Any Motherboards with two UDMA 133 or SATA slots

[Sam]

Ok, so I have decided I NEED to get a new PC. My Promise controller is
not compatible with my ECS PVM4MM2 V5.0 MB (if someone knows a card that
is, that would be good).

I am leaning toward an Intel Based chipset either Asus, Abit or ? with
several PCI slots. Right now, I am looking for a MB that will
accomodate my current two hard drives which are 250 and 200 GB UDMA 133
hard drives plus an additional hard drive, perhaps an SATA plus DVD
writer. This is the main focus. I don't want an intergrated graphics
motherboard, I will likely use my exisiting basic GEFORCE 256 MB card.

I have really lost touch with the processors out there. I come from the
old generation where the faster GHZ,the better. Dunno anything about
these dual core 2.33 + GHZ but I am looking for a PC with a CPU that is
best value for the buck and that's in the middle point between the
newest and most expensive and least expensive. Will want to do some
video editing/rendering and probably want Vivv and of course, Vista
capable (dunno if I should wait and upgrade later or bite the bullet)?

 

[Rod Speed]

Ok, so I have decided I NEED to get a new PC. My Promise
controller is not compatible with my ECS PVM4MM2 V5.0 MB

Thats unlikely.

(if someone knows a card that is, that would be good).

I am leaning toward an Intel Based chipset either Asus, Abit or ?
with several PCI slots. Right now, I am looking for a MB that will
accomodate my current two hard drives which are 250 and 200
GB UDMA 133 hard drives plus an additional hard drive, perhaps
an SATA plus DVD writer. This is the main focus.

I don't want an intergrated graphics motherboard, I will
likely use my exisiting basic GEFORCE 256 MB card.

That would limit your choices dramatically, there arent that
many current motherboards that support AGP cards anymore.

I have really lost touch with the processors out there. I come from
the old generation where the faster GHZ,the better. Dunno anything
about these dual core 2.33 + GHZ but I am looking for a PC with
a CPU that is best value for the buck and that's in the middle point
between the newest and most expensive and least expensive.

The Core 2 Duo is that right now.

 

[Sam]

:
: > Ok, so I have decided I NEED to get a new PC. My Promise
: > controller is not compatible with my ECS PVM4MM2 V5.0 MB

: Thats unlikely.

Why do you think the card is not working? I tried a different PCI slot,
the same result. Even with my old BX board (where the PCI controller
came from) I am pretty sure that I didnt havent to load or install
using F6.

: > I don't want an intergrated graphics motherboard, I will
: > likely use my exisiting basic GEFORCE 256 MB card.

Oh...wow. Ok then, no intergrated graphics that use shared memory. Do
they have such a thing in a PC board?

: That would limit your choices dramatically, there arent that
: many current motherboards that support AGP cards anymore.
:
: > I have really lost touch with the processors out there. I come from
: > the old generation where the faster GHZ,the better. Dunno anything
: > about these dual core 2.33 + GHZ but I am looking for a PC with
: > a CPU that is best value for the buck and that's in the middle point
: > between the newest and most expensive and least expensive.
:
: The Core 2 Duo is that right now.

What's the medium point, speed wise for the Core 2 Duo.
:
: > Will want to do some video editing/rendering and probably
: > want Vivv and of course, Vista capable (dunno if I should
: > wait and upgrade later or bite the bullet)?
:
:

 

[Rod Speed]

Why do you think the card is not working?

Dunno yet, you havent tried the obvious test, a completely
clean install of XP onto the drive on that card.

I tried a different PCI slot, the same result. Even with my
old BX board (where the PCI controller came from) I am
pretty sure that I didnt havent to load or install using F6.

You'd soon find out with a completely clean install of XP,
with just that drive on the Promise card. If you dont need
to use F6 the drive would be visible to do the install on,
tho if the install glitches, I'd certainly try the F6 install.

Oh...wow. Ok then, no intergrated graphics that use
shared memory. Do they have such a thing in a PC board?

Havent noticed any that dont. Why do you care about that ?

