XP Ultra driver reporting out of date Promise TX2 firmware

[Steve]

XP is reporting a warning on an hourly basis to the system event log
that Ultra (the driver for the Promise 133TX2 IDE controller has found
a problem:

"The driver has detected that device \Device\Scsi\ultra1 has old or
out-of-date firmware. Reduced performance may result."

...despite the fact that I'm using the most recent TX2 BIOS (version
2.20.0.15) from the Promise website and also the most recent Ultra
driver (2.0.0.43).

Suggestions? Anyone got stable combo of TX2 BIOS and XP driver?

 

[Mr. Grinch]

I used to have this problem all the time too. I am running a Promise
Ultra133 TX2 card. I am currently running the latest bios (220015?) but
NOT the latest driver. I am using the 2.0.0.42 driver. I checked the
changes for the latest driver and they did not seem to be any reason to
update to it so I stayed where I was at. I forget what change from 42 to
43 whas.

Anyways, currently I am not getting any of those errors in my system event
log. I used to get them under Windows 2000 Server and XP. Right now I am
running Windows Server 2003 on a dual P3-800 with the Promise card
installed.

 

[Steve]

I used to have this problem all the time too. I am running a Promise
Ultra133 TX2 card. I am currently running the latest bios (220015?) but
NOT the latest driver. I am using the 2.0.0.42 driver. I checked the
changes for the latest driver and they did not seem to be any reason to
update to it so I stayed where I was at. I forget what change from 42 to
43 whas.

Anyways, currently I am not getting any of those errors in my system event
log. I used to get them under Windows 2000 Server and XP. Right now I am
running Windows Server 2003 on a dual P3-800 with the Promise card
installed.

Ta. I'll give that one a go.

 

[Steve]

I used to have this problem all the time too. I am running a Promise
Ultra133 TX2 card. I am currently running the latest bios (220015?) but
NOT the latest driver. I am using the 2.0.0.42 driver. I checked the
changes for the latest driver and they did not seem to be any reason to
update to it so I stayed where I was at. I forget what change from 42 to
43 whas.

Anyways, currently I am not getting any of those errors in my system event
log. I used to get them under Windows 2000 Server and XP. Right now I am
running Windows Server 2003 on a dual P3-800 with the Promise card
installed.

Went back to 2.0.0.42 but no change.

....and am still getting "The driver has detected that device
\Device\Scsi\ultra1 has old or out-of-date firmware. Reduced
performance may result."

Is the device mentioned the TX2 disk controller firmware or the hard
disk's on-board microcode itself? Am I looking in the wrong place for
the supposed problem?

 

[Eric Gisin]

It's a Windows bug. I have never heard a proper explanation of what's going
on.

 

[Mr. Grinch]

Went back to 2.0.0.42 but no change.

...and am still getting "The driver has detected that device
\Device\Scsi\ultra1 has old or out-of-date firmware. Reduced
performance may result."

Is the device mentioned the TX2 disk controller firmware or the hard
disk's on-board microcode itself? Am I looking in the wrong place for
the supposed problem?

I'm guessing it's card firmware that it's complaining about.

Are you certain of the driver version you are running? Just might want to
double check, both in device manager properties and the driver file itself.

I know I had some issues getting the correct driver to load. Also, I seem
to remember something about driver signing giving me some problems until I
basically forced it to ignore unsigned drivers then it would finally
install. That was under XP though, I've not had that issue under 2003. I
recently however installed the 2.0.0.43 driver and it crashed my computer
during the driver install and I had to re-install it. This was the problem
that the .42 driver had under XP, now it seems that the .43 driver, which
was to fix this problem under XP, causes the same problem under 2003.

If there is any other info I can report from my system let me know.
Suffice to say, I know you're not the only one getting the problem, it
happened to me too under 2000 server and XP, but I'm no longer getting it
under 2003.

Another option may be to just use the MS driver, I don't think it ever gave
this error message, but there may be other issues with the MS driver.

 

[Steve]

[snip]

I'm guessing it's card firmware that it's complaining about.

I think so too.

Are you certain of the driver version you are running? Just might want to
double check, both in device manager properties and the driver file itself.
Yep.

I know I had some issues getting the correct driver to load. Also, I seem
to remember something about driver signing giving me some problems until I
basically forced it to ignore unsigned drivers then it would finally
install. That was under XP though, I've not had that issue under 2003. I
recently however installed the 2.0.0.43 driver and it crashed my computer
during the driver install and I had to re-install it. This was the problem
that the .42 driver had under XP, now it seems that the .43 driver, which
was to fix this problem under XP, causes the same problem under 2003.

If there is any other info I can report from my system let me know.
Suffice to say, I know you're not the only one getting the problem, it
happened to me too under 2000 server and XP, but I'm no longer getting it
under 2003.

Another option may be to just use the MS driver, I don't think it ever gave
this error message, but there may be other issues with the MS driver.

Despite the warnings I've had no actual errors or data loss under XP
(yet...) after 2 months running it. I was previously running Win98SE
and would get major disk problem about once every 6 weeks. (The FAT
was getting trashed in a big way. )

I think I'll just go back to .43 seeing as .42 is seemingly no better.
I'd rather use the latest driver, whatever.