hi

I just got a butt load of hardware in and I was wondering if anyone here does a RAID array.  If so, what type of RAID do you run?

I have 3x 40GB drives that I could put in a RAID 5 which would be great for drive failure, but I was thinking of going with RAID 1+0 or 0+1 or 10 as I also now have 4x 160GB drives.

I am using the onboard Highpoint HPT RAID controller on my EPoX 8K5A3+ motherboard.  The controller supports all RAID types mentioned.  

Please comment.   :)

Hi razrx

I'm using in Epox 8K3A+ with  AMD Barton 3000+ RAID 0, as you perhaps noticed in Voodoo 5 6000 thread.

If you are using V56k and IF you want to get maximium performance of your hard disks, there is no way of beating RAID 0. Ofcourse, if one disk fails, all lost but sure you can handle backups...  ;)

The good old FAT16 or FAT32 in system disk in RAID 0, you would see the difference...  8-)



Regards
Kokohemmo

Ok I like raid 0.  however I would like some redundancy.

Does anyone have an EPoX HPT374 BIOS file?  My 8k5a3+ CD only has the HPT372 BIOS file.

According to EPoX website, this the Highpoint HPT374 BIOS file would be used with other EPoX boards such as:  EP-4PCA3+ EP-8K5A3+ EP-8K9A3+

Does anyone have a good version?

Hi razrx,

I did test use a bunch of IDE Raid controllers embedded into the MB like the HighPoint, Promise, Silicon Image, and i can say they provide poor performance compared to a true HW RAID controller like the 3ware due to not having a dedicated chip and memory.
More to the subject if you plan on having a RAID5 you overall performance will drop as the parity XOR calculations will be done by the system CPU.
RAID10 is a combination of RAID0 and RAID1 and you get a performance boost and redundancy but loose the capacity of 2 drives.
With RAID1 you will have redundancy but slightly lower performance than single drive.
Still you could go for raid10 if you don't mind the downsides and my suggestion would be to put each drive as master on one cable/connector from the MB for slightly lower latency.
Myself I'm using a 3ware SATA RAID controller on my Dual MP v5 system and the performance is limited by the southbridge.
Hope this helps.

@G1nX - I thought the integrated RAID would be ok, but I guess it's just like integrated video or sound, it's just there to get your feet wet with the technology.

I will look at getting a RAID card this weekend.  I had heard 3ware was a good choice too.  ;)

Well if you get a PCI/PCI-X ATA Raid controller with dedicated chip and ram the 3ware/AMCC cards are a good choice.  Still you will have a bottle neck on you MB and that is the PCI bus that is limited 33mhz * (32 or 64bits) / 8 and this is shared between all pci devices embedded on the MB or installed in the PCI slots. Also you have added latency due to the fact that you have another BIOS for the data to go thru. So overall you will gain HW RAID and offload the CPU, but your performance would depend on how many pci devices you are using and also RAID matrix chosen. So disable from the BIOS everything you're not using like the HPT raid controller, Lan etc.
Cheers

Excellent advice.  I already disable all Parallel, Serial, Game ports as well as other non-used features....

You've got me thinking about possibly changing my motherboard now... It seems that I may be starting to get some slight browning on a couple of my 8K5A3+ capacitors....

So I have been searching for the last few hours for a DUAL MP board.

My choices seem to be for a DUAL MP board:
ASUS A7M266-D
MSI K7D Master (or K7D Master L - which includes a LAN port)
Tyan S2466 (I don't think the other S246X boards will fit my case and/or needs)

Any others?

Additionally, it would great if I decide to drop in my v6k into the DUAL MP board that it would work fine.

Not too much to ask, eh?  :)

Well don't go changing mainboards just yet. Every platform has it's advantages and disadvantages there is no perfect platform to get for the last Voodoo generation.
The KT333 is faster having max 333fsb  and has the advantage of higher frequency CPU's and also RAM.
The AMD 760/762 chipset only supports 266fsb and 266mhz for RAM is not a performer as AMD never was very good at chipset designs. Still the 768 southbridge provides a separate PCI-X bus that helps if you use a V5 pci card or use a PCI-X controller to have higher bus width.
Still i did test a few dual MP boards from TYAN and one from Gigabyte this one:
http://techreport.com/articles.x/4372/3
It does work with V5 cards and has all the features you would ever want personally I like that the second PCI-X slot is not so close to the AGP having a little room to breath for the VGA card  ;)
Need to find the time to post some tests  :-/

@ razrx

Could you email me that HPT372 drivers, since Niels and I are trying to pre install the HighPont 372 driver of my EPoX EP-8K3A+, I only have the mobo and the manual and not the Raid drivers FDD and the Mobo's CD driver's disc.

