GA-MA78GM-S2H SATA HDD Issues

[dapouch]

Hi All,

Newbie here..

Just bought a new HTPC set up:


AMD Athlon 64 X2 4850e 2.5GHz Socket AM2 Energy Efficient 1MB
Maxtor 500GB Hard Drive SATAII 7200rpm *32MB Cache* - OEM
Corsair 4GB Kit (2x2GB) DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 XMS2 Memory Non-ECC
Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H 780G Socket AM2+ onboard VGA 8 channel audio mATX Motherboard
LG Electronics Blu-Ray & HD-DVD-Rom Combo 16x DVDRW Black SATA - Retail Box With Software

And am having a nightmare installing XP.

I couldn't get started with the memory and Blu-ray drive so changed to 2x1GB OCZ 6400 Special Ops DDR2 which I pulled from my other pc (in full working order).

I am now using a Sony DVDRW IDE Drive to install windows.

I have played around with Bios settings for two days and either get stuck on the screen saying verifiying DMI Pool data or get to Windows XP install only to find the system does not see any HDD with a SATA installed or get NTLDR not found (when trying to install on an old WD 80 gig IDE HDD)

I do not need Raid - my HTPC case will only allow me to fit in one HDD anyway so I can and do want to run the SATA as IDE. My normal desktop uses an AMD 570 Chipset (gigabyte board as well) and I could install windows ok on that one as an ide Drive on another Maxtor 500GB SATA HDD.

First try -

BIOS Intergrated Peripherals:

Onchip Sata Controller > Enabled, On Chip Sata Type > Native IDE, Onchip SATA Port 4/5 > IDE - the HDD is in Sata Port 4, the pc restarts and recoginses my Maxtor HDD but I get stuck on Verifying DMI Pool Data

So I change to Onchip Sata > Enabled, On Chip Sata Type > AHCI, Onchip SATA Port 4/5 > IDE - the pc restarts and recoginses my Maxtor HDD but I still get stuck on Verifying DMI Pool Data

Again with Onchip Sata Type > RAID I get Verifuiny DMI Pool Data.

If I change to Onchip Sata > Enabled, On Chip Sata Type > AHCI, Onchip SATA Port 4/5 > As SATA Type I get message saying AHCI press Ctrl and A to enter Hyper Flash?? or something and get no further.

So then decided to disable the Onchip Sata Controller, set the On Chip Sata Type > Native IDE, Onchip SATA Port 4/5 > IDE and restarted the machine with the HDD in Port 4.

I get through to windows install but windows can't find the HDD. Even if I use the F6 option to load raid drivers.

I then used Nlite, made a slipstreamed version of Windows with Gigabyte SATA drivers included and still no joy.

The HDD is found in my other PC, and the moterhboard will find it under certain BIOS settings.

Can anyone help?

Thanks

D...

[Lsdmeasap]

This is would be the proper settings as far as I can see with how you want to use your system

In Standard CMOS features page leave all disks set to AUTO

As you said, this is correct for a SATA setup non AHCI or RAID

Onchip Sata Controller > Enabled
On Chip Sata Type > Native IDE
Onchip SATA Port 4/5 > IDE

Then it sounds like you need to find in your BIOS, I think it is same for your BIOS, IN Advanced BIOS Features you will need to click "Hard Disk Boot Priority" and be sure in that window you move your System Hard drive to the top.

In the same BIOS page please set your first, second, third boot priority to >>>>

First ---- Floppy (if you have, if not see below)

First ---- CD/DVD Drive
Second --- System Disk


**NOTE**
I believe those drives Ship out with a Jumper on them to limit speed to SATA I, please look on the back of your drive before starting all this again and Remove it!!!!! This could be the whole cause of your headaches

You do have to use a F6 driver for windows to see your hard drive, I see you know this Just saying for anyone else reading

The driver you want is here (The way your manual states things you do not need a driver, but we know different. XP needs a driver for Normal IDE/SATA use, AHCI and RIAD) Here is driver you want, just to be sure you have the correct one >>>
GIGABYTE - Support - Motherboard - Driver - GA-MA78GM-S2H (rev.1.1)


There is also A Note about this on the manufacturer page at the very bottom here (Rather Generic, and likely will not help, I think removing your jumper may be the issue along with the right settings) >>>
The message, "Verifying DMI Pool Data" appears and the system hangs.

[dapouch]

Thanks for the help.

I took the jumper off the HDD already so unfortunately it's not as easy a fix as I'd like...

I'm in work now so will try the boot priority settings you advise when I get home tonight.

