BIOS Not Showing Proper HD Settings? 2

[ErikRP]

I have recently installed a K7SEM mobo.

I am having difficulties with my Fujitsu hard drive (MPE3102AT). I am getting a lot of hanging and freezing, both in Windows and in DOS mode. I started thinking it might be some sort of hard drive problem because the problem seems to appear when I access the drive (but not everytime I do).

So, I ran the Fujitsu diagnostic program and voila, I came up with an error code of B199E3. After a bit of searching of what the codes mean I find out that it is an "other error". D'oh!

I checked my new BIOS and see that the CHS settings do not match the settings that Fujitsu has for my drive. Fujitsu shows:
Cyl H S
MPE3102AT 16,383 16 63 10.2 GB

My BIOS though is showing as:
10248MB 19,857 16 63

The MB total is more or less the same, but could the difference in the cylinders be causing the problem?

Of course, I'd just change the settings and see if that makes the difference, but I can't. I have few choices under the HD Type - User, Auto or Not Installed. Setting to User does not let me change the CHS settings, just LBA, Blk Mode, PIO, 32 Bit mode. I'm not sure why I can't, but nothing lets me get to change those settings. (Note, if I need to clear the CMOS, please advise how I should do this safely. I have heard horror stories about what NOT to do to clear this mobo CMOS.)

My questions are: 1. would the different cylinder settings give me this sort of hanging and 2. why can't I change my CHS settings on this mobo? (There doesn't appear to be anything on the mobo website to say that I can't change CHS manually).

Many thanks!!!

 

[chaps]

ErikRP,
I searched the ECS manual and this is the only info they listed for the recommend power supply for your board:

The switching power supplier MUST support the specification as the following table for AMD K7 CPUs.

CPU Duron
SPS 150W(min)
+5V 14A(min)

With the Duron I don’t think you have to have as high a 3.3 voltage supply. But I have been to several forums where people have had problems with the ECS board and they recommend power supplies with the 3.3-volt rated at above 20 amps. I am using 3 ECS boards-two different specifications. And had problems with one of the boards similar to what you are experiencing with your board.

Please take a look at the info findings that I posted with the vendor:

I purchased and installed 3 ECS boards-built three systems. I read the reviews before deciding to go with ECS, and believed that the board would be a good choice. Everything was fine until the third system- I had a number of problems. Had symptoms-seemed to act like an over clocked processor etc. I decided to thoroughly test out everything and have found the following.
1) Make sure the CMOS battery is putting out 3+ volts and make sure the battery makes a good connection in the holder.
2) Make sure that the power supply is AMD rated and has 20+ amp load carry rating @ 3.3 volts.
3) Make sure that the Mother board is grounded only at the points where the screws do not touch any circuits. I used three screw holes only and plastic stands every where else.
4) Make sure that the processor is properly seated and the heatsink is properly sized for the processor and use good thermal paste.
5) Make sure that the memory used is rated, or recommended for the board. Any old pc100/pc133 sdram memory will not always work properly and will cause erratic operation- page faults, blue screens etc.
6) Make sure that you have sufficient case cooling to keep from overheating the board.
7) Make sure that you use a new or clean formatted harddrive when installing the operating system. It is iffy trying to upgrade off an existing operating system installation.
8) Make sure, or be careful about the bios settings. If your settings are not right the system may not boot, or cause other errors.


By following the above listed suggestions I have been able to correct 100% of what was thought to be problems related to the motherboard. It is always possible to get a bad product, but this new system as built now in many ways out performs the other systems that I built with the ECS board.

Mike

 

[Cindy1]

Did you try clearing the cmos or taking the battery out or both?
Keep us posted.
Cindy

 

[ErikRP]

Thanks Chaps and Cindy1 for your latest posts...