If anybody else is willing to upload these drivers, please do, since all the websites on the internet for these drivers are down or you even have to make your self a member and even pay for them lol  ::)

We are planning to create a RAID 0 setup of Dual Seagate Barracuda V 80GB ATA 133 HDD's on the 8K3A+'s Raid controller but without the proper drivers for 2K/XP we aren't getting far heh.

Gold Leader:  
I have the drivers for HPT372 and HPT374 on my EPoX CD, but they are old.

Here are some websites to go to that you don't have to register with and you can get the latest drivers:

http://www.itclinic.ru/download/brands/epox/ep-8k3aplus/&usg=ALkJrhiZ6Oe97hTuLqE5-KE7_YrNqHYong

http://www.2themax.com/en_home.php

8-)

hmm it seems that the old ones as the new ones keep on showing this error:

File\win_xp\hpt3xx.sys caused an expected error (18) at line 2108 in d:\xpsp1\base\boot\setup\oemdisc.c.

searching the problem with Google didn't help either since Google couldn't find nothing about it so I was like ah well too bad back to how it was, such things are rather too complicated to fix for my doings heh, even using the correct driver and still that happens, rather a chanceless thing to bug around with heh.

Anwyas thanx for you help though, it was worth finding out.

::) mmmhmmm.... LOL

Hey, I can send you the files via ICQ from my CD if you want.   :)

razrx wrote on 07.03.09 at 18:28:21:

It seems that I may be starting to get some slight browning on a couple of my 8K5A3+ capacitors....

You needn't be afraid of some bad caps just got to find the right replacement for them and do some soldering.
If you replace them or the board with the same type sooner or later caps are going to pop since Epox used some poor quality ones on those boards  :(
You can find a lot of useful information here:
http://www.badcaps.net/
and even more on their forum.
For the Highpoint drivers try the ones from abit boards with the same embedded controller and see if they work:
http://www.abit.com.tw/page/en/download/download_driver_detail.php?pFILE_TYPE=Driver&pMAIN_TYPE=Motherboard&pTITLE_ON_SCREEN=KT7-RAID&pSOCKET_TYPE=Socket%20A
Cheers,
G1nX

G1nX wrote on 08.03.09 at 19:07:24:

razrx wrote on 07.03.09 at 18:28:21: It seems that I may be starting to get some slight browning on a couple of my 8K5A3+ capacitors.... You needn't be afraid of some bad caps just got to find the right replacement for them and do some soldering. If you replace them or the board with the same type sooner or later caps are going to pop since Epox used some poor quality ones on those boards  :( You can find a lot of useful information here: http://www.badcaps.net/ and even more on their forum. For the Highpoint drivers try the ones from abit boards with the same embedded controller and see if they work: http://www.abit.com.tw/page/en/download/download_driver_detail.php?pFILE_TYPE=Driver&pMAIN_TYPE=Motherboard&pTITLE_ON_SCREEN=KT7-RAID&pSOCKET_TYPE=Socket%20A Cheers, G1nX

I'm barely an amateur when it comes to soldering.... I can be handy, but I think I will sell my 8k5a3+ board with 2800+ XP chip.....  I just didn't want to have to deal with the eventuality of capacitor replacement.  NitroX has a thread up looking for some for his 8k3a+.  

