Asus P4S800-MX SE (VT6421 mod)

[John10]

Hello all,
This is my first post here, so congrats, a real informative website. So anyway I will outline my request and maybe you could help to find a solution as I am stumped at this point. Sorry in advance if my post is to long.

Motherboard - Asus P4S800-MX SE

So I have a VIA sata card (VT6421 controller) that I would like to utilise for the extra sata inputs. But to be able to do this, I need the card to be recognised by the "PC BIOS". So I replaced one of the "PC BIOS" modules with the "VIA BIOS rom". This works, but not in the way I would prefer.

I am utilizing the native motherboard SIS raid controller to run raid0 through the two sata inputs on the motherboard which I would prefer to keep. As it will be much faster than the southbridge bottle neck, if raid was used on the VIA sata card.

Now when I also add the VIA sata card and modded PC BIOS, my native SIS RAID Setup disappears eg: raid0 disk is no longer seen by the PC BIOS and the SIS RAID Setup screen no longer appears. Although the VIA RAID Setup screen seems to run in the place of the SIS one and work as expected.

So I tend to think that once the VIA RAID Setup is installed (modded PC BIOS), access to the SIS RAID Setup is no longer available, even if still selected in BIOS. How is it that the SIS RAID Setup section of code is no longer executable? It needs to run after the VIA code and then hand control to the hard drive (RAID0). Is it that the VIA RAID Setup section of code hands control to the hard drive as default, so that the other SIS code will never be executable? Could this be solved easily?

Thanks John10

[TheWiz]

Thanks for the compliments John, welcome to the forums.

In regards to your issue I would appreciate a copy of the modified bios you created. Also, did you replace the SIS option ROM with the VIA or are both inserted?

Thanks,
TheWiz

[John10]

Thanks for the compliments John, welcome to the forums.

In regards to your issue I would appreciate a copy of the modified bios you created. Also, did you replace the SIS option ROM with the VIA or are both inserted?

Thanks,
TheWiz

I have attached the bios you requested, also I have originals if needed. With regard to option ROM replacement, I tried two approaches that worked.

The first mod, I deleted the 3rd PCI Option ROM listed by the app 'MMTool'. Then proceeded to insert the VIA bios. (working, but no sis raid)

The second mod, I tried deleting the OEM Logo. Then proceeded to insert the VIA bios. (working also, but no sis raid)

As you can see I do not have enough bios modding knowledge yet to answer your last question adequately. Still lots for me to learn, I hope this helps though.

John

[John10]

These are the original bios as well. In case they are required.
Thanks John.

[TheWiz]

Wow I am still thinking this one out, butmy guess is that the header address is only forwarding to one of the option ROMs. Still in progress.

TheWiz