a7v133 bios 1010.01b with Promise 2.20.0.15

[Stanley Krute]

Howdy

Anyone know of a downloadable 1010.01b bios
that contains the latest Promise controller 2.20.0.15 bios ?

thanks

-- stan

 

[tomcas]

Howdy

Anyone know of a downloadable 1010.01b bios
that contains the latest Promise controller 2.20.0.15 bios ?

thanks

-- stan

The latest recommended controller driver for this mobo is 2.00.0.29. It
enabled 48 bit support and is supposedly designed for the 1010.01b bios
which also enabled 48 bit support. They are available as separate
downloads. While one might be tempted to try the latest and greatest
drivers and bios, my experience with mobos having Via and Promise chips
have proved this not to be wise. I would try these downloads first-

http://www.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/socka/kt133a/a7v133/UltraWinDrvB29.zip
http://www.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/socka/kt133a/a7v133/1010AVU01B.zip

 

[Stanley Krute]

Hi tomcas

Thanks for the response.

The latest recommended controller driver for this mobo is 2.00.0.29. It
enabled 48 bit support and is supposedly designed for the 1010.01b bios
which also enabled 48 bit support.

I've got both of those.

But I'm not looking for the Promise driver. I'm looking for its bios.

The 1010.01b a7v133 bios includes the Promise 2.20.0.14 bios.
What I'm looking for is a hacked version of 1010.01b that contains
the 2.20.0.15 Promise bios. Supposedly the Promise *.15 fixes a
few more bugs in that benighted chip.

-- stan

 

[tomcas]

Hi tomcas

Thanks for the response.




I've got both of those.

But I'm not looking for the Promise driver. I'm looking for its bios.

The 1010.01b a7v133 bios includes the Promise 2.20.0.14 bios.
What I'm looking for is a hacked version of 1010.01b that contains
the 2.20.0.15 Promise bios. Supposedly the Promise *.15 fixes a
few more bugs in that benighted chip.

-- stan

Sorry Stan, did you try Lumberjacker?

 

[GlassVial]

But I'm not looking for the Promise driver. I'm looking for its bios.

The 1010.01b a7v133 bios includes the Promise 2.20.0.14 bios.
What I'm looking for is a hacked version of 1010.01b that contains
the 2.20.0.15 Promise bios. Supposedly the Promise *.15 fixes a
few more bugs in that benighted chip.

-- stan

If you find it please post it, I need it as well, thank you

-GV

 

[Stanley Krute]

Update:

I finally -- DOH !!! -- solved my A7V133/Promise controller
HD corruption issues by adding a Siig ATA-133 controller card
to the system, bypassing the Promise controller.

Highly recommended.

-- stan

 

[Eric P.]

Never had any HD corruption problem with the Promise controller on my
two A7V133 boards I used for years.

 

[Stanley Krute]

Hi Eric

Never had any HD corruption problem with the Promise controller on my two
A7V133 boards I used for years.

Glad to hear that.

Could have something to do with the load this system is
carrying. There are four HDs, a DVD burner, and a Canopus
DVREX-M1 video editing system. Currently
using a 350-watt CoolerMaster power supply,
but it had a 250-watt Enlight supply when the troubles began.

Also: the drive that first started having problems is a 200GB Western
Digital with 8MB cache. I "lost" the contents of that drive several times,
although chkdsk was able to bring things back, albeit with some losses.

Also: the 200GB drive currently shows approx. 1/3 of its space as
bad sectors. I'm getting a replacement from Western Digital, as its
under warranty.

Several days now without any chkdsk problems. Before the Siig
card, I'd develop problems within an hour of usage.

-- stan

 

[Eric P.]

Thanks for the reply Stanley,
Fine you don't have problems anymore.
The two computers with an A7V133 board I used (I still have one) had
large tower cases packed with disks and other goodies.
I used Promise RAID1 for four years on both of them without any trouble.

Couldn't find the O/S you are using, could be too big a disk for the O/S
if you still use Windows 9x

 

[Stanley Krute]

Hi Eric

Couldn't find the O/S you are using, could be too big a disk for the O/S
if you still use Windows 9x

XP Home SP2.

The two computers with an A7V133 board I used (I still have one) had large
tower cases packed with disks and other goodies.
I used Promise RAID1 for four years on both of them without any trouble.

Glad to hear.

I googled this problem a bunch, and found several possibilities
for my problems:

-- power supply: many folks said the a7v133 needs a 350w supply minimum
-- VIO setting: many folks recommended setting at 3.3v, rather than the
default 3.45v
-- the Promise controller: there were a few instances of folks saying it
had problems with large WD drives, like my 200GB, esp. when there
was an 8MB drive cache involved.

I tried all those fixes, and still had problems. The Siig
ATA-133 board route-around cured the issues.

-- stan

 

[Eric P.]

Yes I had 350W powersupplies.
Adjusted VIO=3.30V right from the start when I build both computers.
Used 30GB IBM harddisks in the RAID1 array.
The largest harddisk is an IBM 120GB one with Windows XP Home SP2
(attached to the VIA primary port), I use mainly Windows 98SE.

 

[GlassVial]

I know for some boards it's possible to use CBROM to merge the
mainboard bios with the controller bios so you update both at once,
however I don't think tihs works with Asus boards.

-GV

 

[Eric P.]