Chaps, I'll go through the list that you gave me. Off the top of my head, I know:

1. If I remember correctly, according to the hardware monitor the battery is putting out the right voltage and appears to be seated correctly.
2. Power supply - as disccussed, is only 14 amps for 3.3V.
3. I was pretty careful ensuring the board was grounded. I think I used 5 screws.
4. The processor came with the heatsink installed as well as the cooling fan. They are screwed down - this is one of those boards where modifications are not encouraged.
5. The 256Mb SDRAM was made by Spectek. I have no idea where they rate on the quality/reliability scale. Is there a recommended RAM tester out there that will make sure I have good RAM? I ran one tester (I forget the name) and the RAM checked out okay. Is that enough to know I'm safe?(

http://www.spectek.com/pdfs/p64m6416yl.pdf)

6. Until my darn problems are solved I haven't closed the case yet, so it has plenty of ventilation. I don't think my CPU temp has hit 42C yet.
7. Definitely could be a problem. I heard back from Fujitsu yesterday and they said to send the drive back for replacement, given the error code. Doesn't explain why the second drive is acting up too, unless it just needs reformatting...
8. I don't have a really fancy BIOS. There aren't a lot of tweaks that I can do with the BIOS - it's pretty much limited to playing with PnP settings, etc. Having said that, I've tried about every possible combination of things.

Cindy (or whoever else wants to field this), what does clearing my CMOS get me? I know I've gone on like a broken record, but will it help with my issue of having the wrong HD settings in my BIOS? Can anyone tell me if having the wrong cylinders size in my BIOS could screw things up for my HD? If so, would clearing the CMOS help this? I cannot find out how to change the CHS settings for my hard drives - User doesn't help. Would Auto, or would that still pick the "BIOS choice"?

So many questions, so little time!

 

[xiaxia0053]

k7sem is a mobo with on broad cpu
you can viste

http://www.ecs.com

to know about it
AMD XP1200+ just mean Duron 850 it's the right clock

 

[Cindy1]

The reason why I suggested clearing the cmos is because that resets the configurations back to what they originaly were. You have done so much to it you could have confused it very easily. Some people say if you take the battery out and put it back in backwards for 10 seconds then put it in correctly it will work. I say if you change the jumpers and pop the battery you are covered. After you do that you will have to set the time and the date. Lots of times when I'm stumped and there is no reason for my problems I do that, but I honestly think it is your hard drive. Did you order a 10 gig and it's registering a 20 gig?
Cindy

 

[ceh4702]

There have been some problems reported with Fujitsu Hard Drives. Ask them how to tell if you have a possibly bad hard drive. Fujitsu is not quite owning up to their responsibility. A chip manufacturer sold them some bad chips and they used them on some of their hard drives. If you do not like my post feel free to point out your opinion or my errors.

 

[ErikRP]

Cindy and CEH4702, the problem with my drive is possibly two-(or more) fold.

I have a Fujitsu 10Gb drive and a JTS 3Gb drive. According to the Fujitsu website the CHS settings should be one thing, while the BIOS is auto-detecting the settings as something else. The number of cylinders is different in the BIOS. The problem I'm having is that my computer (both in DOS and Win98) keeps locking up. Usually it's when I'm doing something that accesses the drive, but I can leave the computer alone and it's fine one minute and locked the next. I have run Partition Magic on it and I am getting an Error 45.

I then ran Fujitsu's diagnostic and it detects an error, cryptically labelled as "other error". They say to send the drive back. That's all well and good, but I want to know first if maybe the fact that the BIOS is set differently than what Fujitsu says it should be is what is causing the freezing, and causing the diagnostic program to report an error.

As for the other drive, it seems to have the same sort of problems, but I'm not 100% sure. I did some fiddling with some IRQs a couple of days ago since this problem first appeared. I'm still locking up on the 10Gb but I haven't re-tried the 3Gb to see if it's okay. But if it locks up again then I'm really at a loss for what's going on. Either 2 bad drives and/or problems with...? Anyone want to fill in the blank?

