Abit BE-6

[WoodDogg]

I'm not sure quite what to do with this one. It's kind of annoying and I'll fill in as much info as possible. I hope I remembered all the specs down below but here goes.

My Abit mobo has built in ATA66 by Highpoint Technologies. When I play any type of game, 3d or not, when the hard drive loads it freezes the video and as far as I can tell the whole computer. I had not really noticed this until I started playing Diablo II. D2 loads areas in the game that you haven't visited "behind the scenes" right before you get there. On most peoples computers, you can't even tell that this is happening unless your looking at the hard drive light. However, my computer completely freezes as it loads, and then you get really fast action for a couple seconds. I only use D2 as an example because it's the game that's affected most. After that, I noticed that all my games do it. Other games just don't load a whole lot right in the middle of the action, but some do.

The only way I've been able to stop this is to remove the Highpoint drivers and let windows run with the ATA66 controller as an unknown device. This fixes the freezing problem but it also makes the computer run in MS-DOS compatability mode, which supposedly makes the computer slower. I have since connected my Maxtor drive to the normal 33 controller and have not been taking use of the ATA66.

My questions are: Has anyone else had this problem with this mobo? Does anyone have any advice as to things to try? Is my setup bad? Am I just screwed?

Thanks for any advice ahead of time.

Specs:
Abit BE-6 mobo
PII 450
128 meg PC-133 RAM(even though the bus is at 100 *shrug*)
ISA Soundblaster AWE64
3com NIC
DMM Supraexpress 56K
Voodoo 3 2000
Maxtor 7200RPM ATA/66

 

[WoodDogg]

Bump

 

[MrCraphead]

Have you tried downloading the latest drivers for the HighPoint PCI Controller from Abit's website?

 

[John]

I thought you were Windogg for a minute, lol.

I would flash the BIOS and run the latest highpoint ata66 drivers, then enable DMA for your harddrive thru the device mangler.

 

[RossGr]

I may be seeing some of the sort same things on my BP6, random lockups with constant HD access (30GB, 7200rpm , Quantum) in TA Kingdoms. sometimes after a minute or so it cleares up and runs fine, other times it locks hard. I have the latest Bios flashed and newest HPT drivers. I am getting respectable HDtack readings (~27MPS ave, 58MPS Burst).

The HPT controllers were 1st generation UDMA66 controllers and hardware wise were really a patch/kludge on the BE6 ( I have one of these also but don't game on it as much) and BP6. There are many people who swear they don't work at all. Maybe we are seeing some of the troubles these controllers are notorious for.

One check would be to simply connect to IDE 1 on the mobo and run on the ATA33 controllers. Unless you have a really fast HD you should not see a noticable drop in perfomance. If it prevents the lockups it would be a viable solution.

 

[aircooled]

I have a BE6. All of my troubles dissapeared when I stopped using my HPT UDMA66 controllers for the OS. I have my primary HD plugged into IDE 0, and my plexwriter on IDE 1. I plugged my CDROM drive and 2nd HD into the HPT slots and they work fine there as neither support UDMA66.

I'm at least taking advantage of the 2 extra IDE recepticals. Everything is running as primary master.

 

[WoodDogg]

Thanks for all the input guys. This is exactly the type of info I was looking for! I love this forum!! hehe

MrCrapHead and John - I have done those things.. thanks for offering the advice though.

RossGr - Thats funny! I had noticed the same thing with kingdoms as well! Not as bad as you had it, but it would have to load in the map as I scrolled and the screen would freeze for a bit every second. I'm actually running my hardrive on ATA33 right now. Was just trying to see if anyone found a fix instead of a workaround.

Aircooled - I did this and left my harddrive plugged in where it was. Problem is that it then runs in DOS compatibility mode which makes the computer slow down. Does yours not do this? I then tried plugging my cd writer into the first ata66 spot, and my computer wouldn't load windows for some reason like that. So I have so far resorted to leaving the ATA66 unused at the moment.

 

[JackMDS]

I have BE6 running PIII600 @ 140x6=840MHz, with Geforce MX, and Quantum ATA66 HD.

Configuration HD on ATA66 primary, HP burner on IDE 1 primary, Acer x50CD on IDE2 primary, and internal Zip slave on IDE2.

This computer runs a lot of heavy 3D games (no kingdoms), and does not display any of the symptoms that you describe.

Make sure that your BIOS and ATA drivers pair. I.e. each version of Abit's BE6 bios pairs with certain version of HPT drivers.

It is not advisable do use CD-ROMs etc. on the ATA66, since CD-ROMs and internal ZIP are not IDE ATA devices but ATAPI(PIO Mode-4)

I would reinstall windows, and the ATA drivers if it does not work try another kind of HD, some HDs are not totally compatible with High Point ATA66.

 

[WoodDogg]

Thanks for the advice Jack. I've looked at Abit's website many times and never took notice of any pairing of bios and drivers. Do you know where I could find the a list of some sort? I have reinstalled windows about 3 times since I put the computer together. It's had the problem all along. 3d intensive games like Halflife generally don't load to often "behind the scenes", so I know that it doesn't bug me as much when I play those types of games.

I was beginning to think that my hard drive was just incompatable. I mean, it is a maxtor! hehe Thanks for the advice again!

 

[KpocAlypse]

I've had the same problems with that board and my Ibm gxp75 and my WD 13000. I tried every single combination available, contacted ABIT and Highpoint, Lived off there usenet support site, and couldn't get the thing to work at all, i just moved my drives over to the ide33 controller and that was that. I'm not sure if highpoint ever fixed the probem, and i haven't kept up with the issue. i think i was using the BEHUH mobo bios with 1.25 highpoint bios and 1.25 and the 1.26 BETA driver (9x) with no effect. Good luck on getting it to work, Hell if ya do, drop me a line and tell me how..

 

[KpocAlypse]

AH forgot about something, i ran across this in my search for a solution to my problem, it might be of assistance.

Unoffical BE6-2 Faq

 

[WoodDogg]

I will try some combinations and stuff over the weekend. I'll let ya know if I ever get it to work(but it doesn't look good.)

 

[aircooled]

WoodDogg,
I have not noticed any sluggishness due to my setup. In fact it seems quicker during boot-up.

I'm not sure if you mentioned which OS you are using. These HPT controllers really dislike Win2k much worse than 9x. ANd I am using Win2k and finally opted to scrap trying to use HighPoint controllers. I verywell may buy a promise card sometime to take advantage of ATA66, but no longer going to fiddle with high point on my BE6 unless they update the drivers (highly unlikely).