What's the medium point, speed wise for the Core 2 Duo.

Dunno, check that out on newegg or froogle.

 

[Paul]

Thats unlikely.

Rod, there is more detail on his problem, in his other thread.

http://groups.google.ca/group/micro..._frm/thread/74529046d89ba16b/82ebcfbf24bf5cd1

Paul

 

[Arno Wagner]

Ok, so I have decided I NEED to get a new PC. My Promise controller is
not compatible with my ECS PVM4MM2 V5.0 MB (if someone knows a card that
is, that would be good).

Have you tried to upgrade the BIOS of the Promise card?

Arno

 

[Sam]

:: >>> Ok, so I have decided I NEED to get a new PC. My Promise
: >>> controller is not compatible with my ECS PVM4MM2 V5.0 MB
:
: >> Thats unlikely.
:
: > Why do you think the card is not working?
:
: Dunno yet, you havent tried the obvious test, a completely
: clean install of XP onto the drive on that card.

Oh yes, yes I did many many times over the last 36 hours. XP died in the
early stages immediately at the first reboot. All the installs were
clean installs. I sacrificed my Chinese XP. I kept on changing my
option to boot from CD to Hard drive, and everything in between.

After several failed tries during a clean install and then whenever the
subsequent install failed, trying different combinations to see if it
would boot from the card. Every install including clean installs of
XP Home Chinese and XP home Pro English yielded the same result:
Failure. I did a quick and regular format just in case to remove all
traces of the old OS that failed. However, when doing a clean install
from IDE2 everything ran smoothly.

Somewhere in between all the failed attempts, many (but not all) of my
files on the drive got corrupted big time on one of the four partitions.

In addition, XP cant see my original Windows XP that I want to use and
that has all my data as being "repairable", therefore; it won't give me
the option to boot from that partition at start-up. Also, one of my
previously good and valid partitions is now listed as "unpartitioned"
according to Windows Disk Management and Partition Magic. I can make it
a "logical" drive, if I choose but I know damn sure it's got data on it.
On Track Recovery doesn't even see the partition.

: > I tried a different PCI slot, the same result. Even with my
: > old BX board (where the PCI controller came from) I am
: > pretty sure that I didnt havent to load or install using F6.
:
: You'd soon find out with a completely clean install of XP,
: with just that drive on the Promise card. If you dont need
: to use F6 the drive would be visible to do the install on,
: tho if the install glitches, I'd certainly try the F6 install.

XP would not recognize the controller. It did however, say when I
selected F6 and inserted the floppy with the Promise Drivers that the
drivers on the floppy are newer and which do I want to use. Everytime I
said mine, then tried XP's. It said "none".

Here is another interesting factoid. I am using the Promise's card to
power my CD Rom.

Writing this, I am wondering....the only other thing I can think except
a bad card is that I may have selected the wrong driver but there are
only three possible drivers with the same name but there is no way of
knowing for sure. I selected the second one as my chip is PDC20267.
But, my card is an old one so it's not like the TX2.

WinXP Promise Ultra100 TX2 (tm) IDE Controller"
WinXP Promise Ultra100 (tm) IDE Controller"
WinXP Promise Ultra100 (tm) IDE Controller (PDC20265)"

Or...I did have to buy a new power supply. Maybe my PCI card requires
a -5V setup which my PSU doesnt have.


: >>> I don't want an intergrated graphics motherboard, I will
: >>> likely use my exisiting basic GEFORCE 256 MB card.
:
: >> That would limit your choices dramatically, there arent that
: >> many current motherboards that support AGP cards anymore.
:
: > Oh...wow. Ok then, no intergrated graphics that use
: > shared memory. Do they have such a thing in a PC board?
:
: Havent noticed any that dont. Why do you care about that ?

It's using my ram so it's taking away by ram from me. I would prefer to
have a video chip with ram built in.

: > What's the medium point, speed wise for the Core 2 Duo.

: Dunno, check that out on newegg or froogle.

Will do.

