Bios problem ASUS P4S800D

[luish]

Hey!

I got a new computer.. and it has an Asus Mobo, P4S800D...
I have two questions..

1) it takes ages till it loads windows and i think it is a bios thing... is there any way to optimize this?
2) I have enabled on the Bios the HT option... and of course i got an HT pentium... when i run the Intel Hyper-Threading Technology Test Utility
that the chipset didn't pass the test... so it isn't an HT chipset?

 

[tdinc]

do you have the latest BIOS?

it should be b1007

here is the link to the ASUS BIOS downloads for your MOBO

ASUS DOWNLOADS


Check and see if you have an P4w/HT
use this program
CPU Z

 

[Lonman]

My experience with real slow POST-ing (power-on self test) is either from incorrectly jumpered drives (they'll boot but it confuses hell out of the bios), or you don't have it set for the fast boot and your bios is running it's full arsenal of tests. Switch it to quick-boot in the bios and you'll shave quite a bit of time that way if it's not already set.

 

[Hipster Doofus]

Don't know if this will help with the boot time. Depends on where it is 'hanging'. The fix is at the end.

Symptoms
After you choose to start Windows from the Boot menu, you may experience a long delay (or pause) before your computer finishes starting. Note that this delay may range from 10 seconds to a minute. Also, this delay occurs before the Starting Windows progress bar appears, and your computer may appear to stop responding (hang) during this time.

Cause
This behavior can occur if Windows is installed on a drive or a partition to which Windows cannot gain access with normal Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) INT-13 or INT-13 extension calls. When Windows Setup determines it cannot use BIOS calls to start, it uses scsi() or signature() syntax in the Boot.ini file instead of multi() syntax.

When booting a system that requires scsi() or signature() syntax, Ntldr loads an additional device driver (Ntbootdd.sys) to initialize and interrogate the boot controllers in your computer. Ntldr then seeks the associated boot drive attached to the controller to finish loading the kernel. These additional operations take more time in Windows because of the Plug and Play nature of the operating system.

This behavior is expected, however, Windows Setup may use scsi() or signature() syntax, even if your computer can boot using the normal BIOS calls. This may occur on Integrated Drive Electronics-based computers when using a large capacity boot drive. In this case, you can try adding an additional entry in the Boot.ini file and use multi() syntax on the new entry to boot from. Note that if this works, your computer starts without pausing.

 

[luish]

tdinc : I got the latest bios and it shows to be an HT as it is.

Lonman : The fast boot option is enabled so it seems that it is not it..

Hipster Doofus : you were right I think but I didn't understand what to do... :S

 

[Hipster Doofus]

I haven't done this before but from what it says do this>> Assuming you have XP.

Right click my computer/properties/advanced/startup & recovery. Click 'edit'. That opens your boot.ini file. (make a back up) It should look something like this depending on you system>

[boot loader]
timeout=3
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Hipster's Playground - Windows XP Home" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Repair Station" /fastdetect

Where it says 'multi' is where the changes are made. If yours says 'scsi' or 'signature' change it to 'multi'. If it already says 'multi' then that's not the problem.

 

[luish]

Ty, Hipster it allready says Multi...

What can the problem be?

 

[Sazar]

what cpu do you have? a 2.8 C ? or E? or B?

 

[luish]

Hm...
I really don't know but I checked on the CPU-Z software and on the CPU tab, revision it is written C0 .. So it is C ?? if not where can I check it..
And how does it solutionate the problem..
It is annoying to wait almost 2 mins till windows loads up..
maybe something that can help..
I have a Sata Drive that windows is not installed on it... but in an IDE drive... can it be something?

what cpu do you have? a 2.8 C ? or E? or B?

 

[Lonman]

What exactly is slow? The POST, or the little windows bar dealy? That's 2 different animals... the first is strictly hardware... the second is software. How are your drives configured? Both on one channel? Do you have them Master/Slaved correctly? Are they on channels with another device? Need some more details on your drive configuration.

 

[luish]

It is a bios problem...
It takes time from Post to the Xp loading screen...

What can i do?

 

[Sazar]

well what speed is your fsb?>

if its listed @ 400... its an A (which I don't think you have), at 533 its a B and @ 800 its either a C or an E...

for an 800mhz fsb check the l2 cache... if its 512kb its a C... if its 1mb its an E...

from what you have described its either a B (most likely) or a C

 

[Sazar]

It is a bios problem...
It takes time from Post to the Xp loading screen...

What can i do?

what all info is being displayed during post - windows startup?

I know on my last 2 msi boards I have had a lot of options for raid components and the like... I could turn off a lot of the messages and speed up my boot time considerably... is it things like this or is it a regular boot that is taking a long time? and is the time during post or in the time its taking to load windows?

 

[Lonman]

Has it been like this from day one? You say it's a new system is why I ask. Have you added any hardware? If so, did the problem start after that?

Also, time it... what exactly is 'ages?' Mine gets to the windows loading screen in about 7-10 seconds.

 

[luish]

well what speed is your fsb?>

if its listed @ 400... its an A (which I don't think you have), at 533 its a B and @ 800 its either a C or an E...

for an 800mhz fsb check the l2 cache... if its 512kb its a C... if its 1mb its an E...

from what you have described its either a B (most likely) or a C

It is 800MHZ fsb, and l2 cache is 1mb, so it is an E.

 

[luish]

Has it been like this from day one? You say it's a new system is why I ask. Have you added any hardware? If so, did the problem start after that?

Also, time it... what exactly is 'ages?' Mine gets to the windows loading screen in about 7-10 seconds.

It is a new pc, with all new hardware... it happend since the first time i turn'd it on.

 

[Sazar]

sry luish I thought you had gotten the problem fixed...

you are running with HT enabled right?

try running it w/o HT enabled and see what happens..

shouldn't make much difference but it'll rule out one other thing...

also... check this

http://www.asus.com/products/mb/socket478/p4s800d/overview.htm

check your memory v/s the list provided and see if it matches up...

one last thing... could you provide details of the pci devices you are using (not on-board... just pci cards) and what on-board devices you are using (ie s-ata controller/RAID controller and the like)

thanks

 

[luish]

1) i will try without HT. BTW, new intels tools for HT detects prob's with HT
2) My memory is there and it is compatible
3) I got a pci sci card (for the cdrw) I got an ide drive XP on it and an s-ata drive with software there..

 

[Sazar]

I dunno m8... have you contacted asus wrt to the issue?

seems as though we have gone over the basic stuff...

either there's a conflict somewhere/something is not setup right or something is outright buggered...

 

[luish]

Ok.... I am back and I think what maybe causes the problem..
after the bios post i see a screen of a raid thing loading (the s-ata drive?) and after that it takes hours to load the XP loading thing...
Now I download Sis Raid drivers and a tool that I can create a raid drive ? will it solutionate my problems ? if it does how do i use that tool ?

Please help me!!!