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ATA 66 Controler Card in my Old Aptiva

S

sabka

Senior member
Hi,
I've been trying to install a new Maxtor 20GB HD in my Aptiva 2168 with no success. I updated the BIOS of the 2168, installed the SIIG card, connected the HD to primary channel as the master. Now, whenever it starts, the IBM welcome screen comes up and soon after the SIIG BIOS comes - but then freezes with a blank screen, cursor blinking on the top right of the screen.

I tried to access the APTIVA BIOS, but nothing happens when pressing F1 (usually to access the BIOS). Also, in the SIIG BIOS, I can't change anything except the transfer modes of the HD (ATA, PIO,..) but I've tried all of them - no success.
And I can't boot of floppy, since it doesn't even seek for it. I guess the system doesn't get that far, yet.

Anyone have any ideas?
 
After I installed my controller card in the computer, I had to also install the card under Windows, otherwise I got into a loop of rebooting. Try to go in Safe Mode and check things out. If you screw things badly, the only way out is to format the HD and reinstall everything from scratch.
 
I wish I could even use a floppy to boot of. The system stops right after the BIOS screen (of the controler card) shows up - doesn't even get to boot.

I'm getting really desperate
 
Ouch!

when I got to this stage, I had to re-format and re-install everything. Did you back-up your important documents? if not, try to put the HD back on the motherboard IDE connectors (I assume that's how you had it before) and save all you can before formatting.

I'm realy sorry about your trouble, that's a bitch of a problem.

Just in case I'm wrong (or too pessimistic) stick around a little longer, maybe someone else might give you another - better - idea.
 
AnitaPeterson - yes, everything is backed up.

Gunbuster - yes, Rapid Resume is available. Do you know what setting I should use (I had it both enabled and disabled - no success).

 
Well, it boots up fine from floppy is I take the controller card out. It just stops with the controller card in the PCI slot. But, I can access the BIOS of the controller card - but there's not much to change in there.
 
mighty odd... try flashing the SIIG's BIOS, if possible...

<edit>er.. actually, n/m, you can access the BIOS of SIIG, so nothing seems to be wrong with that.. this SIIG card, are you using the shielded 80-pin IDE cable? How about try putting the card into another PCI slot?
 
Yep,

tried all the PCI slots, all the IDE connecters on the card, using the supplied 80pin cable
- the SIIG BIOS detects the HD, but then just a blank screen with a DOS-cursor flashing in the right top corner remains - no error messages, nothing.
 
Does it work if you just plug the Maxtor onto the IDE slot on the mobo, and leave the SIIG card in the PCI slot? Maybe it's looking for a boot device on the motherboard IDE slots, and not from the SIIG card.

Lemme get this straight first.. so now *with* the SIIG card you have 2 IDE slots on the motherboard, which is the original ones, and 2 IDE slots on the SIIG card?
 



<< Does it work if you just plug the Maxtor onto the IDE slot on the mobo, and leave the SIIG card in the PCI slot? Maybe it's looking for a boot device on the motherboard IDE slots, and not from the SIIG card. >>



First, the SIIG BIOS screen flashes and I don't see a recognized drive on there, but then
I get a POST error from the IBM BIOS stating a 1800 PCI Error.

It now detects my HD, but only at 8GB (and w/o the controller card).



<< Lemme get this straight first.. so now *with* the SIIG card you have 2 IDE slots on the motherboard, which is the original ones, and 2 IDE slots on the SIIG card? >>


Correct, the SIIG card gives me ATA66 (if I get it to work)
 


<< First, the SIIG BIOS screen flashes and I don't see a recognized drive on there, but then
I get a POST error from the IBM BIOS stating a 1800 PCI Error.

It now detects my HD, but only at 8GB (and w/o the controller card). >>

ooookay.. sounds like a case of bad SIIG card.. maybe.. So now if you take out the SIIG card you can boot up with the Maxtor fine, just that it's running at PIO 3 or 4 mode and max'ed out at 8 GB?



<< Correct, the SIIG card gives me ATA66 (if I get it to work) >>

Gotcha.. wow, a potential of having 8 IDE devices in your computer.. dang that's cool! 😉
 
Oh, but first check with IBM on what &quot;1800 PCI Error&quot; means..

(damn them and their obscure error messages...)
 
According to IBM, this is what is wrong

<< No more hardware interrupt available for PCI adapter >>

, and I should check my ISA Legacy configuration in my BIOS (whatever that means. The BIOS tells me that it will not automatically detect adapter cards. Any idea what to set in the BIOS (IRQ, DMA).

I set every IRQ channel (every channel that was not taken by the MB) to &quot;available&quot;, but I still end up with the blank screen.

 
Too bad I don't have my old EvilAptiva here (gave it to my brother hehe😀) I think I had the same model as U. what a shame🙁 maybe I could have helped U out.
 
I really don't know (i'm no computer expert😱) but maybe the ATA card ain't compitable with PCI v2.0 and requires PCI 2.1 or what new motherboard have.
(I could be wrong here too)
Check the box the card came in or in the manual to see if it said anything about &quot;require emty PCI slot 2.1 or compitable&quot; Or something similar.
 
Update:

I unplugged the HD from the SIIG card and rebooted with no HD.
After the typical SIIG bios screen I get an IBM BIOS error message telling me to insert a start up disk! So apparently, the SIIG alone in the system does work, but not with the HD on the card.

Now what?
 
Now you can try to change the boot sequence (you sure the card is recognized as SCSI ?) to check for the card first. Then connect the Hd again to the controller card and leave the computer off. You say you have a Maxtor? Download the MaxBlast utility fom their website - it'll fix the HD size. Put it on a disk and boot with the disk in. It'll take you to the MaxBlast setup utility. It looks automatically for the HD - first on IDE, then on PCI channels. Let it format to it's heart's content. then you'll be prompted to re-boot. Take the MaxBlast diskette off, put in the Windos boot disk and choose to &quot;Start without CD-ROM support&quot;... then if all goes well, re-install Windows. FIRST thing you do after putting Windows back is to install the controller under Windows!

If you've made it so far, you're set!
 
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