 

[Sam]

: > Ok, so I have decided I NEED to get a new PC. My Promise controller
is
: > not compatible with my ECS PVM4MM2 V5.0 MB (if someone knows a card
that
: > is, that would be good).
:
: Have you tried to upgrade the BIOS of the Promise card?

yup, did that a long time ago while it was in my Abit board. no new bios
update since then. The card is from 2000 but works well in my BH6;
however, lately it was showing or booting to PIO4 which I wasnt able to
reset to UDMA 5. I didnt try to repair the installation via XP since the
last time I did that a few days ago, I got into real trouble. I did try
to reload the drivers from within XP and also uninstalled the driver and
card from Device Manager.

 

[Geoff]

Oh, think so rod? We all hang on your every word, you so smart . . .

-g

 

[Rod Speed]

Oh yes, yes I did many many times over the last 36 hours.

You should have said that.

XP died in the early stages immediately at the first reboot.

Exactly what happened ?

All the installs were clean installs. I sacrificed my Chinese XP.
I kept on changing my option to boot from CD to Hard drive,
and everything in between.

After several failed tries during a clean install and then whenever the
subsequent install failed, trying different combinations to see if it would
boot from the card. Every install including clean installs of XP Home
Chinese and XP home Pro English yielded the same result: Failure.

Exactly what happened ?

I did a quick and regular format just in case to remove
all traces of the old OS that failed. However, when
doing a clean install from IDE2 everything ran smoothly.

Somewhere in between all the failed attempts,
many (but not all) of my files on the drive got
corrupted big time on one of the four partitions.

That sounds rather like you dont actually have 48 bit LBA
support for the Promise, the correct version of the bios on that card.

In addition, XP cant see my original Windows XP that I want to use
and that has all my data as being "repairable", therefore; it won't
give me the option to boot from that partition at start-up.

That may be the result of the corruption of the data on the drive.

Also, one of my previously good and valid partitions is now listed as
"unpartitioned" according to Windows Disk Management and Partition Magic.

Thats just another effect of the corruption of the drive contents.

I can make it a "logical" drive, if I choose but I know damn sure it's
got data on it. On Track Recovery doesn't even see the partition.

XP would not recognize the controller. It did however, say when
I selected F6 and inserted the floppy with the Promise Drivers
that the drivers on the floppy are newer and which do I want
to use. Everytime I said mine, then tried XP's. It said "none".

Cant understand that last bit, if it always said no
drives, how could you actually do a clean install ?

Here is another interesting factoid. I am
using the Promise's card to power my CD Rom.

That isnt a good idea, they have known problems with optical drives.

Writing this, I am wondering....the only other thing I can think
except a bad card is that I may have selected the wrong driver but
there are only three possible drivers with the same name but there is
no way of knowing for sure. I selected the second one as my chip is
PDC20267. But, my card is an old one so it's not like the TX2.

WinXP Promise Ultra100 TX2 (tm) IDE Controller"
WinXP Promise Ultra100 (tm) IDE Controller"
WinXP Promise Ultra100 (tm) IDE Controller (PDC20265)"

Or...I did have to buy a new power supply. Maybe my PCI
card requires a -5V setup which my PSU doesnt have.

Nope, nothing has used that in a very long time now.

It's using my ram so it's taking away by ram from me.
I would prefer to have a video chip with ram built in.

You're losing a trivial amount of ram if you have plenty of physical ram.

 

[Rod Speed]

Rod Speed wrote

Rod, there is more detail on his problem, in his other thread.

http://groups.google.ca/group/micro..._frm/thread/74529046d89ba16b/82ebcfbf24bf5cd1

Thanks for that.

Still not conclusive that the Promise card isnt compatible with that motherboard.

I'd personally do some proper tests using a diagnostic
with the drive on the Promise card before concluding that.

And if it turns out that the Promise card doesnt work with that motherboard,
try another PCI/ATA card instead. They're a lot cheaper than a whole new system.

