Abit KG7-RAID, Abit KG7 + SCSI card = no boot. Please HELP!

[Karnak]

Hello all.

I purchased a KG7-RAID board along with an Athlon 1800+XP, 512mb PC2100 and WindowsXP Pro.

I run a SCSI system using a Tekram DC-390U2B/W wide SCSI3 card.

I setup the new system, but cannot boot off of the WindowsXP CD, even when I put an IDE CD drive into the computer. It wouldn't even boot off of a floppy. I went to Abit's site and read of the problems that the KG7-RAID had with SCSI cards. I tested this by removing the card and just leaving the IDE CD drive with the WinXP CD. 'Lo and behold it booted.

Abit reccommended that SCSI users use the KG7 instead of the KG7-RAID, so today I went and bought a KG7.

It has exactly the same problem.

Additional things that I did with the KG7 are flashing the BIOS to the latest version (now my proc is IDed as an Athlon 1800+XP) and tried an ancient Diamond Fireport SCSI3 card.

Neither of those things had any effect on this behavior.

I have tried too many BIOS settings to list here, boot from SCSI, IDE all disabled, boot from CD-ROM, set the Tekram SCSI card to boot from CD-ROM (it finds the bootable CD while initializing the SCSI BIOS and I tell it to boot from default, but then nothing).

These motherboards can't seem to get past the "Verifying the DMI pool" stage if there is a SCSI card installed. That is were all activity seems to halt.

Please help. I am plum out of ideas.

Thanks.

[blackfalcon4]

YOYO
 Karn Bro try going here you may find some help hereweb page

[Eaglecz]

dont know how tekram but if adaptec find bootable CD in drive and Boot from CD is on, you have to press key to confirm boot from CD, no matter that MB_BIOS and SCSI bios are set up on boot from CD ... watch carefully what SCSI wrote

[Lephturn]

1.  What slot are you putting the SCSI card in?  Does that slot share an IRQ with any other device?

2.  Even though it's not the RAID version, does that board use a second set of IDE drivers?  Have you tried disabling only the "extra" controllers in BIOS before you pop the SCSI card in?  From your post, it seems you've been trying this though.

[Karnak]

SOLVED!!!!

You want to hear something stupid?

Try this.

Unplug the PS2 mouse.

Use either a Serial adapter for the PS2 mouse or use a USB mouse.

I'm installing WinXP now.

[blackfalcon4]

Why can't I boot from a SCSI CDROM attached to Adaptec 29160 SCSI card then install operation system onto assigned hard drive? Or fail to start Windows with Adaptec 29160 SCSI card plugged on KG7-RAID mainboard? (KG7 / KG7-RAID / KT7A / KT7A-RAID / KT7 / KT7-RAID)
 
Some users encountered problems on RAID onboard mainboard and thought it's owing to mainboard BIOS bug. Actually this issue is caused by basic limitation of AWARD BIOS- all the PCI add-on cards' BIOSes use C000~DFFF memory address, which is a quite limited space. Especially the BIOS size of current VGA, RAID and SCSI card become larger and larger. While two or more cards are plugged into the system, the initial sequence, allocated memory address, and different characteristics may lead to a very complicated situation and configuration. Sometimes mainboard BIOS cannot afford enough ROM space to PCI cards BIOSes and cause abnormal functionality. Please note that for RAID onboard mainboards, users can't see PCI add-on card but the RAID BIOS does exist and be included in mainboard BIOS. If the add-on SCSI card's BIOS is with too large size and quite different characteristic, the boot issue may occur
.For Adaptec 29160 SCSI card users, we suggest the following troubleshooting and workable configuration:
1.Use an IDE CDROM to boot up and install the operation system. Please set the boot sequence to "1st: CD-ROM, 2nd: ATA100RAID, 3rd: SCSI", thus you will be able to boot from a Windows 2000 installation CD disk and install the OS onto IDE RAID drive or SCSI drive. If wrongfully set the boot sequence to "1st: CD-ROM, 2nd: SCSI, 3rd: ATA100RAID", the installation process may fail because mainboard BIOS cannot afford enough ROM space to RAID BIOS.
2.Use an SCSI CDROM to boot up and install the operation system. Please set the boot sequence to "1st: ATA100RAID, 2nd: SCSI, 3rd: any", thus you will be able to boot from a Windows 2000 installation CD disk and install the OS onto IDE RAID drive or SCSI drive. If wrongfully set the boot sequence to "1st: SCSI, 2nd: ATA100RAID, 3rd: any", the installation process may fail because mainboard BIOS cannot afford enough ROM space to RAID BIOS.
We highly recommend choosing one option from IDE RAID and SCSI solution. This will simplify the system configuration and keep insufficient ROM space issue away from users. For Adaptec 29160 and high-end SCSI RAID solution, KG7/KT7A that without IDE RAID function is the better choice. And for non-SCSI solution, KG7-RAID/KT7A-RAID is the better choice.

[Karnak]

bfalcon,

Yes, I read that after I couldn't get the KG7-RAID to work.  That's why I went and got a KG7, it was Abit's reccomendation for SCSI users.  Unfortunately the KG7 displayed the same behavior as the KG7-RAID when a SCSI card was plugged in and had devices (eg., when the SCSI BIOS was installed).

Fortunately, after even after talking with an Abit techsupport guy it wasn't resolved, one of my friends found a thread on usenet about a Tekram 390F SCSI (mine is a Tekram 390U2B/W, quite similar) card that was causing the same problem and the work around that person found was to not use a Ps@ mouse in the PS2 mouse port.

I tried it, and viola, it worked for me too.

[Lephturn]

Weird, that SCSI card must use the same address range as the on-board PS/2 port on the KG7 boards.  That's an odd one.  

Glad you figured it out!

Oh, and this is just one more reason why it's good to go all USB for your control devices and disable as many onboard device controllers as you can!

[Karnak]

Lephturn,

That's about the size of it.

As far as I can tell, this is a common problem on all boards that use the VIA 686B South Bridge.

I doesn't always manifest itself this harshly, but it seems to always cause odd hicups in the system's behavior.