fast track bios is not installed message

I went to the asus web page and seen this and seen that it may be your RAID
controller.

Multi-RAID for ATA133 & Serial ATA
The P4C800 Deluxe offers the most complete RAID solution. A Promise SATA controller offers RAID 0, 1 and 10 functions with Max. 2 UltraATA 133 ports and 2 SATA HD ports, enabling users to build a RAID array with any 2, 3 or 4 of the ports. With unique multi-RAID function, RAID 0 and RAID 1 array can co-exist.



http://usa.asus.com/products/mb/socket478/p4c800-d/overview.htm