This is a strange problem. I'll start with the specs:
ABIT KT7-RAID
BIOS: UL (with HPT370 v1.0.3 embedded)
Duron 650 @ 1.65v
128MB Infineon PC133
2x Western Digital WD205BA (20.5GB, ATA66, 7200rpm)
Creative 4x2x24 CDRW
EPO 10x DVD
WinFast GeForce2 MX
SB Live! Value
Samsung SC1200-TX 10/100 NIC
(All BIOS adjustments to most conservative settings.)
I start with a clean system, setting up RAID 0 (16K block size) with the two Western Digital drives. I go through the disk setup for Win2k, being sure to press F6 to install the HighPoint drivers (making sure they're v1.0.3 to match the BIOS) and set up one 6GB partition (boot) and one 34GB (storage), both NTFS. The install completes normally and I set up my DSL and grab SP1 and the VIA 4-in-1. Everything seems peachy as I set up all other drivers, rebooting often in between.
The problem comes when I actually power off the machine. Invariably, when I try to start it the next time some system files come up corrupted, usually resulting in a blue screen STOP error during Win2k boot. Everything is great until then. I can warm boot (via Start Menu) as much as I want, but as soon as I shut down completely, the install's toast.
My guess is that it has something to do with the cache not flushing completely/correctly from the HPT370 or the hard drives themselves. The shutdown procedure seems awful quick, and I'm wondering if perhaps windows thinks all disk activity is done before it actually is, pulling power from the drives in mid-write.
I've heard of problems with Win2K and ACPI on the KT7 and have used modbin6.exe to allow control of ACPI in my BIOS (this was done AFTER experiencing the above problem many times), but I have yet to disable it. Could this be ACPI related? What would I lose by not using ACPI? If I do disable it, should I enable APM instead, or leave them both off? I was of the understanding that they are redundant (ACPI being a more advanced version of APM?).
On last, possibly unrelated question. Should "Plug and Play OS" in the BIOS be enabled or disabled on a Win2K system? I know that for NT it should be off, but I'm unclear about its applicability to 2K.
Thanks in advance for any help you can offer!
ABIT KT7-RAID
BIOS: UL (with HPT370 v1.0.3 embedded)
Duron 650 @ 1.65v
128MB Infineon PC133
2x Western Digital WD205BA (20.5GB, ATA66, 7200rpm)
Creative 4x2x24 CDRW
EPO 10x DVD
WinFast GeForce2 MX
SB Live! Value
Samsung SC1200-TX 10/100 NIC
(All BIOS adjustments to most conservative settings.)
I start with a clean system, setting up RAID 0 (16K block size) with the two Western Digital drives. I go through the disk setup for Win2k, being sure to press F6 to install the HighPoint drivers (making sure they're v1.0.3 to match the BIOS) and set up one 6GB partition (boot) and one 34GB (storage), both NTFS. The install completes normally and I set up my DSL and grab SP1 and the VIA 4-in-1. Everything seems peachy as I set up all other drivers, rebooting often in between.
The problem comes when I actually power off the machine. Invariably, when I try to start it the next time some system files come up corrupted, usually resulting in a blue screen STOP error during Win2k boot. Everything is great until then. I can warm boot (via Start Menu) as much as I want, but as soon as I shut down completely, the install's toast.
My guess is that it has something to do with the cache not flushing completely/correctly from the HPT370 or the hard drives themselves. The shutdown procedure seems awful quick, and I'm wondering if perhaps windows thinks all disk activity is done before it actually is, pulling power from the drives in mid-write.
I've heard of problems with Win2K and ACPI on the KT7 and have used modbin6.exe to allow control of ACPI in my BIOS (this was done AFTER experiencing the above problem many times), but I have yet to disable it. Could this be ACPI related? What would I lose by not using ACPI? If I do disable it, should I enable APM instead, or leave them both off? I was of the understanding that they are redundant (ACPI being a more advanced version of APM?).
On last, possibly unrelated question. Should "Plug and Play OS" in the BIOS be enabled or disabled on a Win2K system? I know that for NT it should be off, but I'm unclear about its applicability to 2K.
Thanks in advance for any help you can offer!