Poll: KT7 & Western Digital WD205BA ATA66 problem

[dan2k]

I just purchased an Abit KT7 motherboard. The problem I'm having with it is with the Western Digital WD205BA 20gig UDMA66 hard drive. When ever I enable UDMA66 in Win98SE, my computer would pause during file transfer. For example, I copy one folder (~40megs) to another folder, my computer would pause/freeze for about 5-10sec then copy some more then pause a bit then copy some more and so on. However, if I disable UDMA66 then I don't have this problem. I have tested this WD205BA hard drive on an AOpen AX63pro motherboard, which also supports ATA66, and it works fine.

I have installed the latest driver from VIA's 4in1 driver v4.24 and according to abit's web site (www.abit.com.tw) my motherboard have the latest BIOS. I have the 80pin cable installed with the WD205BA ATA66 hard drive. The setup with the Abit KT7 motherboard, only have an AGP TNT2 video card, 128meg memory, floppy, WD205BA ATA66 Western Digital Hard Drive, and AMD Duron 600mhz processor.

Is there a conflict with Abit KT7's EIDE controller with Western Digital WD205BA ATA66 hard drive?

Please help,

Dan2k

 

[dan2k]

After some troubleshooting, I found out what the problem is. For some reason, the Master IDE controller have problem when I enable UDMA66 on two of my hard drives I tested. However, if I just attach the hard drive to the Secondary IDE controller, the UMDA66 enabled works fine. Does this mean my Abit KT7 is defected?

 

[ksclay]

I have the same Abit board (from Microbarn) and WD205A 20GB drive (from Sam's Club). I have the same problem too, except I tried running the hard drive on the secondary controller like you did and it still pauses the system. If I disable UDMA in the BIOS and set to PIO mode 4, there are no freeze ups, but i'm stuck with 16MB/s slow junk. I tested the hard drive on a FIC board with i810 chipset and it works great.

What power supply are you using??

 

[dan2k]

I have a 254watt power supply from NSpire, but does that really matters? I know it's the Abit KT7 because on other motherboard both hard drive works fine with UDMA66 enable.

 

[billyjak]

You might want to try VIA's 425a driver. I have it on my Abit KT7 Raid. Forgot where I got it from. Will try to locate it and post it If I find it.