I've the systems set at 1 Floppy, 2 HDD and 3 CD Rom at present but not sure what the Hard Disk Boot Priority settings are...

[Lsdmeasap]

Ahh, Well at least you already removed it. But yeah, too bad that wasnt it

Since you have a floppy, as I do as well. I would set things in this order (As you have) >>>
1. Floppy
2. OS Hard Drive
3. CD/DVD

Then you can as you know use F12 at boot to select CD to boot from and load XP

Since it sounds like you had it all correct the first instance you mentioned what I would do first is this.

Go into MAIN BIOS page, and select Load Optimized Defaults. Then save and apply/reboot back to BIOS. This should clear up the Verifying DMI pool freeze you are getting

Then go make all the above noted changes again and it should work. Then once you install the F6 driver you should see the disk

[dapouch]

No Joy,

Still stuck in verifying DMI pool...

Created RMA with Ebuyer and returning tomorrow..

[Lsdmeasap]

Sorry to hear that.

Did you ever try with only one stick of ram in slot one? Sorry I did not suggest that before but sometimes you need to do that to install windows

Good luck with things either way!

[wayout44]

Originally Posted by Lsdmeasap

1. Floppy
2. OS Hard Drive
3. CD/DVD

Personally I'd have 2 & 3 around the other way if a floppy was present otherwise I'd just have the CDROM set as 1 and the HDD as 2.

[nanohead]

I have several of these boards running in my house at the moment.

It was tricky, but they run fine. First, there are no "gigabyte" drivers per se. They are simply AMD drivers for the SB700 southbridge. One problem for SURE is that the gigabyte packaged southbridge drivers suck, and do not function properly. MSI has one that works, so does Asus. You can go to their respective websites, and download their "RAID drivers" (ignore the raid part, they all include AHCI ((ignore that too)) and storport). Make sure you get the drivers for your operating system, XP and Vista are different.

The SB is definitely sensitive as to where you connect the Hard disks from. The jumpers do not affect any of this stuff. You can see some more BIOS options is you hit Ctrl-F1 when you go into BIOS.

First, try connecting 1 disk only to SATA 0. If you have a SATA optical drive, then connect that one to SATA 4 (the one twisted sideways). There is some flakiness with SATA optical drives for sure, no one knows why. But I was able to reliably get past it. AHCI is also somewhat of a mess at the moment with ALL AMD based southbridges.

Keep the settings as you said with 0-3 IDE and 4/5 IDE as well. AHCI does work better with Vista SP1, and it will allow you to install the drivers using a USB stick connected to the machine, but XP I had no luck with.

If you have problems getting drivers to work, let me know and I'll email you a tested set. But these boards work great... it was a botch up with Gigabytes packaging of the mass storage drivers.

Try some of the suggestions here. If they don't work, let me know and I can walk through what you're doing in detail. You'll get it to work

[Lsdmeasap]

Thanks for that info Nanohead, maybe it will help him or someone in the future.

I hope he will post back and let us know.

Also, incase he does not, maybe you should upload and post this set of drivers for anyone else who reads this in the future who has this issue

Thanks for sure for your time and thoughts on this, as I said above I do not know much about AMD Boards nor their issues. And that is some good info you posted!!!

[chillo]

Originally Posted by Lsdmeasap

Thanks for that info Nanohead, maybe it will help him or someone in the future.
........
Also, incase he does not, maybe you should upload and post this set of drivers for anyone else who reads this in the future who has this issue

Please do!
My story: I did install vista x64 with sata drivers, I had some trouble doing this, but it worked ok!
I had to format the drive (it was an "experimental" installation) and tried to install vista x64 on sata driver again, but with no luck though. I finished the installation with IDE driver and still can't get it to work changing to sata, it just won't boot, nore will it repair through vista dvd.
Any info on this ? P.S. The HD is sata so is the DVD device, the second seems to be recognised by the bios, the HD though doesn't.
HD is in first and DVD in second sata plug.


At the time I wrote this, It came in mind that the only difference between the two installations was the bios version. I received the mobo with F3 bios and went to F5 before formating. One issue i can blame the bios, is that since F5, I can't turn on the PC through keyboard or mouse. I tried several ways updating the bios (always with F5 ver., through USB drive, from HD, through windows) but it made no difference. I now think maybe the bios is the fault, I will try to downgrade and see if it's a lucky strike.
Meanwhile If u have any more suggestions, it would be appreciated.

Allso I can't get the driver for Northbridge installed. It is implemented with the s/b driver from ati. It just finishes saying everythink went fine, but every time I start the installation to check if it is ok, it says that NB driver is not installed.