Okay, a few days ago, I attempted to upgrade to an Abit KT7E MB, with the Via
KT133 chipset. I've had nothing but problems. First of all, my Adapted 2930
SCSI card, with a Plextor CDRW, refused to boot at all. I tried setting boot
order in BIOS, and spending about an hour LD on the phone with a tech from TC
Computers. We pulled everything but the video card and Adaptec. Tried it in
every slot. Adjusted memory timings. (I'm using PC133 PNY ram, BTW). Nothing
made any diff, it just wouldn't boot from CD, even though the Adaptec banner
was coming up, finding the CD (SCSI ID4), and even saying that there was a
bootable CD-ROM in the CD. (just like with my old setup). So, I stuck my old
IDE CD-ROM back into the case (keeping the SCSI setup there) and re-installed
Mandrake v8.0 onto my 2nd partition (windog 98 for games on 1st partition).
(Oh-let me mention that Windoze wouldn't even find the Adaptec card on this
MB, so its not a Linux Mandrake issue, but a hardware issue). Anyways, I went
thru v8.0s install routine, and got all the way to the point where it reboots.
I get the "loading linux...." message in text, in the upper L corner, then a
blank screen. Nothing else. Even after 20 mins. So...I go "ah-ha", I installed
with Plug 'N Play enabled in the BIOS, that must be it. Turned "Shrug and
Pray" off...reinstalled v8.0. Ditto. Same thing. Installation goes perfect, no
errors, nothing unusual. So...I pull the entire SCSI setup, card, reader,
cable out and reinstall 8.0 again (3rd time). Still the exact same thing.
So...can I assume that:
A. The Adaptec AHA-2930cu will NOT work with Abit motherboards?
B. That Mandrake 8.0 won't either.
PS BTW, I went to Abits site and flash-upgraded the MB's BIOS to the latest
version. Made no diff.... ;-(
Any helpful hints, clues, pointers would be extremely appreciated before I RMA
this MB and 850mhz Duron and send it back.
PSS <laughing> Any motherboard suggestions? ;-)
PSS Stuck my old Gigabyte MB back in, withe the SCSI setup, and it worked fine
again.
Go figure...
Thanks much gang!
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Dark><Lord
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