[flush]

 

[Cindy1]

Here is a link that will help you understand why the Partition Magic didn't work. It also explains the error 45.

http://www.powerquest.com/support/primus/id131.cfm

http://www.powerquest.com/support/primus/id817.cfm

I think it's because of a bad sector on the drive.
Cindy


You don't have any good 10 gig test drives?

 

[ErikRP]

Thanks for the link. I had actually already read up on the warning message from Powerquest, but it really didn't help me all that much. I generated a debug file, it was nice and long but didn't help me much either, although I'm sure a professional might be helped by it. Perhaps I had the debug level set too high. As it is all I get is an address on the drive, rather than a file name.

And no, unfortunately I don't have any other drives lying around to use for a test.

 

[ErikRP]

As a quick aside - I see there is a BIOS upgrade for my mobo. There is nothing anywhere on the web that I can see to know what the upgrade does, if I should do it or not. Any ideas, suggestions as to whether I should flash it or just leave as is?

 

[ErikRP]

Also, another quick question. I found a pretty good document about motherboards and it said that I should never ever clear the CMOS. Why would that be? Is it just to be on the safe side or is there always some risk even if it's done the correct way?

Thanks to everyone for all of your help!

 

[chaps]

Erikrp, I believe that you need another power supply. I think the 14 amp rating for 3.3 volts is not good enough to reliably power the ECS board. The processor is directly effected by the 3.3 volts supply, if it is not correct for the CPU load the processor will become unstable. It is my personal experience that if the bios accepts you hard drive, even if the numbers are not right usually the hard drive will function properly.

I would love to get my hands on that board yours; I would enjoy the challenge.

Mike

 

[chaps]

Erikrp, My best advise is don’t screw around with re-flashing the bios- this is a new board that you just purchased, correct? You can render a motherboard useless if you have a bad flash while attempting the upgrade. Often you cannot re-flash a failed flash. You cannot get the floppy drive controller to work in order to do another flash. Often all you can do is replace the bios chip to fix your board- and the chips aren’t cheap. You would be better of buying another board.

CMOS and Bios is used interchangeably but the CMOS is actually a type of chip where the bios is stored. Often you will receive a motherboard with the Clear CMOS jumper on and you will need to move the jumper to the normal setting pins in order to began using the board- setting up the bios.

Mike

 

[gargouille]

ErikRP,
I think you should get together with EliasD and pantichD.
Guys you can go on feeding this troll if you wanta'...
I'm being taught, tho, don't feed the trolls.

 

[ErikRP]

Thanks again Chaps for the info. I'm going to bite the bullet and reformat my 3Gb drive. If the system still locks up after I install Win98 (and disconnect the 10Gb drive) I will have to assume the darn thing is possessed and see if the company that sold me the case and motherboard can figure it out.

I'm not completely convinced that it's the power supply that is the problem, but I know weirder things can happen.

And Gargouille, thanks for the suggestion, however I think I'll just keep on as I've been doing. Having questions and asking for help. If they want to help I'll be more than appreciative. Your initial comments were helpful but ended up raising new questions. So I either ask under this heading or under 5 new ones, and have to repost all of the background for each one. I chose this method. Sorry if it has annoyed you or anyone else. I assure you that your frustration at my insignificant post is nothing compared to my frustration at being without a computer for 2 weeks.

 

[Win98User]

ErikRP,
I think a word to the wise, if I may be so bold.

New problems should be spelt out in new strings - with links to the other threads if needs be. That keeps everyone on topic and keeps the thread title meaningful.

Also, giving stars out to the posts which help you to solve a particular problem helps others to know what was useful to yourself.

Lastly, "ErikRP (TechnicalUser) Nov 9, 2002
Hi Chaps,

Thanks for the suggestions. The CPU is overclocked actually came that way. It's a Duron 850 "specially tuned" to be AMD XP1200+. That was done at the factory or wherever, but I have no idea how to change it, if it is even the problem."

Buy dodgy goods and expect to get dodgy results.

Nuff said ;-)