sata_promise module won't load

[jmoney12rr]

Hey guys, i just built a whitebox ESXi system. I purchased a Promise SATA300 TX4 controller because I have heard nothing but good things when it comes to white boxing with this. However, when I try to boot off a CD, it crashes and I get a PSOD right after it starts trying to load the sata_promise module. I have tried installing with different updates and no luck so far, any ideas? Here are my specs..

AMD Athlon 64 x2 5000+

MSI KA780G mobo

500 GB seagate HD

Promise SATA300 TX4

ASUS DVD-ROM

[nick_couchman]

Is this supposed to be a "RAID" controller, or just a simple SATA controller (JBOD)?

[jmoney12rr]

Just a simple SATA controller..do I need to do some editing of the oem.tgz file or anything like that? If i try to load ESXi with onboard SATA, it gets through everything but the install just won't find my hard drives..which tells me that this is strictly related to just the SATA controller.

[nick_couchman]

What chipset is the onboard SATA controller? Also, you might try making sure that this controller is completely disabled when using the Promise one before loading ESXi. Could be some sort of conflict there...

[jmoney12rr]

I have disabled the onboard with no luck. I think its a SB700 chipset..i cant remember exactly off the top of my head.. I have also tried booting off CD, and a USB key to no avail..

[jmoney12rr]

Well for future reference to everyone who reads this post...I managed to resolve this issue. Apparently ESXi didnt mind my gaming PCs onboard SATA controller, so I hooked my servers HD up to it, installed ESXi and threw it back into the server and it boots no problem.

[bigcisa]

What NIC did you use? Esxi does not work with internal in my KA780G adapter of Realtek Semiconductor...

[nick_couchman]

Which Realtek chipset?

[bigcisa]

yes