Re: A7V hangs at ESCD


"Rene" <invalid@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
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"James Sassman" <jsassman@xxxxxxxxxx> schreef in bericht
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My motherboard is an old A7V with 512 megs memory, Nvidia 5500, 40 gig WD
drive which I've outgrown.
After installing an Adaptec ATA 133 controller in a free PCI slot,
attaching a new Western Digital 250 GB hard drive, the computer hangs at
the ESCD configuration screen after saying it has been updated.
Also, the Hardware manager does not show the controller is Adaptec
now--it did at first. Now it says Silicon Image Sil 0680 ATA/133
Controller.
I'm not sure if the card is not compatible with the new drive or I need
to wait longer for the configuration to actually be loaded and changed.
Any help would be appreciated.

The first thing You might try is remove every pci card and see if that
solves the problem. Is the card firmly in the slot? Try to reseat it. Did
You really turn of the pc when inserting the card or just "turn it off"
through Windows or Linux? You should remove the ac cord (maybe You have a
psu with a real power switch on the back, that is OK as well) and then
press the power button to discharge the caps in the psu, if You do this
soon after turning it off, You'll probably see the leds light up for a
very short time, if You do it later, the charge will probably already be
gone. But only then is it 100% safe to insert or remove cards.
Theoretically You should be wearing an anti static wrist thing but I have
never stumbled on a problem because of not using it. You should however
touch the case of the computer very often to remove all static charge from
Your body.

I own the same mobo in an old computer and remember that, when putting a
SCSI controller in it, it would only work in the first pci slot, that way
it would largely block the airflow from the fan of the vga card, luckily
it has never broken down (was a GF1, I still have it, I loved that card),
but that was the only way to get it going. I am not sure anymore but I
think that when it was in the wrong slot, the computer would also not
boot. So try Your card in different slots without any other card in any
slot except the video card in the agp slot off course.

A friend of mine has the same mobo as well and had the same problem as You
are having (too small a hd), she then bought a big Seagate and I
recommended her to buy a new controller as well (again iirc that mobo will
otherwise only support drives up to 137GB and she had bought 200GB), that
is working OK. I think it's brand is Promise, unlike Yours.

Wait a minute, after reading Your post again I notice that You mention the
hardware manager... Is that in Windows? That would mean that Your computer
does boot. When reading that a computer "hangs" I expect it not to do
anything anymore without resetting. Please be more clear about it, what
hardware manager are You talking about? Cards like that have their own
BIOS which delays the boot process, it should be shown on Your screen
after that escd-update message (can take up to several seconds). Then
again, that message should only appear once after something has changed.
Normally You can press some key combination when the cards bios message is
on screen to enter that BIOS (that is not the "normal" setup), there You
can tell it to detect the drive You have just added. But if Your computer
really stops after displaying the escd message, I mean if it really hangs,
You can off course not do that. How to tell the controller what drive You
have (if You have to, maybe it goes automatically, I think that if it is a
raid controller, You'll have to tell it) and how to behave is in the
manual of the controller.

Have You disabled the onboard ATA100 controller of that mobo (can only be
done from a certain bios version, have You already tried upgrading Your
mobo to the latest version, if not, do so, download the bios from the Asus
website)? It is not reliable, can cause problems and now You have a new
card, You don't need it anymore, there is always a chance that it has a
conflict with the new one. Ah, I remeber, that was the reason I recommend
that friend to buy that card. Untill then her drives were connected to the
ata66 controller but that new drive was so fast that I thought it would be
better to get a better controller as well. She has never used the ATA100
controller since the same controller had been keeping me puzzled for some
time, then finally I found it was a hardware problem in the controller,
even on the M$ site there was an article recommending people not to use it
for it could cause corruption in the data passing through it.

Are You trying to boot from the card? In that case, You will need to tell
Your mobo's bios so. IIRC You should tell it to boot from SCSI and then
say "no" to the setting "onboard ATA BIOS".

My memories of that board are coming back again, I remember it was a nasty
board when it came to interrupt sharing, that was also what caused the
scsi card to work only in one slot. I think that if You are having
compatibility problems, it is not with the card and the drive but with the
card and the mobo.

Well, I think You have some things to think about and try. You might be a
bit more specific next time, is it really hanging or just slow? If You
reset it, does exactly the same happen every time? What sometimes can have
a magic effect is resetting the cmos memory (rtfm of mobo), then load
factory defaults and then make the right setting again (off course You had
written down before resetting the cmos). What Adaptec card is it? What
chip is on it (brand + type number)? Perhaps it has the same chipset as
the silicon image controller? Again, where did You read this, what is that
hardware manager? Did You do anything special when that name changed? Have
You manually been assigning resources in the bios? Oh, another thing I
remember, on that board it was not wise to choose in the bios that a pnp
os was being used, you should let the bios give out the resources.

Once that mobo functioned well, it was very good, but it could cause some
headaches before You reached that point, especially when You wanted a lot
of extra hardware on it.

I am not sure I can check back into this ng soon, that is always very
irregular. I hope to have been of help and if I have a change to check
back, I certainly will.

Good luck!
Yours sincerely,
Rene

P.S. If the hardware manager is really in Windows, You will need to
partition the drive and format it to become visible. I assume You know
that and have not been able to get the computer to go any further after
the bios screens, but if You don't and have been able, the solution will
be simple, any search engine can bring You the answer.

Thanks so much for your extremely comprehensive reply! Sounds like a weekend
project to get this working. Will let you know

Jim


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