Warning on SATA raid controller!

[cjolley]

ARRRRGGGGGGG!!!!!

Here is the story.
We have a "server" that we keep our common files on at home.
You know, pictures, tax returns, backups etc.
It also serves as a print server for our two printers (1 laser, 1 color)


It is (was) an old Abit BE6-II (p3 slot 1) with a HighPoint raid controller running 2 old 60 gb death stars in a mirror array.
The OS drive is an old 10gb IBM drive.
256 meg ram, voodoo III graphics, cd rom, no sound, no floppy, no keyboard, no monitor, no mouse.

VERY low maintainence.
But, I have kept my eye on the death stars, because they are a pair of twice RMAed (each!) death stars.

Anyway, I started to hear the occasional "click of doom" and decided to replace them.

So i ordered 2 sata maxtor 250gb drives and a SYBA sata raid controller.


Everything went fine.
I installed the controller without the drives and installed the drivers.
No problem.

I hot plugged in the drives, prepped them and copied the files off the old drive.
Great!

BUT, the pc would not boot if the drives were plugged into the sata controller on start up.

Unplug the drives, boot, plug in the drives= everything fine.
Plug in the drives (or just one) first and it would hang while the bios said "updating ~somethig~ information".

So I figured, "well, I'll go eat dinner, maybe it just takes a while."

It was still hung when I got back.
So reboot and...

Ta Da!
Drum roll...

NO F***ING BIOS.

I mean it erased my bios down to the boot block.
So completely that it won't flash.

It will read the A drive and load dos 6.22 and run the flasher.
But it is so far gone the flasher can't program it.

It has been years since I had a hardware problem like this.

Result, another f***ing $150 for a cheap MB, proc and memory.


I put the SYBA controller in my main machine, an Asus SIS Athlon XP based mb.
It works fine.


So beware!

[cjolley]

BTW
I am ordering a Biostar K8NHA Grand to replace it.
With a Sempron 64 2600+
and 256 megs of ddr.
The combo is cheap from NewEgg.

Any thoughts on this MB and processor.


TIA,
Chuck

[schmosef]

So you think that your SYBA controller did that?

Have you contacted them for support?

[cjolley]

So you think that your SYBA controller did that?

Have you contacted them for support?

Don't know what else it could be.

Maybe some wierd conflict between the HPT controller chip on the motherboard, and the
Silicon Image chip or firmware on the controller.

The thing is I had the HPT controller turned off in the bios.


I didn't contact SYBA because the controller works fine and I doubt they know how to fix an ABit bios.
I also doubt they would be willing to replace my MB, because the problem seems so unlikely.

[KeiFront]

Have you tried clearing the cmos?

[cjolley]

Have you tried clearing the cmos?

About 100 times.
sigh...

[klc314]

http://www.badflash.com/

[Mcollector]

You mentioned you had an Abit BE6-II.

I have/had one of those mobos, too. Unfortunatetly, and Abit will acknowledge this, that is one of the mobos subject to the exploding capacitor problem. I'm wondering if THAT is what has happened to your system?

Examin the caps near the CPU. All of them. See if any are bulging or leaking. If so, you need to get your mobo repaired or replaced. Abit will do it, either for free, or for $25 if you don't have the receipt (I think this is still their policy; contact them and find out). My BE6-II blew a cap in a nice loud pop, the machine wouldn't boot completely, so I pulled the mobo, found a blackened, leaking, bulging cap, but I haven't sent the mobo in yet. It was my only RAID system, too.

If you have not had your Abit BE6-II repaired in the past, or gotten a certified good replacement, this could be your problem.

The problem was someone stole a formula for a capacitor dielectric in Japan and ran off to Taiwan with it. Unfortunately for the thief, he stole a preliminary formula that wasn't fully tested. The exploding cap fiasco was a major scandal in the PC industry around about 2000 to the early 2000's that most manufacturers didn't want to acknowledge. The problem takes anywhere from 10 months to a few years to manifest itself.

Abit was one of the first to acknowledge the problem and do something about it, but they aren't the only ones subject to the problem. There is a suit against MSI, too (Abit also got sued). I've seen bulging, leaky caps on my Hercules Prophet 4000 Kyro card, too. I called Hercules, but they blew me off, so I'll have to replace them myself. Rumors abound that other major mobo manufacturers also had the problem.

[cjolley]

Heh, I had just looked at the settlement.

Of course my BF-6 and BX-133 are long gone so I can't collect.

But this one is a BE6-II version 2.0 pcb and seems to be doing fine in the electronic sense.

I did notice that ABit sells a 3 pack of pre-programmed bioses for this board for $11 including shipping.
It may be a three pack because there were three revisions and it's not worth the hassle of all the RMAs they would have, because the rev number is hard to find on this board.

BTW, ABit is great about this.
They sell pre-programmed bioses for all their boards for $6 plus shipping!
Including VERY old boards.
A tip of the hat to them.


I've already ordered the replacement MB & stuff, so I'm not too worried about it.
I couldn't install the SATA raid controller on it anyway.

I may order the chip though, just to have a spare MB.

[Mcollector]

Mine was a BE6-II version 2.0 pcb also. Pop went the caps.
I called Abit, and they acknowledged it was one of the problem mobos, as was a VA6 (I think) I also still have. 2 other B[something]6's I have were *not* on the problem children list.

Yes, Abit seems very good about these things. While this policy does cost them a small amount, it builds goodwill and brand loyalty, and ultimately, recommendations, more business, and repeat business. A well deserved tip of the hat to them.

This is something other businesses have forgotten and mainland chinese manufacturers/businesses/people/government have yet to learn.

[cjolley]

...I also still have. 2 other B[something]6's I have were *not* on the problem children list.

Probably BH6s
What a GREAT MB that was.

[Mcollector]

Probably BH6s
What a GREAT MB that was.

I think you're right. Still going strong, too! (Which was why I couldn't get the model right away; I'd have to crack the cases.) One w/ an 800 MHz Piii, 256 or 384M and WMe (blehh), and the other w/ a 600 MHz Piii (512K cache), 768M and W2000.