Yes, that's the way I started using the A7V133 boards with RAID1 4 years
ago.
The Promise Bios'ses inside the Asus Bios'ses were very limited at that
time, especially when you liked to use RAID1.
Brazilian Tech provided the Promise stuff and an explanation how to
insert this instead of the original Promise Bios code.

A few months later when A7v133 version 1.05 and manual 1.05 appeared
with a new Bios and jumpersettings it was no longer needed to do all this.

 

[GlassVial]

Yes, that's the way I started using the A7V133 boards with RAID1 4 years

ago.
The Promise Bios'ses inside the Asus Bios'ses were very limited at that
time, especially when you liked to use RAID1.
Brazilian Tech provided the Promise stuff and an explanation how to
insert this instead of the original Promise Bios code.

A few months later when A7v133 version 1.05 and manual 1.05 appeared
with a new Bios and jumpersettings it was no longer needed to do all this.

Do you still have those instructions? I'm wondering if it's possible
to use their method on the latest/last beta bios and the latest
2.20.0.15 promise firmware to get the desired result. I'd be willing
to give it a shot.

-GV

 

[Eric P.]

Afterall I think it may be Crazy Ape http://www.stormpages.com/crazyape/
I downloaded the files from.

 

[tomcas]

Never had any HD corruption problem with the Promise controller on my
two A7V133 boards I used for years.

Same here, no problems for years. One reason for corruption especially
on large files was reportedly due to cross talk with sound blaster live
cards.


from
http://www.viaarena.com/default.aspx?PageID=3

"Question I am having trouble with a system using a VIA chipset
including a 686b southbridge and a Creative Sound Blaster Live card.

Answer When the 686b southbridge was first released, motherboard
manufacturers and VIA discovered a problem when trying to transfer files
between the primary and the secondary IDE channels on motherboards using
ultra-DMA, when a Sound Blaster Live was plugged in and drivers
activated. This issue was caused because too much noise is transferred
across the PCI bus by the Sound Blaster Live driver set. In an attempt
to fix this issue, some motherboard manufacturers modified their BIOS.
In some instances, these modifications to the BIOS caused a data
corruption error even when not using a Sound Blaster Live. VIA released
a patch which resolves this issue, which is incorporated in the 4in1
drivers from the 4.31 version onwards. Motherboard manufacturers were
advised to change the modifications made to their BIOS to eliminate the
data corruption issue. If you are experiencing data corruption or lock
up when transferring files between two IDE drives: 1) Make sure you have
the latest BIOS from your motherboard manufacturer. 2) Make sure you
have the latest 4in1 drivers 3) Make sure when you set up your system
that you install the 4in1 drivers both before and after you install the
SBL to make sure that the drivers see your SBL and install the correct
patch. The patch will only install if the SBL is installed. "

 

[GlassVial]

Ok, upon further review, there IS NO 2.20.0.15 firmware for this
controller. It stopped at .14. The controller is a Promise Ultra100,
NOT an ultra100TX2 (which stopped at .15) and NOT a fasttrak100 which
stopped at 2.00.0.24. So I guess if you have a problem with .14,
you're pretty much SOL and have to replace the controller, which some
have obviously already done...man I really hate promise controllers,
they suck :-/

And Asus sucks for not allowing you to completely TURN OFF the damn
thing!!

-GV

 

[Paul]

Ok, upon further review, there IS NO 2.20.0.15 firmware for this
controller. It stopped at .14. The controller is a Promise Ultra100,
NOT an ultra100TX2 (which stopped at .15) and NOT a fasttrak100 which
stopped at 2.00.0.24. So I guess if you have a problem with .14,
you're pretty much SOL and have to replace the controller, which some
have obviously already done...man I really hate promise controllers,
they suck :-/

And Asus sucks for not allowing you to completely TURN OFF the damn
thing!!

-GV

When I look in the manual for the A7V133, there is JP13 and JP14.
JP14 seems to be a selector for RAID versus vanilla IDE. JP13
never changes. And, that suggests to me, that setting JP13 to
3-2 position, might be a disable control. That is, if you want to
try to disable the Promise chip from responding entirely.
(If you try this experiment, I presume you've removed any drives
connected to the Promise first, and are set to boot from the
ordinary IDE connector.)

Otherwise, I don't see a purpose for JP13.

Just a guess,
Paul

 

[Stanley Krute]

Hi tomcas

One reason for corruption especially on large files was reportedly due to cross talk with sound blaster live cards.

My system uses the onboard sound.

However, there IS something wrong with the
onboard sound, as indicated by a seemingly
ineradicable low static noisyness that can be
heard when no intended sound is being played.

And, while I'm here again, thanks to everyone for
the excellent contributions to this thread. newsgroups
at their best.

-- stan

 

[GlassVial]

And Asus sucks for not allowing you to completely TURN OFF the damn

When I look in the manual for the A7V133, there is JP13 and JP14.
JP14 seems to be a selector for RAID versus vanilla IDE. JP13
never changes. And, that suggests to me, that setting JP13 to
3-2 position, might be a disable control. That is, if you want to
try to disable the Promise chip from responding entirely.
(If you try this experiment, I presume you've removed any drives
connected to the Promise first, and are set to boot from the
ordinary IDE connector.)

Otherwise, I don't see a purpose for JP13.

Just a guess,
Paul

When JP13 and JP14 are both set to 1-2, 1-2 it's ATA100 mode, when
it's set to JP13 1-2 and JP14 2-3, it's RAID0/1 mode. Neither appears
to disable the controller completely, or if so it's undocumented
(perhaps setting them both to 2-3?).

-GV