Maximum PC

I built a system 4 years back centered on a 478 Prescott-core Pentium 4HT and a BioStar P4M900-M4A 6.x motherboard. It has performed marvelously since I have had it and has been able to run a lot of new games without a hitch.

Most recently, I have been attempting to repurpose the system for a media center. This comes with the need of more storage. The board comes equipped with 2 VIA-powered SATA ports. The only caveat is that you can either run the drives in RAID or at original IDE specification speed. Needless to say with only one drive it is incredibly slow. On top of that, while my system is overclocked the onboard SATA controller does not function properly or does not function at all, rendering any SATA drives I attach useless, so I have been attempting to integrate a PCIe SATA controller card.

Unfortunately I have had nothing but trouble attempting to get the system to boot when such a card is installed. When installed in the PCIe x1 slot, the system will not POST, nor will it POST while the card is attached to the x16 slot normally occupied by my GPU, so I knew it was not a bad slot. In addition, it would crash other systems that I installed it in. I am now on my fourth card, this one being a different make and controller than the previous 3.

Upon looking at the card, I noticed that the presence detection contacts on the card are SHORT. Curious, I examined my PCIe GPU and saw that it did not have shortened contacts anywhere on the card. Upon examining internet photos of the previous three cards, I notice that they have the same contact length as the card I currently have, so I am convinced that these contacts are the problem.

I would prefer not to purchase a PCI SATA controller to use as my PCI slots are occupied by a Firewire card and an additional NIC. Therefore I am left to wonder whether or not I can lengthen the contacts on the card and make it work. Is it possible to do this, and could it be done using a trace pen or some other method?

BUILD SPECS:

Motherboard:::::::: BIOSTAR P4M900-M4A 6.X
CPU::::::::::::::::: Intel Pentium 4HT 3.0E Prescott OC'd @ 3.45 GHz
RAM::::::::::::::::: 2 GB Corsair ValueSelect DDR2 OC'd @ 768MHz
GPU::::::::::::::::: ASUS Radeon HD 3450
HDD::::::::::::::::: Repurposed WD800 80GB PATA
ODD::::::::::::::::: Memorex DVD+\-RW DL
PCI 1:::::::::::::::: Linksys 10/100 LAN
PCI 2:::::::::::::::: VIA IEEE 1394a
OS:::::::::::::::::: Windows 7 Pro

What make and model cards are you trying to run?

Originally I was trying to use Silverstone cards with a Marvell 9230 chipset. I completely threw that idea away because when I installed them in other systems they would promptly crash, even with up to date drivers. I returned each one of those and shot off some emails.

Now, I am using a Vantec UGT-ST420R card.

*UPDATE* The motherboard takes this card. However, it takes an extended period of time for it to POST, even with BIOS settings at default. However, I can insert it into the x16 slot and there will be no problems. By itself in the x1 slot or with all components loaded into the system, it takes an extended period of time to POST. These issues are not present in the reference test systems, so now I am thinking loose socket contacts or too much space in the socket. Also to note: when trying to access the drives in OS, the system drops the card. I am going to try tinkering in the BIOS a little more see if that is perchance the issue. Maybe I won't have to screw around with the slot pins.

For reference, the system is stock-clocked for now. I think I should mention that there is an asynchronous PCIe clock feature available, but I don't know if it is both slots or only one and which one.

You installed the sata driver for that card in the OS, yes? If you let windows install a generic driver, that may be your problem.

Nasty

If you're trying to boot off the hard drive running through the SATA controller, you'll have to install those drivers before you install Windows (there's usually an option to do so when you run the Windows install). Unfortunately for XP it seems to only know floppy disks for this task, I could be wrong though.

LatiosXT , I use a usb floppy to install the sata driver during a new install of XP and it works. You may have to enable an option in the bios for it to be seen.

Nasty

Your post would've been better served telling OP about this and how to do it.

...so the op disregards all posts unless he is directly addressed?

Nasty

Try changing the "Boot Order" to "Add In Card" in the BIOS that might help speed the POST up, but yes with the add in card, there will be a delay in post, because the system is trying to find the hard drive on its ports, then it hands off to the AIC which has to initialize its own BIOS and perform a check to see what is attached then hand everything off to the OS.

No. I am not trying to boot off of the card. The VIA SATA controller on my board sucks and I wanted to add a new STORAGE controller for the SATA drives I was going to be using. Also note that, despite the age of the system, I AM NOT RUNNING XP. Will you kindly take the time to READ the specs I posted?

And I don't know why but the card will work in my x16 slot but not my x1 slot without crashing the system. I just updated the card BIOS successfully so we'll see if that helps. I would prefer to use the card in the x1 slot so I can use my HD 3450 GPU and have all of my RAM available to the system. As of now, all utilities and drivers are properly loaded and functional.

I can only speculate but my thought is that your board/chipset only supports 16 PCIe lanes and with the video card in place you are using all 16 and that leaves no available lanes for the controller card.

But the board does it when the x16 lane is not occupied as well.

The pcie 16 slot may have higher voltage than the pcie 1 slot. That may be why the card will run in the 16 and not the 1. You will have to look up the voltages on the net or they may be in the bios.

Nasty

If this is the case, will I be able to take a a riser adapter and modify it so I can feed the voltages from the PSU? Using my HWM, it says all voltages are within tolerances, although my 5V appears dangerously low.

Look in the bios for the voltages in the power section, they should read 12 V, 5V and 3V, plus or minus 5% anything other than that I would suspect the power supply.

Nasty

Well my 5V is about 4.6 so I guess I'll take it in to work tomorrow and see. Only thing is that PCIe does not use 5V. It uses the 12V and 3.3V rails.

Yes, but the 5 volt is giving the power good signal to the motherboard. If the board doesn't see the 5 volts it may be the reason why it is not posting.

Nasty