Asus A8N-SLI Premium and Sil3114 controller

racing87stang

I purchased this motherboard about 5 months ago to replace one of the bugged A8N32-SLI boards I had. It worked great and the Sil3114 controller worked without a hitch. Problem I have now is that I removed the water cooling from my computer ( just a Swiftech Apex kit so not much) as well as upgraded the vid card from a 7900GT to a 7950GX2.

The problem Im having is I had used the controller for my dual 150GB Raptors( without the clear case), and my WD4000YR 400GB Raid specific Drives. For the raptors I used them mirrored and for the 400giggers I ran them Striped as a storage drive. Problem I have is that the motherboard doesnt recognize the raid arrays anymore, and I dont see the option to enter the menu for the Sil Controller in boot up. Anyone have the special button Im supposed to press? Thanks for anything, Or if anyone has dealt with this please let me know what you did, or what I have to do, other than a RMA. Thanks
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Mordacain · Posted: Thu Sep 07, 2006 5:12 am Post subject:

I believe F4 or a Ctrl+ option is used to enter these. I would doubl-check the controller is still set on in Bios. Once you can get into the control you can verify you're arrays are alright.

Once anything going on that may have caused this? Say a BIOS reset from an OC attempt or was it just random?
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racing87stang · Posted: Thu Sep 07, 2006 1:40 pm Post subject:

Random actually and odly enough is doing the same with a replacement board. This is rediculous to say the least since I have almost a TB of data that I dont want to lose. I ordered a Sil3114 pci card to hopefully salvage the data, so If I cant get this controller to work it wont be SOO bad.

But anyone know what could be causing this.

It is set on in the bios, but usually it asks to press F4 or Ctrl-S to enter the setup, Mine doesnt.
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ToggleHead · TWEAKGURU Joined: 03 Mar 2004 Posts: 4360 Location: Jersey

Roll back bios? Or reinstall? Maybe something happened when you took the water parts out....
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racing87stang · Posted: Thu Sep 07, 2006 3:04 pm Post subject:

I have done multiple BIOS swaps. Back to the first Beta, all the way to the latest Beta. No changes. Its even a problem with my current replacement Motherboard. That Im now going to send back since thats not the prob. I'm wondering if its a problem now with the hard drives. Which would suck.
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ToggleHead · TWEAKGURU Joined: 03 Mar 2004 Posts: 4360 Location: Jersey

put the old vid board back in....see what happens.
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racing87stang · Posted: Thu Sep 07, 2006 3:54 pm Post subject:

Unfortunately I cannot. Stupid me used Artic Epoxy compound with the memory chips and pulled a few off while trying to disasseble. I will try with a x800. Hmm I will find out in a sec.
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racing87stang · Posted: Thu Sep 07, 2006 4:12 pm Post subject:

This is lame. Turns out when i SWAPPED THE vid card to a 6200 PCI-e card. The menu popped up. Does this mean that I cannot use this card with this motherboard? How lame. Does that mean an incompatibility with the video card, and the BIOS? would a newer BIOS hopefully fix this>?
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ToggleHead · TWEAKGURU Joined: 03 Mar 2004 Posts: 4360 Location: Jersey

interesting....its worth a shot

was the ATi AGP?
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fussnfeathers · Lord of the Tweak Joined: 14 Dec 2004 Posts: 2763

Um...........Toggle..........SLI.........equals.........PCIe..............

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racing87stang · Posted: Fri Sep 08, 2006 1:11 am Post subject:

Nah I bought the ATI as a techie board, cuz it doesnt show anything... Needs a flash I believe. (anyone got a x800 gt 256 non-vivo Bios?)

So I tried a 6200PCI-e card I have lying around and Voila It works. What do you guys think. I hope the PCI raid controller works with the 7950GX2, otherwise that would be completely LAME.
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ToggleHead · TWEAKGURU Joined: 03 Mar 2004 Posts: 4360 Location: Jersey

Mordacain · Posted: Fri Sep 08, 2006 4:06 pm Post subject:

This is one of those situations where an old PCI card comes in handy. Come to think of it...I don't have one myself laying around anymore....think I might just have to check newegg and see if they have anything cheap!
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Where are all the stupid people from and how'd they get to be so dumb? - NOFX, "The Decline"

racing87stang · Posted: Fri Sep 08, 2006 5:11 pm Post subject:

Got mine for only $30. Had to upgrade the shipping so I got it today, but no biggie. Still waiting for it. The UPS Driver is late.
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fussnfeathers · Lord of the Tweak Joined: 14 Dec 2004 Posts: 2763

I was supposed to have one of those, so I could flash my X800GT, but Toggle never did find it..................

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racing87stang · Posted: Sat Sep 09, 2006 3:29 am Post subject:

After some digging online. I find that most people had success and downfalls with this particular combo. I will be seeing into a different PCI-e 4x Raid controller (the one I want is upwards $300+)

But with the following

Bios = 1011.006 (still beta)
91.47 forceware drivers
and My new PCI Sil3114 Raid controller Hopefully I can get this rig back on its feet. Ill let you all know in the morn as of now Im going to bed.
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racing87stang · Posted: Sat Sep 09, 2006 6:11 pm Post subject:

ok... got it working... atleast with the vid card installed. BUT!!!! due to the difference in BIOS between the two devices, I couldn't use the same arrays.

I am currently Zero'ing out the drives to make a fresh slate (ahh.. they were just windows install number 56 No biggie.)

After which I hope that I can Install the OS without hiccup, or at least make the cards run at a decent speed. I wanted the PCI-Express 4x card but that woulda landed me way to much fundage.
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Mordacain · Posted: Sun Sep 10, 2006 12:15 pm Post subject:

Oh....I remember having a problem similar to this now...

I had an onboard Sil3114 controller and a PCI board Sil3112...never did play well with eachother...I had to buy a Promise board....though I'm sure anything with a non Sil chip would haev worked...
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Where are all the stupid people from and how'd they get to be so dumb? - NOFX, "The Decline"

racing87stang · Posted: Sun Sep 10, 2006 1:04 pm Post subject:

Im pretty sure that it wasnt a matter of the sil 3114 cards, Since i did disable the onboard one in BIOS. The problem I think was that the Add-in card's bios was so old that it wasn't compatible with some hardware. I couldnt even upgrade it using anything on the web. Im sending it back for a Nice PCI-e 4x SATAII raid card. 4ports, that was I can also add in a spare sata drive for whatever Extras, or file backups.

I RMA'd both the spare a8n-sli board and the add in Sil3114 card. Should equal to the same price as the other card. So I break even.
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Xal · Posted: Sun Sep 10, 2006 1:21 pm Post subject:

Good luck bro, let us know how the PCIe card does for you.
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racing87stang · Posted: Wed Sep 13, 2006 3:43 pm Post subject:

OMG I am NEVER!!! going back to normal PCI controller cards. This PCIe- 4x card I got is UBER FAST.

I have a Highpoint 2310 running my pair of raptor 150gb's in stripe and MAN... Im speechless. They also have the 2300 which is a 1x PCIe. I highly recommend if you want a fast multi platform controller. Now I can have my cake and Eat it too.
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racing87stang · Posted: Sat Sep 23, 2006 9:06 pm Post subject:

Just an update. My 7950GX2 was causing so many problems I ditched it for a set of GTX 7900's. SLI is awesome, and all my onboard stuff works again, and I also have better system stability.

I think I will have to wait til I either get a newer chipset or maybe just sell the card.
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