MSI k9a2 Platinum + ATI HD3870 problems on windows vista x 64

[Darth Pincho]

Hi everybody. I'm new here, i recently discover this forum and I like it a lot. I hope somebody can help me with the frustrating experience I'm having with my new Spider Platform.
I recently build my new system and I cannot be able to run it with stability. First of all let me give some details about my system:

Phenom 9500
MSI k9a2 Platinum (original BIOS)
8Gb Ram 1066 Mhz Corsair Dominator
RAID 1+0 array with 4 samsung sataII 7200 rpm Hard drives (320 Gb each)
2 x Ati Diamond 3870 Rubi edition 512 Mb GDDR4 (crossfired)
Thermal Take Toughpower 850 PSU
Windows Vista Ultimate 64 Spanish Edition (fully updated)

1.- I really have 6 hard drives. The mobo uses sb600 to control sata 1,2,3,4 ports, and promise t3 port 5 and 6 ports. I have all the ports with their cables and hard drives. All of them brand new.

The bios ONLY detects the sata drives connected to the 1,2,3 and 4 ports. Then there is a Bios option that enable or disable additional sata raid controller. I don't know if this refers to the promise t3 integrated controller or not. But if i change this option the RAID utility for ports 1-4 only see drives connected to ports 1 and 3. Drives on 2 and 4 disappears.
Anyone have idea how to use the 6 sata ports that came with the mobo??

2.- I had to reinstall windows vista 64 more than 20 times in order to run them with some stability and write this post. After so many tries i detect that the problem comes with the graphic card drivers. If i use the drivers that came with the card i cannot boot windows never again, neither safe mode. Windows simply hangs on booting.

Right now im running this drivers:
http://support.ati.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=894&task=knowledge&questionID=33840

But my system is not totally stable. Sometimes video crash and windows hang up.
Any idea how can i solve this? any procedure to debug this issue?

3.- I want to update my BIOS, how can i do that without a floppy disk?? windows vista do not allo me to format my USB pen drive with system files, so i cannot boot from my pen drive!!! also i cannot run update file on windows vista 64 because is not a compatible file. What can i do?

4.- I want to install multi boot system, xp/vista. How can i achieve that? Partition magic 8.0 is incompatible with vista64 so i dont know how to make the partition once the system is running. Any idea for this multiboot setup?

5.- I cannot run 3d Mark06 because the machine hangs up. Any idea?

6.- Windows control panel evaluation experience tool says that my system have only 512 mb of dedicated video, but i have 2 cards for a 1024 mb of dedicated video. It is normal that this tool only see one of my video cards or something is wrong? how can i be sure that my system is running on crossfire mode?

 

[erocker]

Are all of your voltage, memory timings, etc. settings setup correctly in the bios? You should be able to use a usb flash drive to flash your bios, if your's can't do it, buy a different one, they are cheap.

 

[Silverel]

Should be able to see if crossfire is detected in the Catalyst Control Center somewhere.

 

[Mussels]

strip the rig back a lot. run one hard drive if possible, one stick of ram and one video card.

slowly add the system back up if thats stable, so you can see what hardware is causing the problems.

 

[MKmods]

First Welcome to TPU...

For #1-the Hdds go to the Bios and under the "INTEGRATED PERIPHERALS" tab there is a setting "EXTRA RAID CONTROLLER", change it from Disabled to enabled.
For #3-The prob is Vista64, I dont think the program Live update to update the bios/drivers in Windows works with Vista. You are gonna have to do it the hard way but be VERY careful not to damage the mobo. Do you have someone close to you that updated a bios before to help?
For #6-just because you have several video cards the memory dosent double, I think windows will only see 512mb.

 

[Mussels]

bios settings for hard drive controllers should have

Disabled
IDE compatiblity mode
RAID
AHCI

IDE and AHCI should work, AHCI is what you'd need to get the best out of the drives (unless you are raiding them, of course)

 

[Darth Pincho]

Are all of your voltage, memory timings, etc. settings setup correctly in the bios? You should be able to use a usb flash drive to flash your bios, if your's can't do it, buy a different one, they are cheap.

Yes, my mother board detect the 1066 mhz of the memory. And the voltage is in auto.