So I just wanted to get a board from a different company that's v6k compatable and is still in business in 2009.  Driver searching is tough sometimes.   ;)

I just won this auction:  http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270351923455

Tyan Tiger MPX S2466 w 2x MP 2600+ and 2GB ram   :)

@razrx it's a good bundle. Have you checked with the seller if it's the Tiger MPX S2466N-4M model as this is better having support for the MP2800+ barton core.
As for ram from what I have managed to compare test, better performance I had with 2x512Mb DDR400@266 CL2 Non-ECC Non-Reg that any other combination.
All and all a very stable board. Here's my rig with it:
http://img1.uploadhouse.com/fileuploads/3581/3581811-100x100-3df419405c3f5307d877f2c63b72df16.jpg
See the Tyan support archives for drivers and BIOS updates.
http://www.tyan.com/archive/support/html/cpu_athlon_duron_opteron.html

That's a V6K Safe mobo too razrx, congrats mate! Hutzeputz has the same exact mobo with his Rev.A 3700 though his card is PCI-Reworked , but even so this should not matter.

G1nX - Thanks! I thought it was a good deal too.  I've seen 2600s, 2800s go for lots of money.  I don't for see upgrading from the 2600s as the price is too much to warrant the change.  I have a 10/100/1000 NIC to put in the board so if it's only the S2466, it's fine with me.  I'm working on getting Highpoint RocketRAID 454 IDE card for the 4x 160GB drives.  One day I'll flip it to SATA.....   ;)

I have 4x 1GB Corsair XMS Platinum CL2 sticks, but I can only go to 2GB with unregistered ram.  Tough call.  I could go 4GB with registered.  Registered ram looks cheap.  What's the difference in speed, small or big?


Gold Leader - Thanks for the affirmation.  I thought I'd seen a few people with v6ks and Tyan Dual CPU boards.  I'm very interested in seeing this board up close.   :o

BTW, does Hutzeputz speak English?

Hutze english no not very well but SK1 can give you some very good advice since he has the Tyan Thunder K7X , the uATX variant of the Tiger model same chipset as that goes hehe.

I'll give SK1 a message via ICQ for you bud :)

That sounds good, thank you for the offer.  Also, G1nX has the S2466N-4M model.  I wouldn't mind learning about this board from another Tyan MPX owner.

@razrx the highpoint you are searching for is also a lower end product not benefiting from HW RAID technology see here the specs:
http://www.highpoint-tech.com/USA/rr454.htm
As an alternative you can keep an eye out for one of the 3ware cards from the 7 series.
http://www.3ware.com/products/parallel_ata.asp
Notice the RISC XOR chip and memory plus PCI-X connector.

As for the Tyan boards I have tested the S2469 K7X Thunder and the S2466N-4M. The first is slightly faster but lacking in layout design.
Also on these boards you can't use 1gb non-ecc non-reg modules to  reach the 2Gb limit you can only use 512mb modules. For the ECC REG modules you can use 1gb modules to reach 4Gb but you will have lower performance compared to the non-reg ones see here why:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Registered_memory
Best of luck setting up your new rig.

I once ran Hardware RAID on a PC with a v5 5500, but that is ages ago. This was the Promise SuperTrak SX6000 with 128MB of Siemens ECC SDR-SDRAM Cache plugged in. XOR unit was an Intel i960RM, the 100MHz version of Intels old XOR processor. And it was damn slow.

In my experience with RAID, Hardware RAID solutions are limited by two things: Inter-Processor bandwidth (not Bus bandwidth, I'm talking about the bandwidth between the chips on the controller) and the speed of the XOR processor in parity-based redundant RAID solutions, e.g. RAID-3/4/5/6 and derivatives of these modes.

Software RAID solutions (like the HPT37x or Promise FastTrak lines) are mainly only limited by bus bandwith and system processor speed (as well as driver/BIOS implementation efficiency). But if you wanna do SoftRAID, you may as well do Windows or Linux Software RAID (Dynamic Volumes in Win2000/XP/.. or mdx/mdadm in Linux) instead, because this is about the same speed with increased platform flexibility.

However, if you wanna think (and spend) big, you may look out for 3ware's top-end solutions (as mentioned). Those are not quite "blazing fast", but somewhat ok. Their XOR units are 3ware proprietary..

Other solutions for three-digit MB/s transfer rates would be controllers with Intels IOP33x XOR processor series, or if you wanna go for the stars, Intels IOP34x XOR series. Those can go as high as 1-2GB/s. Prices will also be stellar though. But a 3ware off eBay should be affordable.

btw., I'm currently running an ICP Vortex 5085BR SAS/SATA RAID using RAID-6 at work (with SATA disks), as well as a 3ware 9650SE-8LMPL SATA RAID-6 at home with 8 x 1TB Hitachi 7k1000 HDDs. The ICP is kinda slow, but not because of the IOP333 on it (should do >100MB/s in RAID-6), but because of the crappy Linux Kernel driver...