 

[Arno Wagner]

: > Ok, so I have decided I NEED to get a new PC. My Promise controller
is
: > not compatible with my ECS PVM4MM2 V5.0 MB (if someone knows a card
that
: > is, that would be good).
:
: Have you tried to upgrade the BIOS of the Promise card?

yup, did that a long time ago while it was in my Abit board. no new bios
update since then. The card is from 2000 but works well in my BH6;
however, lately it was showing or booting to PIO4 which I wasnt able to
reset to UDMA 5. I didnt try to repair the installation via XP since the
last time I did that a few days ago, I got into real trouble. I did try
to reload the drivers from within XP and also uninstalled the driver and
card from Device Manager.

Sounds like defect hardware to me then. Does not happen often
in these cards, but is still a possibility.

Arno

 

[RussellS]

: > Ok, so I have decided I NEED to get a new PC. My Promise controller
is
: > not compatible with my ECS PVM4MM2 V5.0 MB (if someone knows a card
that
: > is, that would be good).
:
: Have you tried to upgrade the BIOS of the Promise card?

yup, did that a long time ago while it was in my Abit board. no new bios
update since then. The card is from 2000 but works well in my BH6;
however, lately it was showing or booting to PIO4 which I wasnt able to
reset to UDMA 5. I didnt try to repair the installation via XP since the
last time I did that a few days ago, I got into real trouble. I did try
to reload the drivers from within XP and also uninstalled the driver and
card from Device Manager.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
There could be 3 things configured incorrectly that might cause the XP
installation to not allow loading of drivers and not recognizing the
attached hard drive(s) upon the 1st reboot.
1. You have the incorrect controller drivers on your F6 floppy. You say in
a previous post that you're not sure which selection to choose amongst the
driver load choices, and that you're not sure which Promise card you have.
Physically look at the card itself for model/serial numbers and/or any
accompanying literature that may have accompanied the card to verify the
actual model, then go to the Promise site to download the most recent
version of the appropriate drivers for that card at
http://www.promise.com/support/download/download_eng.asp and create a new F6
floppy. using the wrong drivers could also be a contributing factor in the
attached drive reverting to PIO mode in a pervious Windows install on
another motherboard. When loading the drivers from F6 floppy later, select
the desired OS and drive interface speed choice applicable for your attached
drive(s).
2. Your ECS motherboard's BIOS is not configured correctly to enable the
Promise card as an IDE bootable controller and/or including the attached
hard drive in the hard disk boot order as the first boot device after a
CD/floppy drive. In the boot order option screen, your drive may be
cryptically listed as a BBS SCSI-RAID drive0/1 or similar. After making
these changes, save and exit.
3. You have an ATAPI device, such as a CD/DVD drive or ZIP drive attached
to the controller card. Best to use the onboard IDE ports for optical
devices and have no additional hard drives attached to an onboard IDE port
during the OS installation, as the XP boot loader creation routine may
prefer to install boot files directly to the separate onboard IDE drive.

Just suggestions to double-check these factors before giving up on the
controller card. Let us know how it turns out.
-Russell
http://tastycomputers.com

 

[RussellS]

There could be 3 things configured incorrectly that might cause the XP
installation to not allow loading of drivers and not recognizing the
attached hard drive(s) upon the 1st reboot.
1. You have the incorrect controller drivers on your F6 floppy. You say
in a previous post that you're not sure which selection to choose amongst
the driver load choices, and that you're not sure which Promise card you
have. Physically look at the card itself for model/serial numbers and/or
any accompanying literature that may have accompanied the card to verify
the actual model, then go to the Promise site to download the most recent
version of the appropriate drivers for that card at
http://www.promise.com/support/download/download_eng.asp and create a new
F6 floppy. using the wrong drivers could also be a contributing factor in
the attached drive reverting to PIO mode in a pervious Windows install on
another motherboard. When loading the drivers from F6 floppy later,
select the desired OS and drive interface speed choice applicable for your
attached drive(s).
2. Your ECS motherboard's BIOS is not configured correctly to enable the
Promise card as an IDE bootable controller and/or including the attached
hard drive in the hard disk boot order as the first boot device after a
CD/floppy drive. In the boot order option screen, your drive may be
cryptically listed as a BBS SCSI-RAID drive0/1 or similar. After making
these changes, save and exit.
3. You have an ATAPI device, such as a CD/DVD drive or ZIP drive attached
to the controller card. Best to use the onboard IDE ports for optical
devices and have no additional hard drives attached to an onboard IDE port
during the OS installation, as the XP boot loader creation routine may
prefer to install boot files directly to the separate onboard IDE drive.

