Onboard and PCI RAID?

**sechs** · November 30th, 2002, 05:34 AM

Has anyone been able to successfully use both their motherboard's onboard RAID and an add-in PCI card?

I've added a Highpoint RocketRAID 1540 to my Soyo KT333 Dragon for a 0+1 setup, but can't get it and the onboard HPT372 to work simultaneously. Only the 372's BIOS appears to initialize. When I put a drive on the 1540 and attempted to boot Win2k from the 372, I got a blue screen. I have been successfully booting from the 1540 with the onboard disabled.

I e-mailed Highpoint, who said that I should be able to use both (that is, there is no inherent disability); I haven't received any word from Soyo. I'd like to be able to boot from a drive on the 372 and have a RAID on the 1540, but can't figure out what I need to do to make them both happy.

**Peter M** · November 30th, 2002, 12:06 PM

You're most probably running out of ROM space. That's just 128 KBytes, and depending on how much of that your VGA BIOS eats, it might not be enough for two storage controller ROMs. It doesn't need to, normally, since having storage BIOS should only be required for the one controller you're booting from. The other controllers should then be fired up correctly by their drivers.

**Scott Tiger** · November 30th, 2002, 12:10 PM

Peter M you always impress me. I don't always know what you're saying - but I'm always impressed!

**sechs** · November 30th, 2002, 03:21 PM

So, Peter M, are you saying that this is a software issue... you completely lost me on the explanation.

**sechs** · December 3rd, 2002, 12:12 AM

Well, no reply from Soyo, but I swapped the PCI slots for my sound card and the RAID card. I can now boot from the onboard and use a drive on the add-in. However, there are two issues.

First, the BIOS for the add-in still doesn't appear to initialize. How am I supposed to get into it? Entering the main BIOS first in order to do work on the RAID seems like a bad idea (and a pain).

Second, it takes forrrrrrever for Win2k to load up. When I set up the RAID, this may get better, but it's very painful now. What is it doing, and is there anything that I can do to speed it up?

Thanks!