Help! Need to update GA-8KNXP Ultra 64 BIOS
Posted: Wed Jan 07, 2009 7:31 am
Hi, first time posting and looking for some help. I'm a virtual newbie but have been trying to learn how to update my BIOS to support SATA Raid 5. The issues's I have are that the current version F7 Gigabyte BIOS flash doesn't recognize my SATA Raid configuration using the 4 SATA Raid ports. I'm using 1 TB Seagate Barracuda drives on each of the SATA Raid ports. With the F7 BIOS as supplied by Gigabyte, the MB doesn't "see" the drives. During post it hangs at the point where it hardware identifies the first 1TB drive. I need to disconnect all the SATA Raid drives to get past that point. All is set up correctly in the current BIOS so no problems there. The computer works perfectly otherwise once it boots without the SATA Raid disks in the loop. I'm currently running XP Pro SP3 with all drivers current.
What I've figured out so far is this. If I use cbrom215 to install the version 5.0.73 of the Legacy BIOS from Silicon Image for the SiI3114 chip that's used for SATA Raid into the Award v6.00pg BIOS that's on the MB, I can boot through fully and set up the Raid configuration by doing the F4 setup routine. I can install the legacy drivers all the way up to 1.0.21.0 and everything is fine. However, and this is where the problem is, I want to use the newest BIOS and driver for the Silicon Image SiI3114 which supports the Raid level 5 incarnation. Now this is a software only Raid level according to Silicon Image and I confirmed with them that there is no hardware limitation why this can't be implemented on the GA-8KNXP Ultra 64 MB. It just needs to be supported in the write of the Gigabyte portion of the BIOS in the modular v6.00pg chip. Speaking with Gigabyte seems to yield very little results. Its like they don't care to write a version F8 to support the new BIOS codes that are available now from Silicon Image as well as probably Adaptec and others that are also on this board. Of course that is just speculation on my part but I feel its pretty accurate.
So I used cbrom215 to release the old PCI [C] location of the SiI3114 Legacy BIOS and installed the SiI3114r5 version 5403 of the Raid level 5 supported BIOS into the Award v6.00pg BIOS chip and tried that. It works great! I can F4 into the Raid setup screen, configure a Raid 5 on the 4 hdd and all looks sweet. It boots up to the OS fine as well. However, going into Device Manager shows a yellow exclamation point. Now no matter how hard I try to get the OS to take the new version 1.5.15.0 driver supplied by Silicon Image, it just won't go! It just keeps looking for the old legacy driver 1.0.0.1 up to the current legacy driver of 1.0.21.0! So the only way it knows that this is what it wants is from information it is getting out of the F7 version of the Gigabyte BIOS, or at least that's what I'm being led to believe.
Can anybody suggest a way of going into the Gigabyte part of the BIOS and changing it to not want to go looking for the SiI3114 driver, but instead the newer SiI3114r5 driver? I've tried using Hex Workshop and Neo to view it but I guess it's compiled and not readable. So I tried decompiling it but no luck there either as I don't know what language was used to build it and the decompiler I was trying just kept crashing on me.
Silicon Image told me a little info in that besides the SiI3114 to SiI3114r5 changes that need to be done, the manufactures ID needs to be modified from 6114 to 7114 as well where it appears. I've found some of these components as well as a vendor number of 1095. Of course I'm assuming that if any changes can be made, a new checksum will also need to be created. I don't know how to do that part either just yet but hope to learn it.
Sorry for the long post but I thought I'd give you as much info as possible to define the problem. I hope it's not too confusing! I probably left out things that needed to be here, but if there is something I missed that someone might need, please ask and I'll do my best to see if I can give you what you ask.
Any an all help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thank You
What I've figured out so far is this. If I use cbrom215 to install the version 5.0.73 of the Legacy BIOS from Silicon Image for the SiI3114 chip that's used for SATA Raid into the Award v6.00pg BIOS that's on the MB, I can boot through fully and set up the Raid configuration by doing the F4 setup routine. I can install the legacy drivers all the way up to 1.0.21.0 and everything is fine. However, and this is where the problem is, I want to use the newest BIOS and driver for the Silicon Image SiI3114 which supports the Raid level 5 incarnation. Now this is a software only Raid level according to Silicon Image and I confirmed with them that there is no hardware limitation why this can't be implemented on the GA-8KNXP Ultra 64 MB. It just needs to be supported in the write of the Gigabyte portion of the BIOS in the modular v6.00pg chip. Speaking with Gigabyte seems to yield very little results. Its like they don't care to write a version F8 to support the new BIOS codes that are available now from Silicon Image as well as probably Adaptec and others that are also on this board. Of course that is just speculation on my part but I feel its pretty accurate.
So I used cbrom215 to release the old PCI [C] location of the SiI3114 Legacy BIOS and installed the SiI3114r5 version 5403 of the Raid level 5 supported BIOS into the Award v6.00pg BIOS chip and tried that. It works great! I can F4 into the Raid setup screen, configure a Raid 5 on the 4 hdd and all looks sweet. It boots up to the OS fine as well. However, going into Device Manager shows a yellow exclamation point. Now no matter how hard I try to get the OS to take the new version 1.5.15.0 driver supplied by Silicon Image, it just won't go! It just keeps looking for the old legacy driver 1.0.0.1 up to the current legacy driver of 1.0.21.0! So the only way it knows that this is what it wants is from information it is getting out of the F7 version of the Gigabyte BIOS, or at least that's what I'm being led to believe.
Can anybody suggest a way of going into the Gigabyte part of the BIOS and changing it to not want to go looking for the SiI3114 driver, but instead the newer SiI3114r5 driver? I've tried using Hex Workshop and Neo to view it but I guess it's compiled and not readable. So I tried decompiling it but no luck there either as I don't know what language was used to build it and the decompiler I was trying just kept crashing on me.
Silicon Image told me a little info in that besides the SiI3114 to SiI3114r5 changes that need to be done, the manufactures ID needs to be modified from 6114 to 7114 as well where it appears. I've found some of these components as well as a vendor number of 1095. Of course I'm assuming that if any changes can be made, a new checksum will also need to be created. I don't know how to do that part either just yet but hope to learn it.
Sorry for the long post but I thought I'd give you as much info as possible to define the problem. I hope it's not too confusing! I probably left out things that needed to be here, but if there is something I missed that someone might need, please ask and I'll do my best to see if I can give you what you ask.
Any an all help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thank You