Strange Intel 865 BIOS update issues

[casey]

Drives disappear after BIOS update:
Hello everybody, Today I have some strange issues that I need your help on.
3 weeks ago,
build a 865gbf for my wife’s company, with the following config:
SATA 0 Maxtor 80 gig (for O/S)
Primary Master WDD 20 gig (for Ghost images)
Secondary Master LG8161 DVD Rom
Secondary Slave LG8525b CDRW
Radeon 7000
Sound, onboard
Dynalink ISDN
Lucent Winmodem
Installed Win XP & all software system runs perfect. (as always)
Board came with BIOS P05, so I though, lets upgrade it so that everything is the latest.
Flashed to P13, (DOS Flash) all goes well, then just by chance I look in the BIOS and see that the WDD Drive has disappeared from the primary master channel. Windows XP still sees the drive when the O/S loads though.
But, because the BIOS does not see it, I cannot Ghost.
I then decide to reflash, and use BIOS P11, the drive re-appears and all is ok. Thinking that maybe P13 is a bad BIOS like P09 was on the Perll/k I don’t give it any further though, deliver the system, and to this day everything runs fine and they are very impressed.
Now yesterday evening this happens at home:
I have 3 Perll/k systems at home (game system, general usage & video editing)
Video editing PC: (8 months of perfect running)
BIOS P08
RAID 0 2x Maxtor 80 gig (for O/S and Video files)
Primary Master WDD 120 gig (for Ghost images & Video files)
Primary Slave Toshiba 1612 DVD Rom
Secondary Master LG8525b CDRW
Secondary Slave LG4040B DVD Writer
Leadtek Winfast 280letdh VIVO card
Leadtek Winfast 2000 XP Delux TV card
Audigy 2 ZS
Lucent Winmodem
So I decide to update the BIOS, nothing wrong with P08, but P14 is running so well on the gaming system, why not upgrade ?
So I flash to P14 (DOS) PC restarts and halt’s on the RAID screen, after 2 minutes the RAID BIOS comes up and shows that the RAID 0 array is incomplete and the one Maxtor is missing. After a helluva struggle I get back into the BIOS and notice the following:
Only one Maxtor is detected by the BIOS, SATA0
My Primary & Secondary master drives have disappeared.
I have flashed a couple of systems to P14 in the past, and have never had any problems, so I think, maybe something went wrong with the flash floppy creation, so I make another one with BIOS P15. I break up the RAID 0, reset it to non RAID and REFLASH.
(there goes my O/S and all programs ! but I have my Ghost images on the 120gig WDD & also on DVD)
BACK INTO THE BIOS, (now P15) SAME PROBLEM !!! Primary IDE, no drives detected and only 1x SATA gets detected.!!!! Shi……happens, so I decide to stay calm and to reflash back to the original BIOS P08.
Flash goes well (Dos) go back into the BIOS (now P08) and all the drives are back !!!!
Recreate the RAID 0 array, ghost my image back, PC restarts, back into Windows and I do three hours of Video editing as if nothing ever happened.
What the hell was that all about ?
Any suggestions ?
Why did this happen ?
Is there maybe a known problem with BIOS updates and RAID arrays ?
Is there another method that I don’t know about.?
My other Perll (general usage) has a similar setup as the Video edit PC but with 2x Raptors in RAID 0, Seagate as Primary Master and I have successfully flashed from P05 to P08 without any problems.)
I was thinking (never ever read anything about this, just a thought) to break up the RAID 0, reset the BIOS to non RAID, disconnecting the SATA ports and to reflash the system.
Or should I try the Windows flash utility and see what happens ?

[glc]

Interesting. Do you recall my thread last year on the PERLL that ate the Radeon 9700 Pros? After giving up and putting a Ti4600 in it, it ran fine for a year. It ate a ram stick a couple weeks ago. Replaced it, and decided to dig around a bit. Found it had P09. DOS flashed it to P14, no problems, but it's not using RAID, just a single Raptor. The DVD and burner are on primary and secondary standalone, they are still seen.

[casey]

Thanks for responding. I recall that thread. Glad to report that my Gaming system 865perlk with Radeon 9800Pro works ok (9 weeks) and a mate's 865perll with 9600XT also works fine.
BUT this BIOS thing has me baffled.