MSI K7T266 Pro2-RU motherboard and BIOS problems?

[Mikademus]

It striked like a lightning from a blue screen..

I formerly haven't had this kind of problems with this computer, but yesterday my WinXP showed a blue screen and when I rebooted, onboard IDE RAID controller gave an error message something like that HDDs are out of sync, after that I pressed PC's reset button and I tried to get an access to a BIOS settings by pressing "DEL" during bootup phase, but it didn't go to a BIOS settings at all (I tried reset + "DEL" several times..) and after that PC stalled in RAID checking process. I will try to clear the CMOS today, but if it doesn't help, do any of you know other possible "tricks" which may help, or do I just have to get rid off this motherboard and buy a new one?

Specs:
MSI K7T266 Pro2-RU Motherboard
Athlon XP1600+
2 * 256 MB DDR RAM
2 * 40 GB IBM HD (RAID)
3COM 10/100 Ethernet
1 * CDRW-ROM + 1 CD-ROM
nVidia GeForce 2 64Mb

Thanks in advance.

[nukes]

Check all the cabling first of all.
It sounds like something in XP messed up, and one of the hard drives has been corrupted. Don't take my word for it though.
This can occasionally be a problem for IDE raid controllers as they are managed through software rather than hardware (like the SCSI ones)
If it was writing a RAM dump when you pressed the reset switch, that could have caused it.
What arrangment do you have the drives in? Stripe or Mirror? If its mirrored, then you may be able to plug one drive in alone and see if that will work.
BTW Welcome to TechIMO.

[Mikademus]

Thank you Nukes for your prompt response.
When I yesterday opened my PC cover and booted it up (just to check whats going wrong by those diagnostics leds in Motherboard) it booted up perfectly and no error messages displayed, I used it couple of hours without any problems. I quess this may have caused due to overheating. It's been quite warm here in Finland for couple of weeks.. (No I'm not overclocking it..). I think I'll have to replace some of the box coolant propellers to more powerful ones or move one HDD to another place in peripheral rack. (Now both HDDs are almost connected together..)


Cheers,
Mikademus