Frustrated: Promise Controller won't work on motherboard

[Michael Cecil]

I got myself a new 80 pin cable. I went to remove the old cable and I
seen that the pin on the motherboard IDE slot had bent. I tried to bend
it back but in the process I broke the pin so now that IDE slot is dead.

I took my [working] Promise PCI IDE Ultra UDMA 100 controller from
another spare computer. The controller was detected without problem. I
confirmed that PCI IDE bus was enabled in the bios. However, it didnt
matter which IDE slot I installed the cable on the PCI card, my system
would attempt to boot and then I get the blue screen of death in XP
telling me to remove any new hard drives and what not.

The error message was STOP 0x0000007b
(0xf7a005528,0xc000034,0xc00000000). I changed 80 pin cables and I
still got the same error. I then used a regular 40 pin cable and
installed it on my working IDE 2 UDMA 33 slot on my MB and the hard
drive booted to XP without problem. Clearly, I don't want to run my
hard drives at 33 when they can run at 100 or 133.

I have an ECS PVMM2 MB. P4 Celeron 1.8ghz.

Is there a solution or workaround here?

Install the boot drive onto the motherboard using the other IDE slot. It
doesn't matter if it's only on a 40wire cable - you're just booting long
enough to load drivers. Leave the Promise card installed in a PCI slot.
Boot up the machine and install the correct Promise card drivers. Then
shutdown, connect the boot drive to the Promise card and reboot.

 

[Sam]

:
: >> If its just a data drive, the problem may be that the system
: >> is getting seriously confused by the bios on the promise card.
: >> See what happens when you disable the bios on the promise card.
:
: > Yes, it's just the data drive.
: > Hmm. I have never disabled the bios on the card before,
: > I didnt know that is possible. Any idea how?\\
:
: Its a jumper on the Promise card. I've lost track of what card it is
: now, not sure you have ever spelt out exactly which Promise it is.


It's the Promise Ultra 100 (chipset PDC20267). It has NO jumpers at
all and mine is version 2.00:

http://www.atmarkit.co.jp/fpc/products/fasttrak100/chip.jpg

http://shattered04.myftp.org/data/contents/diary/img/2006.01.23_01.jpg

I am also getting absolutely no help from either Promise or ECS (Elite
Group) in regards with what boards are or not compatible with this
card.

Btw, I STILL cannot get the card to boot up in my Abit system other
than PIO4 despite removing the drivers and even the card and
reinstalling, rebooting. I am getting very close to giving up.

 

[Sam]

:
: Install the boot drive onto the motherboard using the other IDE
slot. It
: doesn't matter if it's only on a 40wire cable - you're just booting
long
: enough to load drivers. Leave the Promise card installed in a PCI
slot.
: Boot up the machine and install the correct Promise card drivers.
Then
: shutdown, connect the boot drive to the Promise card and reboot.
: --

Tried that, it didnt work with this mb. I also tried a different PCI
slot, no difference (I only have 2).

 

[Michael Cecil]

:
: Install the boot drive onto the motherboard using the other IDE
slot. It
: doesn't matter if it's only on a 40wire cable - you're just booting
long
: enough to load drivers. Leave the Promise card installed in a PCI
slot.
: Boot up the machine and install the correct Promise card drivers.
Then
: shutdown, connect the boot drive to the Promise card and reboot.
: --

Tried that, it didnt work with this mb. I also tried a different PCI
slot, no difference (I only have 2).

What didn't work? It wouldn't boot? You couldn't load drivers for the
Promise card?

 

[Sam]

:
: What didn't work? It wouldn't boot? You couldn't load drivers for
the
: Promise card?

It's been a long thread and very frustrating several weeks. Basically,
the controller wasnt working in my ECS board. I

I bit the bullet and got a 2.8ghz dual core processor and an Asus MB.
I also bough a new case. I kept all my memory and I have my hard
drives. It set me back almost $300 with tax Canadian.

BTW, I tried the Promise card in my Asus board and there was no
problem....sorry Rod, looks like it was the board.

I have to go back to the computer store next week, the LEDs dont work.
It's odd because the MB has 2 pins allocated for the power LED, Reset
LED, and HDD LED. But, the case has a three pin connector but only two
attached to it...so that doesnt fit in the MB. I dunno why neither
the HD LED or RESET LED don't work, but at least the Power Switch does
(Murphy's Law).

 

[Stephen]

:
: What didn't work? It wouldn't boot? You couldn't load drivers for
the
: Promise card?

It's been a long thread and very frustrating several weeks. Basically,
the controller wasnt working in my ECS board. I

I bit the bullet and got a 2.8ghz dual core processor and an Asus MB.
I also bough a new case. I kept all my memory and I have my hard
drives. It set me back almost $300 with tax Canadian.

BTW, I tried the Promise card in my Asus board and there was no
problem....sorry Rod, looks like it was the board.

I have to go back to the computer store next week, the LEDs dont work.
It's odd because the MB has 2 pins allocated for the power LED, Reset
LED, and HDD LED. But, the case has a three pin connector but only two
attached to it...so that doesnt fit in the MB. I dunno why neither
the HD LED or RESET LED don't work, but at least the Power Switch does
(Murphy's Law).

You have the non-working leds connected backwards. Put the led
connector on the other way.

Power led: move the wire in the connector to the position needed for
the motherboard. The longtime standard has been for it to go on a
three pin connection and not using the center pin.

Stephen
--

 

[Sam]

Stephen wrote:
:
: You have the non-working leds connected backwards. Put the led
: connector on the other way.

Great detective work! I got the HDD Led to work!!
:
: Power led: move the wire in the connector to the position needed for
: the motherboard. The longtime standard has been for it to go on a
: three pin connection and not using the center pin.

I am not sure what you mean where this one is supposes to go. I only
have two pins available. There is no centre wire on the connector.
Both the green and white wire are at the opposite ends. I looked at
my old case and it uses the three pin connector type but the green and
white are right next to each other.