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

[AdvModDev]

Looks good. If you have a floppy, then I'd use that. I don't completely trust Winflash. Remember to write down your BIOS settings cause everything will be reset when you flash. Good luck.

[colin99]

I do have a floppy, but don't know what application I should use to make a bootable BIOS flash disk. What would you recommend?

Regards,

Colin

[TwL]

Yeah, I could also strongly advice if flashing bios suggest flashing it at ms-dos.

Hmm, if you got an simply usb-stick there. Use the 'HP USB Format Tools' and get Some Win 95 or win 98 floppy extract the bootdisk EXE with WinImage to some empty folder > use the folder with HP format tool to make stick bootable > copy dos BIOS flashing tool to USB (and perhaps rest of the DOS filed from folder you extracted the floppy) & the BIOS file to flash > boot and set USB as bootable > flash as instructed by dos flashing tool you got.

-edit-reminder-
(that will format the usb so remember to get backup of anything on USB_stick.. hehe)

[colin99]

The solution to the bios update was simple, take the floppy which DFI's web site provided an image for, and replace the N24IDB24.BIN file with the new patched one.

Then after a nerve-wracking few minutes, it was all updated and the Sil3114 driver showed version 5.4.03 at bootup. Reset BIOS settings to sensible values again (200MHz FSB is the main thing it mucks up), and everything ran OK. Inserted new 750GB Seagate ST375084 drive and it worked (with or without the jumper installed for 1.5Gb/s speed limit). I note from the "Silicon Image SATA Controllers" item within the control panel, that this is still running at 1.5Gb/s, so the update just fixes the problem rather than increases the throughput (to be expected really).

I also noticed that under My Computer, Manage, Disk Management, that on the right hand side of each drive space there is a black "Unallocated" space of a few MB on each of the SATA drives (not the IDE though), which didn't used to appear there. Interesting, but not a problem of course.

I'll make the patched BIOS available on my web space I think, in case anyone else wants to do this.

Thanks for all your help, and "holding my hand" at the start of this when I was really nervous. If you would like a drink on me, let me know your paypal address.

All the best,

Colin

[magnace]

Hi everyone (but especially AdvModDev!),

I recently bought 4 SATA HDDs to create a RAID5 array, but get the hang-up on SiI 3114 screen. Hot plugging the drives after this screen allows Vista Ultimate 32-bit to see the drives and I can partition, span or stripe them, but I can't open the Si SATA Controller from Control Panel.

My Mobo is Asus K8N-E Deluxe.
AMI BIOS version 1012 Beta (I flashed this after all others from 1006 up haven't fixed it) This is the most recent BIOS on the Asus website.

SiI 3114 version 5.0.39 (unchanged since AMI BIOS 1005)

I've read how to modify the Award BIOS with cbrom215, but this didn't work with the AMI file.

Does anyone how to mod a AMI BIOS so I can replace the SiI 3114 v 5.0.39 driver with the 5.4.0.3 driver?

Please help as I can't get to sleep! I don't want to have to buy a new mobo or SATA add-in card if I can just mod the BIOS. I've tried Google but can't find a tool for AMI BIOSes.

Many thanks in anticipation.

[AdvModDev]

The AMI equivalent to cbrom would be amibcp. I have uploaded the latest versions to my site: http://nf2.stuff.googlepages.com/ (scroll down to the "Silicon Image 3112/3114 RAID BIOS/Drivers and NVRAID BIOS" section). As far as how to use it, you're on your own because I have no clue when it comes to an AMI BIOS. But here is a link that might help: http://www.virtual-hideout.net/guides/bios_logo_mods_part2/index.shtml (it's actually a guide to replace an AMI logo but should probably be a similar process for the RAID BIOS). Good luck.

Edit: Here's another link that might help: http://darkness.codefu.org/wordpress/2003/01/09/73

[magnace]

Thanks for the quick response AdvModDev!
I'll check it out and let you know how I get on...

[magnace]

Hi AdvModDev,

I have tried to open the BIOS file (k8ne1009.ami and k8n-e-ASUS-deluxe-1012.007) with amibcp75, ami76 and ami8 but to no avail.
~75 and ~76 in DOSBox keeps retuning:
Error 6 - The BIOS ROM file checksum is bad
~8 wants to open *.rom files only. I selected all files and opened k8ne1009.ami, but I get Invalid Row Value when I click the tabs, then it crashes.
I renamed the v1012 file to k8ne1012.rom, tried opening it in ~75, ~76, but still get "...checksum is bad", and ~8 I still get the Invalid Row Value dialogue boxes, but I can see the fields are populated with all sorts of info. To be honest this is getting beyond by knowledge and experience! Any further help would be greatly appreciated.

I'm going to try running the amibcp~.exe's from a boot disk, but I expect I'll still get "...checksum is bad" errors....

[AdvModDev]

Try an older version of amibcp. I have uploaded v3.13 to the site. If that doesn't work, try googling amibcp for other versions. One of them has to work.

[magnace]

Ok we're getting somewhere. amibcp313 lets me open the latest BIOS (k8n-e-ASUS-Deluxe-1012.007) in a windows GUI.
I see that on the Setup Config tab:
Handle: [022B]
Control Group Structures: Silicon Image Mode
Show: Yes
Access/Use: User
Failsafe: RAID Mode
Optimal: RAID Mode
I assume this is just the default (or last saved) BIOS settings?

The other tabs available are:
Register Edit
PCI IRQ Routing
BIOS Strings
BIOS Features
DMI Table

All these other tabs have strings of hexadecimal, but I can't find any way to replace the SiI 3114 v5.0.39 drv with the v5.4.0.3 in this program. Am I missing something or am I supposed to edit the Register Edit/BIOS Features tab in some way?