Can't get past SIL3114 boot screen with SATA II drive?!

[jackhulk]

Hello

I have a DFI LanParty NFII Ultra B motherboard which has severed me well but now I have a problem.

I recently purchased 2 Western Digital 750GB SATA II hard drive and I though it would be as simply as set jumpers and away I go, but this is far from the truth. After a cold boot and the first screen (displaying cpu speed, memory etc), up pops the Sil3114 SATARAID screen where it continues to list attached hard drives. When it come to the WD 750GB drive it just hangs and the cursor remains blinking.

I have spend soooooo long trying to get round this but nothing I've tried works. I've tried disabling the SATARAID in the bios but then no drives are seen. I've tried to find a updated bios for Sil3114 but had no such luck. I've tried running the drives from my VIA 6412 controller card but this fails when transferring large files. I've tried just about everything my google fingers can muster but to no prevail

In my searches I found this site so I'm hoping you guys can help as I'm completely out of ideas?

The drives do function perfectly as I've found hot plugging them just after the Sil3114 SATARAID screen but this would be a pain in the butt to do each and every time I reboot my pc.

HELP PLEASE!!!

[AdvModDev]

Have you tried SiI 3114 SATARAID BIOS v5.4.0.3? http://www.siliconimage.com/support/sup ... =2&osid=0&

[jackhulk]

Yep but was a bit dubious about using this as the readme states...

"5403.bin - motherboard BIOS for OEM use in development. This BIOS is not intended for general end-users. End-users with a SiI3114 onboard a motherboard, please contact the motherboard manufacturer for a BIOS upgrade."

I thought I would take a look anyways with siflashtool. Using the v switch, the prog recognizes the sil3114 controller but state everything else including current bios version as unknown, which made me doubt even more that I had the correct bios version?

There are two other versions of the same bios included but these apply to just the add on cards don't they?

"b5403.bin - add-in card base BIOS
r5403.bin - add-in card raid BIOS"

[AdvModDev]

Those Windows Flash Utilities are for add-in PCI controller cards only, not integrated chipsets (same goes for the flash utility that is built into the SATARAID drivers). First thing I'd do is check to see if the most current BIOS for your board already includes SATARAID BIOS v5403. If not, then you'll need to insert it yourself (I wrote up a guide in another thread for the SI 3112 chipset, but the procedure is identical): http://www.nforcershq.com/forum/sii3112 ... 70864.html

There are two other versions of the same bios included but these apply to just the add on cards don't they?

Right. The one you need to insert is 5403.bin and should be around 40kb - 60kb.

[jackhulk]

I try that & report back.

[jackhulk]

I followed your guide and successfully removed current bios and replaced with 5403 which is now showing as 11. PCI ROM[B], but some how on re-boot the sil3114 SATARAID is still reporting version 5.0.35?

Have I missed something?

[jackhulk]

Sorry, ignore last post! I didn't realize I was creating a modded bios, I though cbrom was actually modding on the fly so to speak.

I have flashed with modded bios now and it's worked a treat!!

Thank you so much for your help, I'm so pleased to have finally resolved this and it means now I get to keep these HUGE drives.

[colin99]

Some of the threads are not easy to follow in the above, could we start afresh, if you have the time AdvModDev?

I have a DFi NFII Ultra Infinity motherboard. The latest BIOS is dated 2004/11/2 and is here:
http://eu.dfi.com.tw/Support/Download/b ... =A&SITE=UK

The Sil3114 driver is v5.0.35. If I understand correctly, the whole motherboard BIOS includes the Sil3114 driver, and the updated Sil driver needs to be inserted into the motherboard Bios before flashing. I contacted DFI but they politely told me that they won't be doing this.

Would you be so kind as to step us through the process, or even make up the required BIOS? Or have I misunderstood something? It's really important I don't mess this up, if I trash this computer then I'll be in trouble.

Your time and help is really appreciated. If you would like me to slip you a drink via Paypal, just say!

Regards,

Colin

[AdvModDev]

If that thread isn't clear then try going to my google page: http://nf2.stuff.googlepages.com/
and scroll down to the "Silicon Image..." section. You can download both the latest SATARAID BIOS and the tool (cbrom) needed to insert it into your DFI BIOS. There's also directions that I've tried to make as simple as possible to follow. If things still aren't clear then post back and I'll do it for you. But it's better you learn to do it yourself.

[colin99]

One I thing I learned is not to rename the BIOS files.

So here is the original:

******** N24IDB24.BIN BIOS component ********

No. Item-Name Original-Size Compressed-Size Original-File-Name
================================================================================
0. System BIOS 20000h(128.00K) 1376Bh(77.85K) N24IDB24.BIN
1. XGROUP CODE 0CBF0h(50.98K) 08CFCh(35.25K) awardext.rom
2. ACPI table 049C8h(18.45K) 01B87h(6.88K) ACPITBL.BIN
3. YGROUP ROM 05900h(22.25K) 036D0h(13.70K) awardeyt.rom
4. GROUP ROM[ 0] 04E80h(19.62K) 0226Fh(8.61K) _EN_CODE.BIN
5. VGA ROM[1] 0E000h(56.00K) 08FEBh(35.98K) NV1ABIOS.ROM
6. PCI ROM[A] 10000h(64.00K) 07593h(29.39K) NVPXES.NIC
7. OEM0 CODE 00900h(2.25K) 004F7h(1.24K) spectrum.bin
8. PCI ROM[B] 0C800h(50.00K) 062C2h(24.69K) 5035.bin
9. EPA LOGO 0168Ch(5.64K) 002AAh(0.67K) AWARDEPA.BIN

And here is the patched motherboard BIOS:
******** N24IDB24.BIN BIOS component ********

No. Item-Name Original-Size Compressed-Size Original-File-Name
================================================================================
0. System BIOS 20000h(128.00K) 1376Bh(77.85K) N24IDB24.BIN
1. XGROUP CODE 0CBF0h(50.98K) 08CFCh(35.25K) awardext.rom
2. ACPI table 049C8h(18.45K) 01B87h(6.88K) ACPITBL.BIN
3. YGROUP ROM 05900h(22.25K) 036D0h(13.70K) awardeyt.rom
4. GROUP ROM[ 0] 04E80h(19.62K) 0226Fh(8.61K) _EN_CODE.BIN
5. VGA ROM[1] 0E000h(56.00K) 08FEBh(35.98K) NV1ABIOS.ROM
6. PCI ROM[A] 10000h(64.00K) 07593h(29.39K) NVPXES.NIC
7. OEM0 CODE 00900h(2.25K) 004F7h(1.24K) spectrum.bin
8. EPA LOGO 0168Ch(5.64K) 002AAh(0.67K) AWARDEPA.BIN
9. PCI ROM[B] 0F000h(60.00K) 074FFh(29.25K) 5403.bin

Does that look promising?

Next I need to know how to flash the BIOS. Last time I used DFI's own bootable floppy application. This time should I used Winflash?

Thanks for your help.

Colin