hard drive size problem?

I have a system that uses the Aopen AP5VM motherboard with AMI v2.50
BIOS. I am trying to upgrade to a 40 gig IDE HD and am getting errors
evry time. Ihave tried with Windows 2000 Pro and get a kernel
exception. When I try with W98 I get a dos extender error. I have
tried with Disk Manager to get around the BIOS size limit, but still
get errors. I've tried various seemingly plausible variations in the
install, but no joy.

Ideas? Pointers to online material?


Dave

 

"Dave Stevens" <> wrote in message
news:...
> I have a system that uses the Aopen AP5VM motherboard with AMI v2.50
> BIOS. I am trying to upgrade to a 40 gig IDE HD and am getting errors
> evry time. Ihave tried with Windows 2000 Pro and get a kernel
> exception. When I try with W98 I get a dos extender error. I have
> tried with Disk Manager to get around the BIOS size limit, but still
> get errors. I've tried various seemingly plausible variations in the
> install, but no joy.
>
> Ideas? Pointers to online material?
>
>
> Dave

I would flash the BIOS. It looks like there is a problem with your BIOS
version according to the AOpen site:
http://download.aopen.com.tw/downlo...=&seltype=BIOS&keyword=AP5VM&Language=English

or

http://tinyurl.com/sm8l

Just make sure you match the BIOS to your board revision number.

If you want to use the Disk Manager, it should work after that. I'm not a
big fan of it, but it does work. There can be problems if you ever try to
restore a backup image such as from Norton Ghost or Drive Image Pro, but if
you don't use them it shouldn't be an issue. In my opinion, the best
solution would be a hard drive controller card. The reasons for this are
twofold. First, they support at least a 137GB hard drive, and second, your
motherboard uses PIO4 mode ATA interface which is extremely slow by today's
standards. This mode transfers data at 16.6MB/sec max. where as most hard
drives now support 100 or 133MB/sec. transfer rate. These are ATA100 and
ATA133 interface. The cards a re very simple to install in an open PCI slot
and are relatively inexpensive, especially if you shop on eBay. Information
on these cards can be found at www.promise.com and you can look for prices
on www.pricewatch.com. Your hard drive is more than likely an ATA66 or
ATA100, so I would go with the ATA100 card which is Promise model Ultra100
TX2. I just looked on eBay and these are available there for $15-20.

HTH
Chris

 

Dave,

I ran into similar problems when upgrading a client's older
AP5VM. I finally had to use a Promise Ultra66 PCI card to get
around the BIOS limitation.

You can find similar Promise cards for dirt cheap on eBay.

Good luck,

"Dave Stevens" <> wrote in message
news:...
> I have a system that uses the Aopen AP5VM motherboard with
AMI v2.50
> BIOS. I am trying to upgrade to a 40 gig IDE HD and am
getting errors
> evry time. Ihave tried with Windows 2000 Pro and get a kernel
> exception. When I try with W98 I get a dos extender error. I
have
> tried with Disk Manager to get around the BIOS size limit,
but still
> get errors. I've tried various seemingly plausible variations
in the
> install, but no joy.
>
> Ideas? Pointers to online material?
>
>
> Dave

 

good suggestions both. thanks very much, i'll try the controller card.

dave




"Michael J. Apollyon" <> wrote in message news:<6Avnb.20191$>...
> Dave,
>
> I ran into similar problems when upgrading a client's older
> AP5VM. I finally had to use a Promise Ultra66 PCI card to get
> around the BIOS limitation.
>
> You can find similar Promise cards for dirt cheap on eBay.
>
> Good luck,
>
> "Dave Stevens" <> wrote in message
> news:...
> > I have a system that uses the Aopen AP5VM motherboard with
> AMI v2.50
> > BIOS. I am trying to upgrade to a 40 gig IDE HD and am
> getting errors
> > evry time. Ihave tried with Windows 2000 Pro and get a kernel
> > exception. When I try with W98 I get a dos extender error. I
> have
> > tried with Disk Manager to get around the BIOS size limit,
> but still
> > get errors. I've tried various seemingly plausible variations
> in the
> > install, but no joy.
> >
> > Ideas? Pointers to online material?
> >
> >
> > Dave