Help! No primary IDE channel on Asus S96F?!

I've just bought 2 Asus S96F bare-bones and loaded: QSI combo drive, Core Duo 2G, 1G 667 MHz Mushkin, Hitachi 7200K and Intel ABG wireless.

When I boot, the BIOS only auto-searches for IDE channel 2!? In fact, the HDD appears on channel 2, conflicting with the optical.

I've flashed to BIOS V5.01 (from the Intel site). The notebooks originally came with V5.02.

Has anyone had this problem?
Thanks

 

I haven't had this trouble or done anything with actually building a laptop (plenty of desktops, though), but the first thing that come to mind is what do you have set for your jumper? If the computer is like the V6j, there is just a split IDE channel, at which point I believe you would need to set the HDD to master and the CD Drive (if possible) to slave or cable select. Every Laptop CD drive I have seen doesn't have jumpers, but the HDD should. Good luck, I could be completely off base, but that is my only thought.

 

Thanks CalebSchmerge,
I don't see any way to set slave/master on the optical or anywhere on the motherboard or in the BIOS.

If I attach just HDD, without the optical the BIOS "sees" it as on the secondary channel. This config does boot.

If I attach HDD as slave, BIOS shows optical as secondary master and HDD as secondary slave, but won't boot saying "No primary IDE HDD". I get the same result if the HDD is cable select.

 

Now that I look at my 7200 drive, I remember that there isn't a specific master, unless that is the no jumper option, which I would have assumed you would have tried right away. You got me stuck on this one. Good Luck.

 

TB, Try setting all BIOS screens involved (Boot, HDD config) to default. I had similar problem on Z71*. Nothing seemed to change on the BIOS screens, but it worked afterwards. If not call Asus 88x- - option 3, talk w/ Albert.
All I had done to cause was changed HDD from SATA to PATA. Now I can switch back & forth OK
btw, All my DT jumpers are too big to fit on NB HDD, but they work if shaved down. Should not have to use jumpers though.

 

Thanks d8d,
One of the strangest things about this is there are no BIOS options. Nothing for PATA/SATA, nothing for drive modes, not even a space where the primary IDE auto-search should be.

I'm beginning to think the notebook (again, a S96F) was shipped with a Z96F BIOS installed. The Z96F supports SATA drives... maybe since my S96F doesn't even have an SATA controller, that is why the BIOS reports only secondary IDE?! I've just rechecked the Intel site and the BIOS they list and download for S96F has a Z96F rom inside the zip file!!!!

Can I seriously be the first guy to build up an S96F? Or just the unluckiest? (maybe even the dumbest)

 

Hey d8d,
What is that 88x- notebook support number you reference? I couldn't find it on the ASUS site?
Thanks