maxtor ultra ATA100 card issues

jayR

Senior member
Apr 25, 2000
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help:

I installed a maxtor ultra ATA100 card into my VA-503+ mobo. The mobo only goes up to UDMA/33.
So I why is my WD UDMA\66 drive slower on the card then on the mother board?

Also, if I connect my CDROM to the card Windows won't boot, but my Sony CDRW works ok connected to the card. Although the CDRW seems slower also.

Any ideas greatly appreciated.

jayR
 

mschell

Senior member
Oct 9, 1999
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Some older motherboards do not support the PCI 2.1 spec. which is used in all PCI cards sold now. No support could mean a hardware conflict which will slow bus throughput. You might try moving the card to other/another PCI slot.
Did you install the controllers drivers. They should show up as SCSI device(s) in the device manager.
 

jayR

Senior member
Apr 25, 2000
644
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thanks mschell. The speed problem went away after I dl'ed and installed the latest drivers from Maxtor. I think I will also see if promise has a newer driver. The issue left is the system hangs if I put my CDROM on the card. But, I think I will leave that on the mobo anyway.

Also, the card was sharing an irq with the agp card, so I moved it.

cheers,
jayR
 

jayR

Senior member
Apr 25, 2000
644
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0
WOW. Check out this nastiness just for va-503+ and this card:

Some Advanced Configuration issues exist with the Ultra33/Ultra66/Ultra100FastTrak/FastTrak66/FastTrak100 and FIC's VA 503+
Motherboard. Under some circumstances (depending on the Hardware on the Motherboard) you could have issues loading the Device Driver for the
Ultra33/Ultra66/Ultra66/FastTrak/FastTrak66/FastTrak100 PCI IDE Controller, especially if you are booting from the Cards. No matter
what you do the driver for the Ultra66/Ultra100/FastTrak/FastTrak66/FastTrak100 never loads. You constantly see the Yellow
Exclamation Mark or in some cases a RED "X" on the Controllers Properties in Device Manager. The problem is a IRQ Steering Issue.
Disabling PCI BUS IRQ Steering allows the Driver for the Ultra33/Ultra66/Ultra100/FastTrak/FastTrak66/FastTrak100 to load but disables
or cripples other PCI Devices. The problem is that the motherboard needs the Latest and Greatest PCI IRQ Routing Table from the System
BIOS. Typically the IRQ Routing Tables are loaded from "MS Routing Specification" or the "PCI 2.1 BIOS CALL". THE ROUTING TABLE NEEDS
TO LOAD FROM THE "ACPI (Advanced Configuration Power Interface) BIOS". THE 503+ HAS A ACPI COMPLIANT BIOS. ACPI SHOULD BE
INVOKED IN THE OPERATING SYSTEM DURING THE INSTALLATION PROCESS OR AFTER THE INSTALLATION OF THE OPERATING SYSTEM HAS
BEEN COMPLETED. IF YOU INVOKE ACPI AFTER THE INSTALL HAS BEEN COMPLETED, DO NOT INSTALL THE VIA BUS MASTER DRIVERS, VIA
IRQ ROUTING PATCH, OR ANY OTHER DEVICE DRIVERS UNTIL ACPI HAS BEEN COMPLETELY INVOKED AND YOU HAVE VERIFIED (SEE
"INVOKING ACPI IN WIN98/98SE", LINK IS BELOW) THAT THE ROUTING TABLE IS BEING READ FROM THE ACPI BIOS.

**NOTE: This issue not only effects our PCI Controllers but other devices as well. Also you must have the current SYSTEM BIOS for the
Motherboard. Go to http://www.fic.com.tw/techsupport/bios/update/default.htm and flash the motherboard BIOS FIRST, BEFORE
INVOKING ACPI.



Click here for Instructions on How to Invoke ACPI in Windows 98/98SE