ATA133 Driver Installation

[nvs]

I just put together a Gigabyte GA-7vrxp with a Maxtor Ultra ATA 133 drive. After booting, I get a message stating that the Ultra ATA 133 drive is not recognized and SiSandra indicates that the drive is running slow. I can't get the Hardware Device Driver update with Win2000 to recognize the new Promise Ultra ATA 133 drivers either on the CD Rom or when transfered to a floppy; the update program keeps picking up standard Microsoft IDE drivers.

Any ideas on how to get the new ATA133 drivers recognized by Win2000?

 

[khha4113]

Did you install <b><A HREF="http://www.viaarena.com/?PageID=2" target="_new"><font color=red>VIA 4-in-1 driver 4.37(A)</A></b></font color=red> or later (they support ATA133)?

Good or Bad have no meaning at all, depends on what your point of view is.

 

[nvs]

Yes, and the correct ATA 133 driver shows up in the RAID controller, but not in the regular IDE primary or secondary bus controller. When I try to update the regular controllers through Device Manager, they keep pulling up the Microsoft drivers, rather than the ATA133 ones off of the CD ROM disc. This is what has been so frustrating.

Any other thoughts?

 

[jlanka]

which IDE bus is the Maxtor on? The regular one or the RAID controller? Is the RAID controller enabled or disabled?

Also, are you using the 80 conductor cable (probably so but never hurts to ask)?

<i>It's always the one thing you never suspected.</i>

 

[nvs]

a) Maxtor is on Primary IDE Controller / Hitachi DVD Rom is on Secondary
b) RAID Controller - Under the BIOS, there is a setting for "Onboard PROMISE Chip" the setting was ATA, alternatives were RAID, ATA or DISABLED; Under Device Manager, the RAID setting was Enabled (I presume it would be over-ridden by the BIOS, but this might not be true).

c) Used the color coded IDE cable that came with the motherboard and is definately 80 conductors.

 

[jlanka]

I don't think there are vendor specific drivers for the standard IDE controller, just for the Promise. So MS drivers for IDE1 and IDE2 are your only option.

<i>It's always the one thing you never suspected.</i>

 

[nvs]

jlanka,

Thanks very much for your last reply. Anticipating one of your thoughts, I disabled RAID under Device Manager. Also, I went into the Device Manger Driver Update section and obtained some additional information:
a) Current Driver is Microsoft 5.0.2183.1 dated 11/14/1999
b) I tried to update this driver by directing the Device Manager Update software to browse the Unzipped file for the latest 4 in 1 drivers on the C drive. Within this, I went to file 20276; within that, there were two options, ATA133 and Ideraid, I choose ATA133, which left me four options:
NT4, WIN2000, Win9x-Me and WinXP.

I tried both WIN2000 and WinXP.

In both cases, I received the following Windows generated message, "The specified location does not contain information about your hardware."

I'm stumped, stupidified or a shortened version of the later word and missing something really obvious.

Again, thanks very much for your help.

nvs

 

[jlanka]

cancel what I said about vendor specific. I meant that on Gigabyte level. The 4-in-1's are what you need. I think you have to run the install, instead of trying to pick them off explicitly like you tried. Check out the <A HREF="http://www.viahardware.com/download/DriverInstallationGuide.htm" target="_new"><font color=red>installation guide</font color=red></A> for 4in1

<i>It's always the one thing you never suspected.</i>

 

[nvs]

jlanka,

That's what I tried originally. Plus, I tried it again this morning. khha4113's original post clued me onto the 4 in 1 updates and the basic Viarena web support area. Realistically, the update ought to work both ways, although I, like you, beleive in the automatic one first.

Consequently, after the ideas I got from you, I've posted my lasted debugging routine on their support site and hope to get a reply. Sadly, Maxtor's response is, it's not their problem, which is unfortunate because their drives are great and I've historically had great support.

Also, Gigabyte has not responded. I've even tried re-setting the Bios to its basic settings. Incidently, I was pleased that the GA-7vrxp came up and ran without a hitch, except for this one. I'm really surprised at how poor the Gigabyte FAQ section is / lack of community support or any on-line / phone or some sort economically rationale support is.

Thanks again for your help.

Best regards,

nvs

 

[jlanka]

check out <A HREF="http://www.viaarena.com/?PageID=66" target="_new"><font color=red>this page</font color=red></A>, it may be what you need

<i>It's always the one thing you never suspected.</i>

 

[phsstpok]

Not sure that this all you need but you should get the Via IDE Miniport driver for ATA133 support under both Windows 2000 and XP. This driver is NOT included with the 4-in-1 drivers. To get it click the link below.

<A HREF="http://www.viaarena.com/?PageID=66" target="_new">http://www.viaarena.com/?PageID=66</A>

<b>[Edit]</b> Jlanka beat me to it!

<b>I have so many cookies I now have a FAT problem!</b><P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by phsstpok on 07/29/02 11:43 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[nvs]

Jlanka and Phsstpok,

I would have thought that you both were correct; nonetheless, the results don't seem to pan out.

First, only the MiniPort Driver will install (the IDE Filter Driver is rejected by WIN2000). When the MiniPort driver does install, it essentially comes up as a 1999 Microsoft SCSI driver (like the installation guide indicates). At that point, I was excited.

Unfortunately, when I ran SiSandra for File performance benchmarks, I found that the system slowed down to 25.8 gb/sec from 27.3 gb previously, both relative to a presumed 29.2 for an ATA100 80gb drive as a comparison. Of course, I understand that comparing this drive to the theoretical ATA100 may be off, but when it slows down relative to the Microsoft IDE driver, things must not be working well.

I don't know how to translate XX gb/sec into 133mhz to get any clue about what is going on, or even if that is possible. Presuming that the SiSandra standard is OK, I would have expected about 35gb / sec. Alternatively, with the ATA133 driver working, I would think that my original 27.3 gb would have increased 20% to 32.8 gb (according to Maxtor, an ATA133 drive runs about 20% faster than ATA100 after overhead, etc.) So, no matter what, I would think that this performance factor ought to be in the low 30 gbs, rather than the mid 20 gbs.

Hence my conclusion that even though the MiniPort Driver installed, since it slowed the system down, something still isn't right.

So far, you folks have been putting me onto the right track. It is, however, still mystery meat about why the drive is running slow.

Thanks very much for your help.

Best regards,

nvs

 

[jlanka]

what is the current transfer mode in the IDE Channel properties? That at least should say UDMA Mode 6, which is at least half the battle.

<i>It's always the one thing you never suspected.</i>