MSI K7T-Turbo Raid Question

[Willis]

This might just be a simple thing that I'm just overlooking, but here goes. I finally setup my RAID array last night with a pair of 30gig IBM GXP75 drives. It setup in a RAID 0, which as far as I know, the turbo only supports. Okay, here's the deal. After setting it up and installing W98SE, everytime I restart, I am unable to get into the BIOS. When at the BIOS screen, I hit the delete key, it'll think for a few seconds, clear the screen, and leave a blinking curser at the top of the screen. I've left it alone for a bit and nothing ever popped up. I'm able to get into the RAID setup without a hitch, but so far am unable to get into the BIOS. Any idea's?

Thanks!!!

Willis

 

[SleepyKat]

my MSI K7T Turbo R did the same a few weeks ago.. after I was tweeking the FSB...didn't work...reset CMOS..when I hit Del to go into BIOS all I get is a curser line but the thing worked in default.....
I got the BIOS back...not sure how but this was what I did....
Went to the MSI website and downloaded the BIOS update 2.7 onto a floppy expecting to reflash the BIOS....well, followed procedures...reboot with floppy.. the SW started... but nothing happen...it just stopped after reading the floppy....I'm going "uhhhhhh" restrated power even though it said not to.....it sat there for 10 minutes, I had to.....well it didn't load the 2.7 update cause I still had the 2.5 but the BIOS started again....hmmmmm.

 

[Willis]

I just did kind of the same thing you did. I flashed to the lastest and greatest of the beta BIOS's, and after fighting that for a bit, I got it sucessfully installed. Upon rebooting, it had me go into the BIOS and reconfirm my fsb settings blah blah blah. That's been the ONLY time I've been able to get in there since. Also, now if I reboot with a W98 startup disk, it cycles through the various programs until it gets to the second PCI bridge scan, then it hangs. It says "Scanning PCI Bridge using mechanism #2" I've not been able to get past that for the life of me. Do I need to delete my RAID, re-setup the RAID, then use the startup disk?

I appreciate the help SleepyKat.

 

[SleepyKat]

Your RAID should be able to do both RAID 0 (striping) and RAID1 (mirroring)
Can you boot into safe mode? if so then you have a device driver problem. If it is the PCI Bridge then you may need to reinstall your RAID or VIA 4 in 1 driver. PCI bridge is usually your VIA chipset but the mechanism #2 is throwning me off here. Note that if in safe mode, you do not have CD drive access. and may need to load drivers to floppy.

 

[Willis]

I'll give that a whirl tonight and see if that'll make a difference. As for the 4-1 drivers, I've gone through 4.29, 4.31, and am now on 4.32. All still won't let me in. It's just so darn odd, especially since everything runs like a champ. I might try deleting the RAID in the RAID setup panel and trying to start from scratch. I've really got nothing on this install which matters at all to me. Either that or popping my old ATA/66 Seagate back in and see if I can get into the BIOS from there. That would really be a pain if I had to do that everytime I wanted to modify something!!!