NF7-S V2 Posting...

nheimler · Feb 5, 2004, 10:55 AM

hey all...i just upgraded to an abit mf7-s v2 board (upgraded newest bios when i got it), with an athlon xp 2800+ cpu. it seems the post screen sits for about 10 seconds before posting the drives i have in my machine. is this normal? from a cold boot it seems ok most of the time, but rebooting seems to were it sticks. my specs are below if anyone who has a similar rig has similar issues. my old board and cpu worked fine with all the hardware i had before. (abit bd7-ii and an intel 2gb) thanks all!

mb: abit nf7-s v2
cpu: athlon xp 2800+
hd: wd 120gb
dvd/cdrw: samsung 16/52x
dvdrw: nec 2500a 8x
vid: 9500pro
ram: pc2100 - 512mb micron & 256mb kingston

i have been reading all over the net that the nf7-s board does have some issues with certain hds...actually i've been reading that the nforce chipset has this issue. now i'm not sure if this has something to do with it and maybe i'm paraniod after the fact but...i tried throwing in my maxtor 160gb drive and all of a sudden it couldnt keep track of it's sector info in the mbr... it seems like i just noticed the posting issue after i did that (as if something goes wrong i look a little more closely to everything) but i'm having to end up rmaing the drive as it does have an issue on another machine of mine as well.

***Zardon*** · Feb 5, 2004, 11:05 AM

yeah I had an NF7s for a while and until they fixed a bios to sort out some issues with WD drives I had some problems like you are experiencing, the fact though you are on the newest bios seems a little odd as ive heard most if not all issues should be solved now.

I know this sounds rather obvious but check your leads and drive master/slave settings. I had an issue a while ago with a hard drive and I found out it was an IDE cable which suddenly was causing issues after 1 year of perfect usage. simply changing the IDE cable sorted it.

nheimler · Feb 5, 2004, 11:20 AM

yup tried a few cables and still having issues. i only have the one drive in it for right now as i mentioned the maxtor just up and died. it was in my linux server with a via board, but then i went out and got a 250gb drive to replace that one as it was dirt cheap. so i wanted a little more space in my windows box for some dd burning and gaming. i currently have the jumper set as a single drive (pins 5/3). now that i think about it it did seem to load faster when i had the pins set to master when i moved the maxtor to a slave to do some troubleshooting with the maxtor drive (which clanks a little when wiggled which it sounds like a bad head). i could just remove the jumper which most drives don't need jumpers if only using a single drive in a rig, but i try to keep the jumpers with the parts incase i need it right away.

does wd drives prefer a certain jumper over one or the other? for example...even though the diagram says to put it in the neutral pin when single drive do people have more success with it in the master or with no pins set?

***Zardon*** · Feb 5, 2004, 11:24 AM

the two 120 gig WD JB SEs I have in my raid via a PCI card as single masters I just pull the jumper out and they work perfectly.

nheimler · Feb 5, 2004, 11:31 AM

i'll have to give that a try and see if that works since i have the same drive. i've just been struggling with this the last two days (and i'm an experienced tech) that i've just been tired of dealing with it so i figured i would ask others to get others opinions while i think about my next strategy. the bad thing about being a tech...you get up at 6am to go work deal with this sort of thing all day (usually server side, but lots of desktops as well)...then go home piece together some new equipment and by that time you can't think straight anymore because you are still in work mode.

ah...such is life....

***Zardon*** · Feb 5, 2004, 11:38 AM

let me know how it goes for you.

nheimler · Feb 5, 2004, 11:39 AM

and actually this is my first nforce2 board i've had to deal with either personally or on the job which is another reason i came with questions. usually i've gone intel or amd with via boards.

nheimler · Feb 5, 2004, 12:11 PM

and btw zardon you've done some great work with backgrounds! i look forward to new ones you post. thanks again!

DarkFoss · Feb 5, 2004, 01:26 PM

What motherboard drivers did you install Nvidia's latest offical 3.13's? Also what ide drivers did you choose upon installation the SW ide, the in the box, or did you stick with Microsoft's default driver? Some poeple have issues with the sw ide. The "in the box" are just Microsofts drivers with ata 133 support.
Have you tried running the hd off of the sata controller instead of the ide? Another benefit of setting it up on stat is you'de have your opticals each on there own ide, faster on the fly burning

I noticed you've got 1 512 stick of mem and 1 256. You do have them installed in the dimm 1&2 sockets/single channel mode? I'm not sure if running 2 different size ram's in duel channel mode would cause any issue's. Also did you set the timings manually to match whatever the slower of the 2 sticks are?
I'm just throwing out a few idea's

nheimler · Feb 5, 2004, 01:43 PM

this is the post screen i'm referring to just a heads up. windows works fine. and i'm using modded drivers. and yes i have everything setup properly as far as i can see in the bios. i haven't really messed around with the sata yet. i noticed an adapter that it looks like i could hook up my drive through this. i just haven't made it through to unpacking that adapter yet. also has anyone test the modded bios 22 or the normal bios 22 yet for this board? i found it over at the nforcershq site. i'm wondering if this may fix some issues. i haven't gotten around to finding a change log on it yet but i will give this a try unless someone has issues with this version or recommends one over the other. thanks all!

nheimler · Feb 6, 2004, 11:11 AM

hmm...i've tried several variants of bios including the modded one. still the same. even when i just have my cd drives plugged in it sits at the drive detection screen for a little bit. sometimes up to 15 seconds. usually this is when i'm rebooting my computer frequently for example...installing apps or doing hardware tests with the ultimate boot cd. maybe this is something normal and i'm just now noticing it. i don't see this issue with other boards. is this something that nforce chipset do occationally? does anyone think i should rma the board? we got another one here at work today so i will see if it does the same thing. maybe i'm just being paranoid.

hahaha....