ASUS K8N4-E Deluxe with SIL 3114 unlock bigger harddrives

[Sandfish]

Hello all together,

I'm new here and hope to get help.

(I'm not sure because this isn't unlocking but replacing)

I use the ASUS K8N4-E Deluxe Mobo (as above written).
The problem is, that the onboard SIL (Silicone Image) 3114 SATA-RAID-Controller just supports
hdds up to 500GB in a RAID. I want to use four WD10EADS 1TB disks in a RAID-5. That is possible with the newest firmware of 3114 controller.
(The "5403"-file in the rar-file is correct, the rest isn't for onboard)

It is no problem to use the disks in JBOD-mode (whether the 1 TB disks aren't supported) but if you build an RAID-5 the computer doesn't start.
If the SIl 3114 would be a expansion card you could flash it inside Windows
but the onboard solution doesn't have the "flash" register in it's software.

So I read an thread in the ASUS forum that someone already build a new BIOS for the K8N-E Deluxe where he included the new 3114 BIOS inside the
new system BIOS so that you can get the new 3114 BIOS by flashing Mobo BIOS. But the K8N-E Deluxe has in contrast to the K8N4-E Deluxe
an nforce 3 chip and Award BIOS. The K8N4-E Deluxe has an AMI BIOS and nforce 4 chipset.

So I need someone that can flash the actual stable release (K8N4-E DELUXE Release BIOS 1010) of my Mobo BIOS and include the new 3114 BIOS for my (or someone that can help me by doing this). Sadfully I don't have any flashing experience and I fear to destroy my board because of making a mistake.

So please help me

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[1234s282]

Il look into it for you , but first i must point something out :-

Quote:Sadfully I don't have any flashing experience and I fear to destroy my board because of making a mistake

It might not be due to a mistake , bios flashing is a generally risky process and things may go wrong , but we will happily provide you with recovery instructions

Regards
Admin

[1234s282]

Right im back ,

Firstly , according to the bioses available from asus support and with the tools i can open the bios with , this is an Award bios , not ami like you posted.

I downloaded the latest image for the controller that you gave me using the link (5.4.0.3) and the latest bios from Asus (1011.003 Beta)

I then had a look at the bios image and got this information shown below



Seeing as the updated Controller firmware has the filename 5403.bin , common sense would assume that the 5139.bin you can see as part of the bios in this picture is the old version of the controller (that doesnt support the bigger hard drives)

With me so far? , Lets carry on

I then removed the 5139.bin (Old Controller firmware) from the bios to get this:-



And then added 5403.bin (New Controller firmware) in the same place as the old 5139.bin file.



Note that when i say the same place i mean the location of the file in the bios , it doesnt matter that its in a different place in the list.

Please flash the bios and let us know how you get on.

http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/747181/1011-0...upport.BIN

Regards

Admin

[Sandfish]

Hello,

thank you for your quick answer, I was at work so that I couldn't write back.

I downloaded your Image file, copied it together with the awdflash.exe (V.1.16)
on a floppy and tried to update. (I had to rename the file name to asus.bin because awdflash doesn't have enough space to enter the name)

When I try to update, the floppy drive works and a few seconds later it says:

"Can't update the Image file
BIOS Image File CheckSum Error
"Check to see if FDD and HDD error occured"

I retried it with V.1.14 awdflash and with other floppys - Same problem.

What can I do now?

btw. With which tool did you hack the image?


edit: I tried to update the BIOS from Windows XP with ASUS Live Update. It said "update successful" or sth. like that, rebooted but gave an error message "BIOS Image File CheckSum Error" and wants a cd or floppy to fix that.


edit 2: So while it's deep night "down under" (you live there, don't you?)
I tried everything possible till you can answer. At first I replaced your BIOS with the original ASUS 1010 BIOS so that the board could boot again. And after hours of searching "ASUS BIOS Component Plugins" I found this
guide and I downloaded cbrom 1.82.
Then I patched the stable 1010 BIOS Version (not the beta) of K8N4-E Deluxe with the 5403 BIOS from SIL 3114, flashed with ASUS Live Update Tool and what can I say..... It works!!! Harddisks with mor than 2TB are supported now.
A RAID-5 @ 4x1TB runs fine.

Maybe someone has the same problem like me:

Here is my Asus K8N4-E Deluxe stable BIOS 1010 with 5403 Silicone Firmware included.


Anyway big thank you for your nice help.

[1234s282]

Well Done!

Its probably just a problem with the beta bios

Regards
Admin

[strange]

I have same problem with ASUS p5ad2-e premium ! (sii 3114 onboard)
And there is really AMI bios, so 'cbrom' cant help me.

Does anybody know the solution ?

[1234s282]

Strange , please make a separate thread and provide us with a bios link!

Not following forum rules results in your request being ignored

Regards
Admin