The 3ware i have in my workstation at home does something around 140MB/s reads and 40-60MB/s writes in RAID-6 (raw performance) and around 100MB/s reads and 30-40MB/s writes on compressed NTFS on both WinXP x86 and WinXP x64.

But for a RAID-0 or RAID0+1/1+0 solution i would really suggest pure Windows or Linux Software RAID, as this will be the cheapest solution with very acceptable performance!

Hi, razrx!

About the RAM: The maximum is 4 gigabytes of registerred ECC RAM. If unregisterred, you can maximally use 3 gigs. My system didn't start with any more than 2 gigs of unregisterred (had four of the same RAMs and had so sell two of them again) RAM. I use unregisterred, which also has the benefit of an effectively slightly reduced latency. I can't explain that, Hutzeputz once told me that registration increases latency. But with registerred RAM, the entire system may run more stable.
BTW: Your Corsair XMS Platinum is kinda 'too good' bacause it is 'too new'. You know that the chipset can only do 266 MHz RAM clock @ CL2.0? AFAIK there is no way of getting higher speeds. I could software-overvlock my system by only 2 MHz (!) before it crashed (5500 AGP instead of 6000 inside back than for test purposes). ::)

well since it's a workstation board it wasn't design for overclocking, these boards were designed for one purpose stabillity even whens tressed at the maximum load.

I used to have the ASUS A7M266-D with Dual AthlonMP 2200+ CPU's and 1x 1GB of TwinMoss PC-2100 ECC Reg, normally ECC Reg is a little slower , but it's moch more reliable and crash free.

So as from that part a crash free system is always faster than a system that keeps on crashing with much faster ram imho, because it would get the job done in a single go.

Overclocking with the A7M266-D wasn't a success either since it wasn't designed to OC, like most AM760 MPX weren't these are wworkstation as mid range server boards.

@G1nX - You've sold me on 3ware.  :)  I'm looking for a 3ware RAID card.  I would like to get a SATA card, but I have lots of IDE drives...  LOL

I asked the seller what the motherboard is and he said a S2466N-M4.  We'll see when it gets here as he seemed a little unsure.  

OK, so then I would need 4x 512MB PC2700/2100 Unregistered DDR @ Cas 2.

BTW, I should mention that the OS will be Windows XP Professional.


@Thrawn - Hmmmm... you've given me lots to think about.  I was thinking of doing either RAID-5 or RAID-10.  I could be happy with two SATA drives in a RAID 0 to start with, but I would like a card that can handle at least 4 drives for future expansion.  (I'm flip-flopping between SATA and IDE, eventhough I should only get SATA).  Yeah, I will have to look into the Intel RAID cards tomorrow.  I already have an Intel Gig NIC for the Tyan, so why not more Intel on an AMD board.  hahahahaha!

@SK1 - It's very good to hear from you.  I was hoping you would speak up too.  :)  Thumbs up to your avatar!

Ok, so I am slightly confused.
You mentioned 3GB maximum with unregistered DDR ram?  I thought it was only 2GB of unregistered ram that is the maximum.  Also, I thought that the board won't accept 1GB unregistered sticks.  


I'm really glad there is so many 3dfx collectors that use the dual MP Tyan boards.  It really helps a n00b like me.   [smiley=dankk2.gif] [smiley=thumbsup.gif]


As per the manual: http://tyan.com/archive/support/html/manuals.html
it says that the board supports 4GB Registered and 2GB Unregistered.
Also, if Unregistered 2x 1GB dimms can be used in slots 1 and 2.  
Cool!   8-)

The older 3wares should be quite cheap, for PATA this one may be an idea: [URL=http://cgi.ebay.com/3Ware-Escalade-8-Port-IDE-Raid-Controller-7506-8_W0QQitemZ350174454566QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item350174454566&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1234|66%3A2|65%3A12|39%3A1|240%3A1318|301%3A1|293%3A1|294%3A50]Link[/URL]

For SATA, you can even get a somewhat decent 3ware WITH battery backup unit (protects your hardware write cache from losing data during a power failure) for just a few bucks: [URL=http://cgi.ebay.com/3ware-9550SXU-4LP-SATA-RAID-Card-w-BBU_W0QQitemZ220375421979QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item220375421979&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1234|66%3A2|65%3A12|39%3A1|240%3A1318|301%3A1|293%3A1|294%3A50]Link[/URL]! Ok, it's three-digit range, but you'll get a BBU with it. ;) Interface may be problematic though, better check your PCI Slot Keying.