I cannot boot from my pen drive because the drive doenst have the system files. How can i format my pendrive with a msdos files? vista64 dont let me do that.

 

[Darth Pincho]

Should be able to see if crossfire is detected in the Catalyst Control Center somewhere.

Yes CCC shows crossfire enabled. But due to the inestability of the system im not pretty sure if this is working. I download the application GPU-Z and this app does not detect the crossfire. May be a drivers problem.

 

[Darth Pincho]

First Welcome to TPU...

For #1-the Hdds go to the Bios and under the "INTEGRATED PERIPHERALS" tab there is a setting "EXTRA RAID CONTROLLER", change it from Disabled to enabled.
For #3-The prob is Vista64, I dont think the program Live update to update the bios/drivers in Windows works with Vista. You are gonna have to do it the hard way but be VERY careful not to damage the mobo. Do you have someone close to you that updated a bios before to help?
For #6-just because you have several video cards the memory dosent double, I think windows will only see 512mb.

1.- if i do that i cannot make raid 1+0 using 4 disk. The mobo only detect 2 drives. I already try that. May be im doing something wrong.

3.- What do you think of using a dual boot setup and install the automatic bios update software from msi under a windows xp installation???

6.- ok.

 

[erocker]

When the pendrive is inserted, in Windows, format it, and click the box to make it a MSDOS startup disk. That will put the necessary system files on it. Then copy the bios file onto it.

 

[Darth Pincho]

When the pendrive is inserted, in Windows, format it, and click the box to make it a MSDOS startup disk. That will put the necessary system files on it. Then copy the bios file onto it.

I cannot do that. Thats the problem. When i insert the pen drive in vista64 the checkbox for include system files are disabled. I think i need a windows xp 32 bits machine to do this. I will try later at work and will post here my results.

 

[JrRacinFan]

Nope, try out HP Storage Disk Utility for the bios flashing. http://files.extremeoverclocking.com/file.php?f=197

Also, Crossfire does not work too well in Vista 64, and it sounds as though you don't have your RAM timings and/or voltage set correctly.

Also, regarding the SATA HDD issue ... cannot truly help you out witht hat but try disabling the eSATA ports.

 

[MKmods]

3.- What do you think of using a dual boot setup and install the automatic bios update software from msi under a windows xp installation???

Sounds like a good idea, what brand of HDDs are you using?

 

[xmelle]

Similar issues

Hey all:
I am having similar issues with approx. the same setup.

1 x K9A2 board
1 x AMD quad @ 2.5 Ghz
4 x 2GB Ram (8 GB Ram running unganged)
4 x 750 GB drives (connected to SATA ports 1,2,3,4)
1 x LG DVD writer (SATA)
2 x ATI HD 3870 W/ Crossfire

i can get vista to install - and even get through the updates and SP1 install

but

it seems that if I try to use SATA ports 5 or 6 to use a SATA DVD writer - the system never boots again - have to restore back to pre-install of Promise FastTrack bits (the driver for fors 5 and 6). The only real stability i get is when i disable the additional RAID in the Bios (turning of SATA ports 5 and 6)

another oddity - whenever i try to install the ATI catalyst - the system also never boots again, unless I restore back - noticed the ATI catalyst installer package is also installing the PromiseRAID bits.

I have only gotten through 3 complete reinstalls of Vista64 trying to get it toe simpply boot up, and upon reading this thread I am concerned about haveing to commit the time to install vista64 27 more times

On another note: When attempting to install Vista64 from the DVD attached to SATAport6 (controlled by promise raid), install would always stall saying it need a driver to use the DVD - a very frustrating situation given that the installer bootstrapped using the same DVD hardware that the installer now cannot see. To solve this I had to unplug the SATA DVD drive, and install an IDE DVD drive. In fact, I am starting to wonder if maybe the PromiseRaid bits are not compatible with Vista (although it claims to be "certified for Vista"). Either that, or Vista64 is not compatible with SATA ports being used with DVD-R/RW Drives (IDE only).

Does any of this make sense?

