How to disable ATA-66 on BE6 Mobo?

[rfan622]

Anyone know how to disable the built-in highpoint ATA-66 controller? I installed a Maxtor ATA-100 and my system runs significantly faster, but I can't disable the Highpoint ATA-66 controller, so I have three IDE controllers running.

-thanks

 

[phobos]

It's in the BIOS. I think it's Integrated Peripherals or Advanced Chipset Options, but it's there. Something like "Onboard DMA66 controller" Enable/Disable

 

[Aboroth]

I have two BE6's and I can't find anything in the BIOS that has anything to do with disabling the ATA66 controller. Abit tech support told me that I couldn't.

However, after looking through newsgroups for an answer, I found the following instructions for removing the ATA66 from your BIOS by modifying the .bin file and then flashing the BIOS. I haven't tried it yet, but I hope it works. I am planning on doing this soon.

------------------------------------------

!!! DO THE FOLLOWING AT YOUR OWN RISK. IF YOUR MB !!!
!!! DOESN'T WORK AFTER FLASHING IT'S YOUR FAULT !!!

1.Download CBROM from http://www.virtualhideout.net/guides/bios_logo_mods/index.shtml (last page)
2.If you type "cbrom be6_th.bin /d" you will see

******** be6_th.bin BIOS component ********

No. Item-Name Original-Size Compressed-Size Original-File-Name
================================================================================
0. System BIOS 20000h(128.00K) 15035h (84.05K) original.tmp
1. XGROUP CODE 08520h(33.28K) 0591Bh (22.28K) awardext.rom
2. CPU micro code 0A000h(40.00K) 05D03h (23.25K) CPUCODE.BIN
3. ACPI table 023A7h(8.91K) 00EEAh (3.73K) ACPITBL.BIN
4. EPA pattern 00642h(1.56K) 002A1h (0.66K) AWARDEPA.BIN
5. YGROUP ROM 02660h(9.59K) 01ADDh (6.72K) awardeyt.rom
6. PCI driver[A] 060EBh(24.23K) 038B6h (14.18K) HPT_125.BIN

3.Remove the PCI driver[A] with "cbrom be6_th.bin /pci release"
4.The HPT BIOS is gone and "cbrom be6_th.bin /d" will show

******** be6_th.bin BIOS component ********

No. Item-Name Original-Size Compressed-Size Original-File-Name
================================================================================
0. System BIOS 20000h(128.00K) 15035h(84.05K) original.tmp
1. XGROUP CODE 08520h(33.28K) 0591Bh(22.28K) awardext.rom
2. CPU micro code 0A000h(40.00K) 05D03h(23.25K) CPUCODE.BIN
3. ACPI table 023A7h(8.91K) 00EEAh(3.73K) ACPITBL.BIN
4. EPA pattern 00642h(1.56K) 002A1h(0.66K) AWARDEPA.BIN
5. YGROUP ROM 02660h(9.59K) 01ADDh(6.72K) awardeyt.rom

5.Flash the BIOS
6.No more annoying HPT stuff! 🙂

 

[rfan622]

have you tried this out yet? does it work?

 

[Mustanggt]

why would you even want to do this?

 

[rfan622]

because the built-in controller is horrible and has major incompatibility problems with many hard drives.

i did the hack on my bios and it worked (comp still boots). but when i deleted the highpoint controller from win2k, the computer read "inaccessible boot device." and then in win98 everything was messed up. well i finally got win98 working, but a hard drive is missing! the computer detects the hard drive, but i don't see any of the drive letters!

 

[ApacheXMD]

how bout just not plugging your drives into the ata66 headers?

-patchy

 

[rfan622]

if i do that it'll work..except there are too many resources split between the 3 hard disk controllers (the built in mobo UMDA, the built in Highpoint UDMA66, and the Promise UDMA100) in win2k, i can get all 3 controllers to somewhat coexist. but in win98, it's completely out of the question.