Biostar Tpower I45 trouble? Help!

Hello guys!

We'll I just got myself one, and I just booted it up. Everything seems fine except that when I press DEL it doesn't take me to the BIOS, and then it always goes to check for RAID Adapters, it will just stay there for about 3 or 4 minutes until an error message appears and then it sends me to the BIOS.

Is this normal on this board? I didn't find any RAID disabling options in the BIOS. I had an old DVD drive connected to it through IDE, I disconnected it and this time it went to the RAID check, but it was just for a second and then it went into the Memtest I requested.

It's testing RAM right now, but I still want to know why it's always trying to detect the RAID adapter.

EDIT: Yup, it only take ages when the DVD drive is connected. Anyone know if its possible to disable the RAID detection? I'll download a new BIOS in the meantime.

I am using a ide dvdrom as well, I have gotten stuck at the RAID screen as well then it says I have no harddrives installed but then after like 10 seconds it boots into Windows...only did this after i reset the CMOS after a bad overclock trial...odd? I couldnt find any new BIOS updates and couldnt turn off RAID either...

I did more testing, and well it's definite:

Having that (Very old) DVD IDE drive connected will always make the RAID detection extremely slow. This detection happens before POST, and seems like there is no way to deactivate it.

I booted up a P5Q-Pro today and it has the same Marvell Raid Adapter, however with the same IDE drive, it goes past it really quick. However the drive doesn't work at all once inside Windows (It will always say "The disc isn't formatted, do you wish to format it now?")

And there isn't an option in the P5Q bios either to disable it.

Good thing I'm not going to use any IDE drives on the final build, but still seems like a fairly dumb thing (On the i45)

I wanna see where you boys get this board to go.. I'm SERIOUSLY considering this board for my next build.

Everything has been good so far, except for the overclocking options.

-No FSBRAM ratio adjustments.
-Weird voltage setup that doesn't match at all with the voltage reported once inside Windows.

Maybe I'm dumb, or I don't know how to find these options?

I enjoying my TPower I45. I'm currently stability testing mine at 550x7.5=4.125Ghz with two (1 GB) sticks of OCZ PC2-9200 at DDR2-1100. I have not noticed anything strange about the Voltage setup mine seems okay to me. Pick your bus strap (your E8400 would be FSB 1333) and when you change your FSB the DDR2 speeds (or dividers) scale/report the actual speed in the BIOS.

Yes! I just figured that out like 5 minutes ago! So stupid of me... It's just that I'm so used to overclocking A64's and using a DFI board that I was looking for the wrong things.

Also, I just checked that my software is reporting all voltages wrongly, but the Tpower2 software reports it just how it is.

So in other words: I'm having a blast with this motherboard!

So if I set the strap to 1333mhz, when I change the fsb it won't be tied to the ram and will use a divider automatically?

More info here UNOFFICIAL BIOSTAR TPower I45 M/B

I wanna see where you boys get this board to go.

Click to expand...

no stock I can find at all in UK seems like biostar have a real winner , but not much stock in stores

SeanBest said:

So if I set the strap to 1333mhz, when I change the fsb it won't be tied to the ram and will use a divider automatically?

Click to expand...

Yes, that is correct.

I was so used to my DFI letting me chose all those dividers by myself. This is in fact much more convenient I must say.