BIOS for Maxtor Ultra ATA133 PCI Adapter Card

[yawny]

Hey all,

I thought this group might be best place for my request. I recently purchased a Maxtor 200GB drive that came with the fore mentioned adapter card. After installation I was having problems with mouse and sound event stuttering under XP Pro, so I went looking for updated drivers and BIOS.

I found updated drivers on the Maxtor site but the problem persisted. I looked again for an updated BIOS but the only one they have available for download is for the Ultra ATA100 PCI Adapter Card.

I went to the Promise site (who make the Maxtor card) and found an updated BIOS for their 133TX2 card, downloaded it and installed it. I thought I had backed up the original BIOS before flashing the card but the floppy I used had bad sectors and the backup was trashed. The Promise BIOS works fine, but I'm still having the stutttering problem.

I want to go back to the original BIOS and start over. I've contacted Maxtor but they don't have it available for download and won't e-mail it to me for some reason. Promise has their BIOS's available, why not Maxtor?? Maxtor did say that the one I got from Promise should work fine, although they won't help me with the original.

Anyway, can someone who has this card please backup their original Maxtor BIOS and post it here or e-mail it to me?? If so, please send to deeponeX@Xhawaii.rr.com. Take out the "x's" to reply. Thanks for any help.

yawny

 

[RanDum72]

I have the same problems with the Promise (maxtor) Ultra133 TX2 controller and a Maxtor 160gig drive (8mb cache version). Installed latest BIOS/drivers and it doesn't help. The only thing that made it a littel better is if you set the PCI latency timer under your mobo's BIOS to anything longer than the default 32 ( I set mine to 64).

 

[yawny]

Originally posted by: RanDum72
I have the same problems with the Promise (maxtor) Ultra133 TX2 controller and a Maxtor 160gig drive (8mb cache version). Installed latest BIOS/drivers and it doesn't help. The only thing that made it a littel better is if you set the PCI latency timer under your mobo's BIOS to anything longer than the default 32 ( I set mine to 64).

You might try the v.29 drivers from Promise. They are not certified by WQHL but they seem to work better than the newer versions.

Which BIOS did you install?? From Promise or Maxtor... and what version?? If from Maxtor, where did you find it?? Did you back up the original?? If so, can you e-mail it to me??

Thanks for any help,
yawny

 

[RanDum72]

I have tried both versions of the drivers. No difference. The BIOS is from Promise (version 2.20.0.14). I don't think there is any difference between the BIOS from Promise and Maxtor if they are the same version ( apart from a different name showing upon booting up). Why do you need to install the older BIOS if both versions have the same problems? Might as well keep the newer one.

 

[yawny]

Originally posted by: RanDum72
Why do you need to install the older BIOS if both versions have the same problems? Might as well keep the newer one.

Because the Maxtor BIOS may be newer than the Promise version. I didn't get a chance to see the date of the Maxtor BIOS before I flashed it with the Promise version. I'm running the Promise BIOS v2.20.0.12 and driver v.29. The v2.20.0.14 had an update for Linux which I'm not running so I didn't choose that one.

After reading around this forum, I uninstalled an update I got from Windows update that helped a lot. If you have update Q811493 installed, uninstall it and see what happens. You can always reinstall it. The system slow downs and slow program loading I was experiencing vanished and the system seems to be a lot quicker than before.

I still would like to try the Maxtor BIOS again, just to see what happens. If you have it and can make a copy, let me know. Thanks for your help.

yawny

 

[RanDum72]

I don't think the Maxtor BIOS would be newer than what Promise has. Promise is the one that makes the adapter; its only normal they will have the latest drivers/BIOS updates. As for the Maxtor BIOS, I don't have it. But after using the Maxtor BIOS for a month, I can say with certainty there is absolutely NOTHING different with the newer Promise BIOS in terms of behavior.

The problem that I had was not slow loading up of programs, it was rather the jerkiness that follows after every harddrive access. It was fast but jerky. It goes away a bit after I set the PCI latency higher. I also tried another Promise adapter (Ultra 100) and the problems are not there too. The Ultra 133 TX2 card also runs smoother with regular ATA 100 drives ( not the ATA133's).