Is Maxtor ATA133 controller the same as Promise Ultra133 TX2?

[Boobers]

Hello all,

A friend of mine gave me a Maxtor ATA133 controller card and I need to know if it is really a Promise Ultra133 TX2 card.

Maxtor doesn't show any BIOS updates, but Promise has a new BIOS for the TX2 (v.2.20.0.15)

My Maxtor ATA133 card looks exactly like the Promise Ultra133 TX2

It uses a Promise PDC20269 chip with a sticker that reads "ATA133 v2.20 B10". The board is silk screened with "Maxtor ATA133 Part # 10999690" (instead of the Promise logo) and "ASY 0126-00 Rev A" (exactly the same as the Promise board). The only difference I see is that my board has a "F" on the board by the mounting bracket, while the Promise has an "E".

I'd like to flash it with the latest Promise BIOS and was wondering if anybody out there has done this to a Maxtor card...

 

[high]

I think they are the same

 

[JustAnAverageGuy]

Make sure you keep a copy of the original BIOS incase something goes... uhm... bad.

 

[beatle]

Maxtor often rebrands Promise cards as their own. The SATA/ATA133 card I received with my hard drive is a rebranded Promise card.

 

[Boobers]

That's a good point, AverageGuy, but Maxtor doesn't provide any BIOS for download, so I have no way to get a copy of the original BIOS.

I'll flash it and see what happens. After all, it was free!

Thanks!

 

[Boobers]

OK, I installed the card and during POST it showed "Ultra133TX2 BIOS v2.20.0050.10" and something about Maxtor ATA133 by Promise.

I ran the BIOS flash program and it gave me the option of saving the original BIOS, so I did.
Then I flashed the new BIOS file (U133B15.bin) that I got from the Promise site. It flashed just fine.

Now when it boots, during POST it shows "Ultra133TX2 v2.20.0.15", and the Maxtor line is gone (Good riddance! )

However, I did have a problem trying to get it to boot. I have 3 optical drives connected to the MB IDE controller, 2 WD HD's connected to the on-board AMI Raid controller, and one WD HD connected to the new Promise controller (I know, this is asking for trouble! ). I think the 3 IDE controllers were giving the MB BIOS quite a fit. I had to change the boot order from "HD0" to "RAID100", and it found my Raid controller and booted normally.

Thanks for the input!
Happy Holidays!