3ware configuration interface nowadays is web-based by the way, just so you know. They also have a Commandline Utility for scripted stuff, and SMART Access for SmartMonTools is possible.

For instance, on my machine, there is a daily Batch/PERL Script running, generating these RAID HTML status reports: [URL=http://www.xin.at/xin/raid6stats/raid6stats.html]Link[/URL]! So, with 3ware you can play around a lot. ;) Oh, btw., that "Battery Temperature High" warning comes from my SLI roasting the RAID controller, so you better not plug a 3ware with BBU in a slot directly above your 295/285 GTX or 4870 X2 card, can get a bit warm while playing games. ;)

@razrx
Related to RAM on the S2466N mine did not start with either 1x1Gb Non-ECC Non-Reg or 2x1Gb in any slot so might be just a case of memory incompatibility with the GSkill sticks I had. So could be that you can find ones that work in 2x1Gb Non-reg configuration. You can get higher clocked ram 333, 400 as the board will use them at 266 with lower timings.
The buffer on the reg modules is used to sync the data between the modules installed in the system. Usually usefull for more than two modules and going up to 12 or more on higher end servers to be stable under peak loads and running 24/7. But for this system you can use without impact on stability Non-reg modules as I suppose you won't be running it nonstop.
For the RAID controller the SATA2 option I think would be overkill as the system will not use it to it's full potential as far as read/write is concerned and BBU is nice but also too much for your needs.
Still I have a 3ware 8006-2LP SATA controller on my v5 rig due to ease of cabling and the fact that I had the drives to spare so in the end it's a matter of choice/need for one storage interface or another.

@Thrawn - Wow, I saw those battery backup RAID cards.  That's incredible!  It makes sense that they are there.

Everything is going web-interface it seems.  Printers, routers, TV tuners, etc...  I like it.  I can handle GUI or command line, so that's good to hear there's a choice.  I might have to get back to you on the scripts as I have never programmed before.  

There should be lots of room for ventilation.  The case is an Antec NineHundred with a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz, an Intel 1000MT NIC and a Voodoo5 AGP card.

@G1nX - I will test the board with my four XMS sticks.... hopefully some combination of two will work and I can sell the other two along with the 2GB of registered ram that is being shipped here.

I wanted to get a four port card but they are only Low Profile....  so I went for eight.


I won a 3ware 9500S-8 8 port SATA RAID PCI card today on ebay - http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=160319657735

Here's a link to the specs - http://3ware.com/products/serial_ata9000.asp

Yeah baby!  Now we're cookin' with gas!  :)

Good choice! I hope you have the right slot to plug that baby into! ;) The 9500 series is just one notch older than my 9650 (which is PCIe). You will get all the advanced software with it that you need, Webinterface, SMART Access, email notification when something bad happens while you're not there etc..  I would however advise to look for a cheap (but not dead) battery unit some day, so you can safely enable your write cache, which greatly boosts write speed, especially random writes.

If you are truly interested in scripting the controller driver-utils and the SMART stuff (Smart Monitoring with eMail Notify etc.) I may be able to help you. Note however, that it will be a steep learning curve. Prepare to read a lot about Batch Scripting in Windows and maybe even a little bit of PERL and of course a bit of 3wares own documentation. I'm not really a coder myself (i can't code shit!!), so it took me days to get simple things working, but if you are motivated enough, it can be done.  8-)

This will surely be some interesting machine!  8-)

Edit: Just saw, the 9500S is double-keyed PCI, so should nicely work in any given PCI slot! 3ware even says so:


Quote:

PCI 2.2 compliant 64-bit/66MHz bus master (Backwards compatible with 32-bit PCI)

Another nice thing is, the 9500S has discrete SATA connectors, no multilane cables (4in1), which are more expensive.. So you can just use normal SATA cables with your 9500S!

