The Highpoint BIOS pauses the boot process on a degraded array

Problem

When an array is degraded (broken), the Highpoint BIOS pauses the boot process unless a key is pressed to continue.

Solution

This feature is designed to alert users about the degraded status. To skip the keyboard timeout, perform the following steps:

  1. Download the Highpoint BIOS image disk at the link below:

    http://updates.aslab.com/bios/highpoint/hpt116.img

  2. Transfer this DOS bootable image into a floppy 
    dd if=hpt116.img of=/dev/fd0H1440
  3. Boot the system using the floppy created above
  4. At the DOS prompt, enter bios.bat and press Enter
  5. At the BIOS setting menu, move the cursor key to Keyboard timeout feature and press Enter to enable it
  6. Press function key F10 to continue
  7. When prompt to save new settings to a file, select N
  8. When prompt to backup BIOS, select N
  9. When prompt to upgrade BIOS, select Y

Once the BIOS has been flashed, remove the floppy and reboot the server. Next time a degraded array is encountered, the Highpoint BIOS will start a count down. At the end of the count down, the boot process will continue automatically.