Just suggestions to double-check these factors before giving up on the
controller card. Let us know how it turns out.
-Russell
http://tastycomputers.com

 

[Arno Wagner]

[...]

Position only matters when the drives are jumperd to cable-select.
Otherwise it is irrelevant. If one is CS, then the other should
be too.

and check/replace the cable to rule out a defective cable.

Definitely. This seems to happen not too infrequently.

Arno

 

[RussellS]

In comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage RussellS

[...]
----------------------------------------------------------------
Forgot to mention the obvious: Be sure that any attached IDE drives on
the
controller card are jumpered correctly, based upon their position on the
IDE
cable,

Position only matters when the drives are jumperd to cable-select.
Otherwise it is irrelevant. If one is CS, then the other should
be too.

and check/replace the cable to rule out a defective cable.

Definitely. This seems to happen not too infrequently.

Arno

----------------------------------------------------------------
Regarding the IDE cables and jumper settings, be sure that you are using
UltraATA cables (80-wires as opposed to 40 wires, but still 40-pin plugs.)
These cables have an obvious sleeker, more refined look from the older ATA
cables. Some third party IDE controller cards prefer that attached drives
are jumpered in the master/slave designations, as opposed to CS, and are not
used for optical drives being attached.

-Russell
http://tastycomputers.com

 

[Sam]

:
: > XP died in the early stages immediately at the first reboot.
:
: Exactly what happened ?

It says no hard drive found.

: > After several failed tries during a clean install and then whenever
the
: > subsequent install failed, trying different combinations to see if
it would
: > boot from the card. Every install including clean installs of XP
Home
: > Chinese and XP home Pro English yielded the same result: Failure.
:
: Exactly what happened ?

It says no hard drive found.

: > Somewhere in between all the failed attempts,
: > many (but not all) of my files on the drive got
: > corrupted big time on one of the four partitions.

: That sounds rather like you dont actually have 48 bit LBA
: support for the Promise, the correct version of the bios on that card.

That was included in the flash update

I ran a 150 GB hard drive on my ABit without problem using the card.

: > XP would not recognize the controller. It did however, say when
: > I selected F6 and inserted the floppy with the Promise Drivers
: > that the drivers on the floppy are newer and which do I want
: > to use. Everytime I said mine, then tried XP's. It said "none".
:
: Cant understand that last bit, if it always said no
: drives, how could you actually do a clean install ?

I used the main partition, 2GB of storage. I transferred my IDE2 cable
to my hard drive. Booted into dos, wiped out (formatted) the volume,
disconnected the cable, attached it to my CD rom. Connected my hard
drive to the Promise Controller. Ran XP from CD Rom.

 

[Sam]

Also, one of my previously good and valid partitions is now listed as
"unpartitioned" according to Windows Disk Management and Partition
Magic.

Thats just another effect of the corruption of the drive contents.

My swiss cheese memory has recalled something from the past.... I recall
that I had a similar problem a while ago when I installed an existing
secondary drive after doing a clean install a few years ago. I ended up
us PM and I selected the drive and the drive and itself came back. I
guess this is something I should do since I have nothing to lose since
you feel the drive is corrupted?

: Still not conclusive that the Promise card isnt compatible with that
motherboard.
:
: I'd personally do some proper tests using a diagnostic
: with the drive on the Promise card before concluding that.
:
: And if it turns out that the Promise card doesnt work with that
motherboard,
: try another PCI/ATA card instead. They're a lot cheaper than a whole
new system.

