WD600ABRTL ULTRA ATA 100 problem with Cable???

[vmarkx3]

My Specs:

EPOX 8K3A with AMD 1600+ XP
ANTEC 300WATT PS
PC2100 256 MEG
WINXP
G3 Ti200

HD Setup:

Primary IDE0: IBM 27GIG HD (MASTER) and CDRW (SLAVE)
Secondary IDE1: WD600ABRTL Western Digital HD (MASTER)

I just upgraded from MSI K7 Pro Motherboard with AMD 700 Tbird to EPOX 8K3A with AMD 1600+ XP. Everything worked great in my old setup.

Using the 40 pin 80-conductor IDE interface cable supplied with the
WD600ABRTL Hard Drive resulted with the BIOS/computer not recognizing it while the IBM and CDRW were recognized during POST. After WINDOWS XP PRO fully loaded, the WD600ABRTL Hard Drive was accessible as a "multi word DMA 2". I figured maybe the BIOS was not recognizing the WD600ABRTL Hard Drive correctly, but then I hooked the WD600ABRTL HD using a different interface cable from the motherboard manufacture (EPOX 8K3A), a ULTRA ATA 100 cable, which at POST/BOOT UP the BIOS / COMPUTER Recognized the WD600ABRTL correctly (ATA100 device) in either Primarly IDE0 or Secondary IDE1.

This leads me to belief that the supplied 40 pin, 80 conductor IDE interface cable supplied with WD600ABRTL Hard Drive is NOT compatible with KT333 Chipset's IDE Interface.

Provided Western Digital's "100% Guaranteed Compatibility", I requested a replacement IDE interface cable that is able to handle ULTRA ATA 100 WD600ABRTL Hard Drive. No rely back yet.

Any suggestions welcome.

 

[GAZZA]

Have you tried attaching that particular IDE cable that is suspect to your Primary IDE0: IBM 27GIG HD (MASTER) and CDRW (SLAVE) and seeing if it gives you the same issues such as lowering the UDMA/PIO mode ?

 

[vmarkx3]

After more playing around, my findings:

The BIOS doesn't pick the HDs unless their both connected to the same IDE port (PRIMARY IDE0 or SECONDARY IDE1).

Any other combination leads to one of the HDs not being recognized by the BIOS.

Yes, the settings for MASTER and SLAVE were set correctly for each test.

Likely problem: BIOS or VIA 4-in-1 drivers ??

 

[vmarkx3]

Update:

Updated the BIOS, still the same problem exists.

Any way to verify if the VIA 4-in-1 is working?

 

[vmarkx3]

After looking around numerous forums, found others with same problem.

Having the same problem here only that my Western Digital is detected but under 'Primary IDE Channel' I can only get 'Multi Word DMA Mode 2' support. I have checked the cables, bios settings and downloaded ALL the VIA IDE programs from their website-nothing works. I have also tried to flash the bios-nothing! Can someone please help?

System Specs:

Ahlon XP 2000+
Dfi AD73Pro
2x128 Micron 266ddr
WD 7200rpm 100ata 30gig (no other devices on the cable)
Samsung CD Writer
Creative 52 Infra
300 watt Power
Onboard Sound
------------------------------------------------------
Okay I have done alot of research on this. The problem is not sofware based! It is your bios that is the problem. Go to the Gigabyte site and download the latest bios there or click on the link below.

I hope it works for you! Latest Bios for GA-7ZXE
---------------------------------------------------
Hi guys, thanks for the input. If already got F8 Bios installed, which is the latest I believe. I managed to get my machine to instal the 4-1 driver, it had selected DMA box ticked, I undid this and rebooted the system, its speed has increased greatly. I still cant see the hard disc name in properties manager and it calls it GENERIC TYPE 47. sHOULD i ENABLE S.M.A.R.T IN MY BIOS, what exactly is it ?

 

[vmarkx3]

Someone suggested this:

===========

Ok, downloaded and installed the IDE mini port driver w/tools..
reconfigured the HDs to separate IDE0 and IDE1 connectors.

VIA IDETOOL shows:

IBM 27GIG UDMA mode 4 (ATA66)
WD 60GIG UDMA mode 5 (ATA100)

solved?

HELL NO!

WINXP's Device Manager shows WD 60GIG as a UDMA mode 2 (ATA33) !!!

The boot up time was: 1 min during POST for "Detecting IDE Drives" and another 2 min to load up WINXP.

Compared to when both HDs are on same IDE connector: 5 secs at POST and 30 secs to load up WINXP!

Feels like all the HDs are running at ATA33, REALLY slow! Should have states with the AMD760 Chipset !!

HELP!!

 

[KGB]

Are you sure about the correct Master/Slave jumpers?
WD is notorious for their "Master Only" and "Master w/ Slave Present" settings.
Make sure your WD is jumpered for the latter.

 

[vmarkx3]

KGBMAN

I'll triple check this again. Will report results later today.

You have got the cable the correct way round ?

Yes, its setup up correctly. I am sure its a simple explanation for the problem, all aspects need to be addressed.


ai5u (from viaarena.com) suggestion,

You could try one other option - Set both ur HDD's on the Primary EDIE port - and set ur jumpers on both hdd's to "cable select"
and your CD/R-RW on the Secondary EIDE port.

Maybe better luck w/this

I'll try this later on, I am off fishing for the today. Need some R & R.

Thanks for the suggestions

 

[vmarkx3]

Problem Solved, apparently it was with the settings on the WD. Choices SINGLE, DUAL/MASTER, DUAL/SLAVE, or CS. I was using DUAL/MASTER instead on SINGLE. PICKY PICKY!! Thanks for KGBMAN and millerman61 (viahardware.com) for pointing this out.


HD Setup:

Primary IDE0: IBM 27GIG HD (MASTER) and CDRW (SLAVE)
Secondary IDE1: WD600ABRTL Western Digital HD (MASTER)

Thanks for everyones inputs!!