Adaptec 3805 RAID Controller and ASUS P5Q-E Motherboard

 

Here is what works:

 

• QX6700 2.66 GHz extreme overclocked to 2.93 via 11 Muliplier in BIOS
• ASUS P5Q-E BIOS 1406
• OCZ OCZ2VU80016GQ 16GB RAM
• Adaptec 3805 Firmware version 15753 (you’ll need this version of the driver as well)
• WESTERN DIGITAL WD10EACS 1TB SATA 7200 RPM 16MB Hard Drive (8 of them)
• Windows 2008 server (also Windows 2003 server)

now make sure you have these versions of the firmware (especially the Adaptec firmware/driver). This caused me many nights of troubleshooting to get the Adaptec RAID controller to work. The symptom was the following messages printed on the screen after the controller completed loading:

• No Int 13 drives to support
• BIOS not installed!
• Not enough space to copy PCI option ROM

The final symptom/problem is that even though I was typing CTRL-A to get into the configuration manager for the controller. The configuration manager would never load.

At various times with various motherboards, I had one or more of the above error messages from the Adaptec controller. In each case, soon after these error messages, the computer would continuously beep.

After many night of trying many different BIOS settings, moving the card to different slots, buying another 3805 thinking that the first one was bad…the problem was the firmware for the 3805 that came with it from the factory would not work on my new motherboard P5Q-E (it wouldn’t work on my previous motherboard either P5K-E). This was very confusing to me since my old computer with the same P5K-E motherboard had a 3805 in it and is working just fine — no BIOS setting changes required.

Finally, I noticed that my old computer’s 3805 had an old version of the Adaptec firmware on it and the new ones had a more recent but not latest firmware version on it. I doubted this could be the problem, aren’t all new firmware versions better than older versions? Perhaps the software developer in me was forcing this assumption on me…

Now the problem was actually upgrading the firmware on the controller. I had to install a floppy drive in this system. The firmware is too big to fit on one floppy. Nicely, Adaptec had broken it into two firmware files and afu.exe. I put afu.exe and the first smaller file on the first floppy and then the second BIG firmware file on the second (it barely fit). Finally, I booted an old windows 98 floppy, put in the floppy containing afu and ran it. Eventually it ask me for the second file. Finally, it upgraded the firmware on the adaptec RAID controller.

Holding my breath, I anxiously rebooted the computer, waited for the Adaptec messages to show on my screen, and hit CTRL-A to enter the array configuration manager.

VOILA! Life is good! Thank you Jesus!

You MUST use the corresponding Adaptec driver version instead of the drivers that will be installed automatically by Windows 2008 (or 2003) in order for everything to work properly. The only way to do this is to install the driver manually:

Device Manager/SCSI and RAID Controllers/Adaptec RAID 3805/Update driver
1) no, don’t search for software
2) install from a list or specific location
3) don’t search, I will choose the driver to install
4) have disk
5) select AMD64 subdirectory to get X64 drivers

Take-aways:

1. if it don’t work, check your BIOS version and Firmware versions
2. if it does work, don’t change your BIOS version or your Firmware versions, you could end up with an incompatible version (uh, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!)

if this helps you, paypal me $1 cause I have an extra 3805 now that I have to pay for and they ain’t cheap!