Well, I wanted to upgrade for a while, never had a reason to it. If I
can hold off on getting a new system until summer, that would be great.
Buying a new controller card is around $70+ CDN and there is no
guarantee that I won't run into any more problems. I am really tired
of uninstalling installing right now. I already shelled out $50 for a
PSU that is not quite strong enough for a new system. I have to look at
cutting my losses.

I may be able to get by on running the hard drive on IDE2 for now or
using my Abit at PIO4...I don't know. The Dual Core 2 processor, I
heard came out in September is quite new still so the price is still
high...so I was told.

 

[Sam]

message
: --------------------------------------------------------------------------
: There could be 3 things configured incorrectly that might cause the XP
: installation to not allow loading of drivers and not recognizing the
: attached hard drive(s) upon the 1st reboot.
: 1. You have the incorrect controller drivers on your F6 floppy.
<snip>go to the Promise site to download the most recent
: version of the appropriate drivers for that card at
: http://www.promise.com/support/download/download_eng.asp and create a
new F6
: floppy. using the wrong drivers could also be a contributing factor
in the
: attached drive reverting to PIO mode in a pervious Windows install on
: another motherboard. When loading the drivers from F6 floppy later,
select
: the desired OS and drive interface speed choice applicable for your
attached
: drive(s).

I have the card and I know the serial number and chip number. The
drivers are all together. I did d/l the correct one, I now my
controller s is not a Raid controller, so it's not a TX Controller. I
know now it's not the other one that has a different version (chip
number). There leaves only one that is UDMA 100 and that's the one I
have tried and predominately focused on during setup.

: 2. Your ECS motherboard's BIOS is not configured correctly to enable
the
: Promise card as an IDE bootable controller and/or including the
attached
: hard drive in the hard disk boot order as the first boot device after
a
: CD/floppy drive. In the boot order option screen, your drive may be
: cryptically listed as a BBS SCSI-RAID drive0/1 or similar. After
making
: these changes, save and exit.

I tried various combinations and that was one of them.

: 3. You have an ATAPI device, such as a CD/DVD drive or ZIP drive
attached
: to the controller card. Best to use the onboard IDE ports for optical
: devices and have no additional hard drives attached to an onboard IDE
port
: during the OS installation, as the XP boot loader creation routine may
: prefer to install boot files directly to the separate onboard IDE
drive.

So I read that it has problems with CD rom drives. Promise has failed
to reply back to my email but they have acnknowledged receiving it.
It's been several days now.

BTW, my card is over 5 years old. So,. it's an oldy.

 

[Rod Speed]

It says no hard drive found.

That doesnt sound like an incompatibility between the Promise
card and the motherboard, sounds like the XP install is managing
to screw up the MBR changes it makes while installing.

It says no hard drive found.

That was included in the flash update

I ran a 150 GB hard drive on my ABit without problem using the card.

Are you actually installing a version of XP that has 48 bit LBA support ?

Thats one trap for the unwary, its easy to forget that that only came
with SP1 and that that has to be reapplied with a clean reinstall.

I prefer to make a slipstreamed XP install CD instead
so you have 48 bit LBA support right from the start.

I used the main partition, 2GB of storage. I transferred my IDE2 cable
to my hard drive. Booted into dos, wiped out (formatted) the volume,
disconnected the cable, attached it to my CD rom. Connected my hard
drive to the Promise Controller. Ran XP from CD Rom.

You can format the drive early in the XP install, before you actually start the install.

I'd run a diagnostic on the drive with it attached to the Promise card
to check if the drive is working fine on the Promise card and if it isnt,
according to the diagnostic, fix that problem before going any further.

If the diag says that the drive is fine WHEN ON THE PROMISE CARD,
I'd check that you are using the correct driver with the F6 op. And make
sure you have 48 bit LBA support in XP either by applying SP2 immediately
after you have XP installed, before you install any apps, or by slipstreaming
SP2 to the XP install CD before installing XP.

Corse going for a new system would certainly be one way to fix the problem too.