[TAG] Obscure LILO problem, 1-5 minute LILO delay uponbootup.

[John Karns]

On Thu, 24 Feb 2005, mso at oz.net wrote:

> It may be the same problem that causes the BIOS to take several seconds to
> detect some drives.  If so I don't know if there's anything you can do
> about it.
>
> Another possibility is the BIOS doesn't work properly with such large
> drives.    I had that problem going from a 6 GB drive to 40 GB.  The
> computer was only a few years old but it wouldn't take the drive at all.
> The shop tech found a Knowledge Base page on the Western Digital site that
> showed how to jumper the drive so it would report a lower size than it
> was.  That made it pass the BIOS, and Linux seemed to recognize the real
> size.  But the HD drive light stayed on continuously, and that unnerved me
> since it was going to be my main drive.  So it gave me another reason to
> replace the computer, which I was thinking about doing anyway.

Good point.  I don't know why it didn't occur to me until now, but have 
you (the querent, obviously) looked for mobo BIOS flash updates?  You also 
didn't mention if the controller is embedded in the mobo or a separate pci 
card, so I presumed the former.  If the latter, then there may be a bios 
update available from Promise, too.

-- 
John Karns