 

[eyetac]

I also have the k9a2 Platinum Board
first thing i did was update the bios from 1.1 to 1.3 and now recently 1.4..
i havnt had any isses you speak of concerning the SATA ports
i have two drives connected to eSATA and 3 internally..

im guessing it must be a bios problem...
an update to 1.4 should fix that

you may find a flashing utility at www.bootdisk.com for booting from a flash drive..
otherwise you can just make a bootable DOS CD with the updated bios on it

I have the 3870x2 and windows only see's it as a 512mb card... so not to worry there..
regarding crossfire, ati CCC should tell you if crossfire is up and running..

are you running service pack 1?
i know there are a few hotfixes you need to run for vista(32 and 64bit) to make crossfire and sli work correctly.. they also come with SP1 obviously

have you guys tried newer drivers from promise for the raid controller?
hope u come right

 

[eyetac]

oh and gpu-z under vista 64 doesnt work correctly when detecting crossfire.. if catalyst control center says it is, then im pretty certain it is..

you can download rivatuner and monitor both cards GPU usage to ensure they are both working

 

[Darth Pincho]

Hi folks. I solved the issue. It was the memory timings.

I set the memory in 800 mhz at the bios and install windows perfectly. But when i set the memory to 1066 the system became unstable. So i configure manually the memory timings and now is runing perfect.

Now im runing 6 hard drives with no problem at all. I use this procedure in order to use BOTH raid controllers included in the mobo at the same time.
1.- Boot using 800 mhz memory mode with all the parameter in auto.
2.- activate extra radi controller in the bios.
3.- Unplug all power cables of the hard drives conected to the AMI sata ports (1,2,3,4)
4.- Run Raid config utility for the promise controller and configure your arrays.
5.- now connect the power to the drives conected to the AMI raid controller.
6.- Run Raid utility for the AMI sata (NOT PROMISE CONTROLLER) ports and configure your arrays. Please note that during the boot up process you will see 2 different messages for loading the fasttrack raid utility. One of them is for AMi and the other one for Promise.
7.- Install your OS.

Now im having troubles with the CF performance in benckmarks. But this is other issue and i will open a new thread for that.

thank you to everyone.

 

[MKmods]

Glad you fixed the prob, It helps us all.

 

[xmelle]

how did you upgrade the bios from 1.3 to 1.4?

I have been having an awful time trying to update the bios from 1.3 to 1.4 - mainly because the files being distributed by MSI for updating include instructions which dont seem to match the contents of the of the distribution. specifically i am having 2 problems.

1. The documentation insists - DONT FLASH BIOS FROM FLOPPY! (their caps, not mine)
Problem is, when booting with a dos boot floppy, dos cannot see the raid array. so I had to put the bios patch files onto another floppy, to run from there.

2. The documentation references running a program "awdfl865" which is not included with the distribution. Instead the distribution contains a different program "afud412". Attempting to invoke/run afud412 with thier prescribed arguments "BIOS file" returns "Error: Unkown Command"

MSI support says that my issues are because bios 1.3 doesnt support my processor (AMD Phenom X4 9850 Black - Quad Core @ 2.5 GHz)

-x

 

[dark2099]

If you have a USB Pen Drive, there is a tool that you can use to flash it. Google MSI Forums, will have all the instructions there. If you have already flashed, than never mind this.

 

[xmelle]

the USB flasher worked very well!!!
thank you - the machine even booted right up afterwards!
so far so good!
Thank you again!

 

[dark2099]

You're welcome, I have that board (selling it though, have gone Intel) and used those forums to help figure out a few things.

 

[xmelle]

getting better

OK - got the Bios Updated to 1.4
system still having difficulty booting.
seems to hang on the green progress bar whil loading/booting vista
once it finally made it to the vista login and actually let me login after about 20 minutes on the green progress bar. unfortunately 4 other times it would just hang on the green progress bar.
However, after speaking to one of my co-workers about the issue, he suggested disabling the extra raid controller (Promise RAID), effictively disabling SATA ports 5 and 6 (internal) and 7 and 8 (external).

This seems to have fixed the machine - it boots just fine now. but My DVD writer was connected to SATA port 6 - so now i have no dvd writer.

any suggestions?

oh, and yes, i have downloaded all the latest drivers (Promise FastTrak PDC42819)

 

[Mussels]

the RAId controller may have a few modes in the BIOS.

Normally they'd have RAID, IDE compatiblity, and AHCI.

Try any and all modes and see if they work better... a DVD burner wont like being on RAID mode, for example.