BTX loader issues on AMD-64 machine...

[Olaf Greve]

Hi guys,

To some of you, this message may bring about somewhat of a deja-vu 
feeling...

The following is the case: I'm building a staging DB for some clients of 
mine (initially on my own FBSD-5.3 i386 test machine), and they 
delivered a staging machine, which has an AMD-64 Asus MoBo (with 739 
socket, I think) with an Nvidia internal RAID controller, and perhaps 
also the dreaded Silicon 3115 internal RAID controller (so far that is 
the 'deja-vu' part).

Now, I want to simply install FBSD 5.4 or 6.0 on that machine without 
bothering with the RAID drives (i.e. I simply want the machine to ignore 
the internal RAID controllers and set up FBSD on a single drive if need be).

However... When trying to boot from the FBSD 5.4 and 6.0 install 
CD-ROMS, right after the boot menu I directly get a BTX loader error 
which dumps the machine's register's contents to the screen regardless 
of the boot mode I chose?!?

This is something entirely new to me, and I wonder what causes it (on 
various similar machines I've never experienced this issue with FBSD 5.x 
AMD-64).

It should be noted that the machine previously had W*nd*ws 2003 Server 
installed on it, and booting that results in a very nasty 'graphical' 
BSOD with some stuff about a 'stop error, yadih yadih yadah...'.
Also, the Nvidia RAID controller complained about the RAID array being 
damaged.

Now, I did enter the Nvidia RAID BIOS to try and disable RAID altogether 
and it wouldn't allow me to do so (nor was the MoBo's BIOS kind enough 
to grant me such an option) <SIGH>. :(
Rebuilding it eliminated the complaints from the controller, but not the 
W*n BSOD, nor the BTX loader issues.

Does anyone know if these BTX loader issues sound like something that 
might be caused by a defective HD (note: it already occurs right after 
selecting a boot mode from the install CD-ROM (at a point in time that I 
  think it shouldn't have even accessed the HD?!?))?

Tnx in advance, and cheers,
Olafo