Chaintech 9cjs and BIOS DOS setting for Symantec Ghost
 

I have a Chaintech 9cjs MOBO.

I'm trying to make a Symantec Ghost (v. 2003) of my C: drive to my E: drive. After configuring Symantic I press Restart and it starts and the Ghost 2003 window appears but then freezes. The progress bar at the bottom shows no activity. Upon restart to XP Pro I see a Ghost icon in my E: drive but it has nothing in it.

I wrote to Symantec and they said that I need to enable DOS in the BIOS so that upon restart Symantec automatically boots to DOS . I looked and don't see any such DOS enabling option. Is there one? I have BIOS 7.0 dated 10/18/04.

Thanks,
Kerry

Ghost app should allow you to create bootdisk;

or just use a win9x bootdisk from www.bootdisk.com and drop ghost.exe on it:)

Will keep that trick in mind. Thanks.

I expect to get my RMA'd MOBO from Chaintech this week or next.

Kerry

I've got the F6 floppy all prepared with the latest IAAD in preparation for receiving the MOBO scheduled to arrive next Tues.

I'll be setting up a RAID 0 on two Raptors again. I'll also have another IDE hard drive that presently contains all my apps, files and the latest Chaintech drivers.

Given that all the utilities, drivers, etc. on the original Chaintech CD have newer versions on Chaintech's web site, I'm assuming there is no need to use the Chaintech CD at all, rather to just install everything from the 2nd hard drive once XP Pro has been installed on C:. Am I correct?

Should I Flash update the BIOS (v. 7.0 10/18/04) before installing XP Pro or doesn't it make a difference which I do first?

Thanks,
Kerry

you're correct about the drivers, most recent ones are on the web;

I would flash the bios first before installing WinXP

Do I need to configure the BIOS to load the floppy first and then Flash the BIOS? Or, does a MOBO arrive with the default "load floppy first" so that the the very first thing I do is Flash the BIOS? As always thanks jmke.

I have a much better understanding of what I'm doing this time around. If all goes well I'll have a perfect installation.

Where do you recommend I plug in my Radioshack powered stereo speakers for maximum fidelity; the front CBOX3 port, or the onboard out port, or the MediaCard out port?
There is just one stereo mini-plug for the two speakers, there is no bass speaker.

Thanks,
Kerry

1) When you get the new board, do a CMOS reset before your boot, afterwards hook everything up and on first boot go into to bios to check if everything is okay (health monitor cpu temps) , then also check boot priority, it should be first = floppy; but you never know. flash the BIOS then.

2) I have no idea if there is a difference in sound output between the 3, sorry :/, logic would say: no . but PC and logic hardly go together sometimes:)

CMOS reset is: Remove the JP1 jumper and the 3.0 batt for a few minutes and then replace, yes?

Got it about the sound.

Thanks,
Kerry

you are correct about the CMOS reset

Thanks,
Kerry

I got the MOBO today and installed it immediately.

I reset the CMOS. Then I tried to update the BIOS from 2/25/04 to 10/18/04 but I'm getting "Floppy disk fail (40)". I'm not sure why, but the green activity light on the floppy is staying lit, even without a floppy inserted. I've tried it with both floppy boot first and with CD boot first with same results.

Also, I'm getting "For Realtek PCI Fast Ethernet Controller 2.13 PXE-E61: Media test failure, check cable" But I don't have either Ethernet cables plugged in yet.

I can tell by the very mild caked on dust that the MOBO is a used-refurbished one. Ugh. (the bar code on the back of the board reads: 1C305260001 whereas my original code was an entirely different kind of code = 19B1420B312170441)

Thanks,
Kerry

flip the floppy cable on the drive;

you probably have PXE network boot enabled, if it doesn't find a cable plugged in it will error out with "media failure" (media being the cable :) )

Thanks so much for the quick answer.

Correctomondo about the PXE being enabled. Never saw that option before.

I turned the floppy cable around and the light is not on now but I'm still getting the (40) error message.

I'm also getting a "Press F1 to continue" message and I don't recall that happening before.


Kerry

arrgg . I just did Ctl + S to change the PXE but got the message, "There are no other options for this choice."

Kerry

do you have another floppy can you try? might also be the floppy port as you just mentioned the word "used-refurbished "

I'll try another floppy drive later today. It's now 1:30 am Wed.

Thanks,
Kerry

It must have been the floppy drive. I replaced it and no more (40).

When I try to upgrade the BIOS I press Alt + F2 and the Awardflash menu appears with a field to enter the name of the BIOS but the keyboard doesn't respond, even though I used "Any Key" to start the PC and of course pressed to Alt F2 to bring up the Awardflash menu.

I replaced the keyboard with a non F-Key toggle key but same results, when I try to fill in the name nothing happens. I have to shut down. I tried this several times with no luck.

Any ideas why this is happening?

Thanks,
Kerry

Kerry

[quote]Originally posted by Kerry
[b] "For Realtek PCI Fast Ethernet Controller 2.13 PXE-E61: Media test failure, check cable" But I don't have either Ethernet cables plugged in yet.[quote]

Forgot to mention: I gave up on trying to update the BIOS before installing XP Pr so I connected the CD and the Media test failrure went away.

Kerry

that's very weird :)

you might be fine with the bios which is currently on the board, you have the test it out. otherwise contact Chaintech support :/ for help with the keyboard issue; seems like a bug

Thanks. Chaintech's website describes the 12/18/04 BIOS (version 7.0) as addressing the XP SC2 issues. I have a ticket into to Chaintech about the keyboard problem.

Thanks.

Kerry