WinMe, MSI K7T Pro2-A, and IDE Bus Master ATA100 problems (4in1)...

[Snelski]

So now I've been reading that tons of people have issues with the same thing I've been struggling with since I got the MSI Pro2-A. Whenever I try to install any of the IDE busmaster updates, or even the Mini-Port driver, the system runs fantastic but my CD-ROMS start screwing up...all of a sudden I can't run setup from numerous programs (just comes up with some weird message that some files are missing or corrupted supposedly) and the autorun also bombs the same way.

It happened immediately after installing the very same drivers from the CD-ROM that came with the mobo, and it happens anytime I try to install VIA's IDE Busmaster updated files (all the way up to the 4in1 v2.8). Of course when I uninstall the driver everything works fine again - including the setup commands and autorun feature, but then it's just slow as heck since UDMA is not enabled...is there a fix for this that anyone knows of? I would like to enable the onboard ATA100 controller since that's one of the main reasons I bought the board for, but this is driving me nuts!!!

I've already been to all kinds of sites, and even a VIA Hardware forum that details tons of people having issues in ALL MS operating systems, and all point to the Bus Master drivers from VIA as being the culprit. I've decided to run my hard drive off my Promise ATA100 controller, but this is ridiculous and I'm not going to take this from VIA if I can help it.

Anyway, please let me know if anyone of a working solution to this issue I would greatly appreciate the answer. If not VIA better get it's act together or they will turn away many of us that just switched from BX boards...thank you for helping if you can .

 

[scotter]

you need to update the bios there is a new version that fix's that

 

[Snelski]

I have the newest v2.2 version - it didn't fix that problem sorry to say...anyone else have another suggestion?

 

[LeeBear]

LOL! Sorry for laughing Snelski, but it's funny cause I resorted to doing the same thing I bought a Promise Ultra 66 Controller (it was cheaper and easier to modify to a Fastrak then the 100). I've tried everything too, default Windows Drivers... Via Drivers... every version, VSD and miniport. The miniport almost seemed to work, but it screws up my SCSI CD Writer, and it also still locks up when I put enough load on the Ultra 100 controller. I'm very disappointed giving up my trusty old Abit BH6 for this

-LeeBear

 

[dman]

Don't know what the fuss is about? I musta got lucky. For one, the Default Win98SE DMA drivers worked fine. I went ahead and installed the latest VIA 4in1 drivers from via.com.tw and left AGP unchecked so that I could install the separate AGP drivers from the same site.

So far everything works well--except-- I can't figure out how to install the latest audio drivers. I am able to install from the CD that came with the MB. However, anything newer I get as far as "insert disk w/ viaudio.cat" and then it can't find that driver. It does not appear to be in the archive.

 

[mastertech01]

Snelsky! I thought I would never see you abandon Intel..LOL Well good luck bud... VIA killed me at every turn so I Returned to Intel.. hope you get it squared away..

 

[GT578]

I guess I'm not the only one using a Promise Ultra100 card instead of the onboard ATA100 on the MSI....

 

[Snelski]

LeeBear, yeah I know - I gave up my Asus P3BF for this, and that board just simply rocked!!! I already had an extra ATA100 Promise controller handy, it's just that I really don't want to do that since I bought the stupid board for the exact reason to have the ATA100 onboard ...

Well guess what? I figured out at least part of it. I was in the middle of building my brother-in-law's system with the same Pro2-A mobo and his has Win98SE loaded and didn't seem to have the problem I was having. So I figured okay, let's just switch mobos and see what happens - BAM, same thing! Okay so what's different on mine than his that allows the same mini-port drivers to be installed (including the IDETOOL utility)??? Well, I thought about it and it is NOT the hard drive that's having problems with the drivers, just the CD-ROMs and DVD-ROMs and CDRWs...but I ALSO had CD-ROM and CDRW drives on my brother-in-law's systems, so why does it work for him and not me?

Turns out that his stuff is older and doesn't support DMA settings, so it is NOT enabled on the drives according to the IDE tool. So I changed my CD/DVD-ROM and CDRW settings to PIO Mode 4 instead of UDMA2, but I left the ATA100 enabled in the meantime...and now everthing works fine again, WITH ATA100 enabled for the hard drive. But I cannot enable the CD-ROMs or the same problem occurs again. At least I can now do away with the Promise controller again and at least the hard drive is now properly supported - and let me tell you that this hard drive flies with this setting, just don't ask me about the other drives in PIO Mode 4...

Anyway, just thought I might update this post with that - and if anyone has any other ideas on how I would be able to activate UDMA2 for the ROM drives I would greatly appreciate it if you posted .

dman6666, with the default Win98SE drivers it works fine but then you don't have ATA66 or ATA100 support - which makes a HUGE difference on the newer ATA100 capable drives. You're basically running at ATA33 if you're enabling UDMA through Device Manager. That viaudio.cat file is located in the ZIP file, I'm emailing you the drivers if you want them - just unzip them in a folder you can easily point to when it asks you for them . Hope that solves your problem for the audio.

 

[Snelski]

dman6666 - well, I can't email you the ZIP file if you don't show an email addy . Anyway, if you already have the drivers, simply unzip them in a folder you can point to and you should be fine.

GT578 - nope you're not, but I just found a way around it and it's working as long as I leave the PIO Mode 4 settings on the ROM drives .

mastertech01 - actually I started out with AMD, it was the lack of motherboard support that steered me to Intel for quite some time. My 1133Mhz T-Bird is running great though and as long as I can get this problem worked out permanently soon I see no reason to ditch AMD. I have 2 other Intel systems though, my kids have another P3BF with a 700e @ 868Mhz that runs great with a 32MB V770 and 256MB PC133 RAM . My server is also Intel, I'm just checking the other side out now that they're getting more reliable - I gotta say that this thing flies though!!!

 

[dman]

Snelski Thanks for the offer... but... I'm not sure I need the vaudio.cat files. I do have the drivers installed from the MSI Audio Drivers. For some reason the VIA updated drivers still ask for a vaudio.cat that is NOT in the archive (I've re-downloaded and manually extracted and searched both the archive and the extracted files and it's not there). I suspected that an older info was referencing the file and it wasn't needed, but:

I checked \windows\inf\other for old via inf's but didn't see any. I also tried uninstalling, rebooting, and reinstalling but that didn't allow me to use the new drivers either.

In summary the file via1611a.zip from MSI works fine. It has a vaudio.sys file of 1/28/00 and a vaudio.cat from 2/2/00 (in the win98se dir).

The 68mu111c.exe from VIA does NOT have the vaudio.cat file in it. The vaudio.sys in that archive is dated 6/7/00. The odd part is that the inf file in this archive surely references a vaudio.cat so I assume it is missing from the latest archive?

Anyway, if you still want to email me files dman6666@lycos.com will work, but, no need to unless you are sure your drivers are the current ones for the 68mu111c.exe from VIA.

BTW, Glad to see you got your DMA prob's worked around. Hopefully VIA will get around to updating the drivers. FWIW, I've always had problems with 3rd party DMA Drivers, so, I usually resort to win9x unless I am forced otherwise. I'm using the VIA drivers now and since I don't have IDE cdrom's (using SCSI) I appear to be safe for now--which also explains why I didn't have the problems anyone else had.