Thanks!  I think that card will do nicely.  Yeah, I saw all the features and it's gonna rawk!!!  I will look into the battery backup.  3ware.com wants 60US for one.  I'm sure it'll be less on ebay.

I will definitely hit you up for some scripts.  8-)

This is my first server board.  I've never had a 64 Bit PCI card or slot before.  I was planning on using the 2nd 64bit PCI slot for the 9500S, so the Voodoo5 (5500 or 6000 AGP) card can have lots of room for cooling.

Lastly, have you heard about Tyan's capacitors?  Do I need to worry about bad caps?

Congrats on the new acquisitions razrx.
The controller and the higher bandwidth slot will make a difference on you disk performance. Also you can check a V5 PCI in PCI66 and PCI33 slots you will have quite a difference in performance.
The Tyan boards and server boards in general are more expensive and use higher quality caps. I have 4 Tyan boards myself and not had issues with either one in this regard. But a bad power supply  could cause them to leak or cause other issues with the board so best be sure to check them and use a quality PSU.

Thanks for the good advice.

Ok, here's the complete specs as all the parts are in.

Tyan Tiger MPX 2466 (BIOS v4.06  ? I think the last user flashed this board with the wrong BIOS.....  he used the 2466N-4M bios)
2x Athlon MP 2600+ w Spire heatsink & fans
*RAM
3dfx Voodoo5 5500 AGP
3ware Escalade 9500S-8 RAID PCI 64bit
Turtle Beach Santa Cruz soundcard
Intel PRO 1000 MT Desktop adapter
4x Western Digital 37GB Raptors (111GB in RAID 5)
LG DVD+- DL Burner
Antec 550W Trio modular PSU

*the ram was a bit of an issue.  I tried individiually, all four of my Corsair XMS 1GB Platinum CL2 DDR ram, but no POST.  So I tested all the hardware that came with the motherboard and came to the conclusion the mobo is defective.  Until 20 mins ago when I put in some registered ram that came with the bundle.  Voila!  It's working!!!!!  

NOTE: The Corsair XMS sticks are working fine in my EPoX 8k5a3+ board.

So now I'm wondering why I get no POST with unregistered ram.  As per the manual, I should be able to use unregistered ram upto 1GB in either slot 1 and/or slot 2 only.   I tried slot 2 and no luck there either....  I hope you and some other Tyan MPX owners can provide me some insight why I can't POST.

Also, now I've discovered a new issue.  I was able to get into the BIOS once or twice, but I changed the setting to the PS/2 mouse setting (which also means PS/2 keyboard to Auto) + USB Legacy Enabled, however since rebooting, I am not able to get into my BIOS.

USB is not recognized through KVM or straight connect.  My PS/2 keyboard does allow me to press F2 - Setup or Space - skips quick memory test

However, if I press F2 to get to the Bios Setup, the message at the bottom left corner stating Entering Setup.....  appears, but I never end up going to the BIOS.  the POST finishes and then goes to my 3ware card to initialize.  I tried a reboot without the 3ware card, but when the mobo post finishes it just sits there waiting for a bootable drive.

I've tried changing the CMOS jumper to 2-3 then back to 1-2.  I've pulled the battery for >10 seconds.  Still no change.  How else can I get into the BIOS?

Update:  I bought a new bios chip off ebay for less than 20 Canadian shipped.. :)  http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&item=380105634094

Hi razrx,
Regarding the RAM i had the same problem with the 1gb Non-ECC non-Reg sticks in any combination it would not post. Also my sticks worked on other mainboards. In contrast to that the 512mb Non-Ecc Non-Reg were no problem. But like i said before with more that two stick memory performance drops. On this board you won't see much difference in performance using non-ECC non-reg instead of ECC Reg because of the lack in timing optimizations and other tuning features in the bios.
On the BIOS side you do have a problem if you said it's flashed with the wrong version. Your board 2466 has 2mb chip whilst the 2466-4m has 4mb. Good it's not soldered to the pcb. Let us know if you resolved the issue with the new bios chip.
Best of luck,
G1nX