Heavy problems with BE6 and XP

Epis · Oct 7, 2003

Hi all,

I have a BE6 mainboard. As soon as I upgraded to XP Pro from 2K I started having problems: random lockups with the HD led on. It occurred mostly when reading/writing large video files.

I read that the cause would be the onboard HPT366 controller, so I got a Maxtor (Promise) UATA133 board.

I connected my 2 IBM HDs (10 and 30 GB) to the board, and left the the CD-ROM and CD-RW drives connected to mainboard's IDE1 connector.

Now the system boots fine, but XP won't start normally at all (the progress bar stays on for a very long time and then I get a message saying I should try to start in safe mode).

When I start XP in safe mode, it starts, but very very slowly, and the computer makes a sound as if something is being switched on and off every few seconds, possibly when the system is trying to access something on the drives. All the drives are visible and everything works after the startup, that takes something like 5 to 10 minutes.

Also I can't disable the HPT366 controller in device manager, because every time I log on I get the new hardware found message on the HPT.

Any ideas? Would re-installing XP do any good? Any BIOS settings to fiddle with? Should I connect the CD drives to the Maxtor as well?

Any help appreciated,

M

J.R. Allas · Oct 7, 2003

Sounds similar to the problems I was having. I was having a hell of a time with Win XP PRO running on my KR7A mobo. Win 98ME didn't have any problems with it, but make damn sure you have the APIC mode turned off in your BIOS, then re-install Windows XP. If APIC is already turned off, then I apologize for wasting your time...

John Lewis · Oct 7, 2003

On 7 Oct 2003 00:52:20 -0700, (Epis) wrote:

Hi all,

I have a BE6 mainboard. As soon as I upgraded to XP Pro from 2K I started having problems: random lockups with the HD led on. It occurred mostly when reading/writing large video files.

I read that the cause would be the onboard HPT366 controller, so I got a Maxtor (Promise) UATA133 board.

I connected my 2 IBM HDs (10 and 30 GB) to the board, and left the the CD-ROM and CD-RW drives connected to mainboard's IDE1 connector.

...

Did you disable the HPT in BIOS? See the BE6 manual for the the correct BIOS entry. Manual is on-line at Abit if dog has eaten original copy.

Have you tried your IBMs on IDE1 ( Set to Master and Slave) and your CD-ROM/CD-RW on IDE2 ?

I am a little puzzled why you bothered with the UATA board at all. Surely your IBM drives of that size are a little old, ATA 66 or less ? Hardly see any performance difference using IDE1 instead of the Maxtor controller. The Maxtor also consumes a valuable PCI interrupt. The HPT366 consumes another unless it is not enabled in BIOS.

John Lewis

Any ideas? Would re-installing XP do any good? Any BIOS settings to fiddle with? Should I connect the CD drives to the Maxtor as well?

Any help appreciated,

M

TomG · Oct 7, 2003

if the OS was originally on the Highpoint controller and you then moved the drives with the OS to the Promise, then the OS is sort of getting lost when it is trying to boot because it is trying to find the boot path to the Highpoint, in so many words.

reinstalling would likely be a good fix and you will have to remember to hit F6 to install the Promise drivers early in the install when prompted for third party drivers.

as for the Highpoint controller, just hit cancel on the driver install and then go into device manager and select Do Not Use This Device at the bottom of the dialog.

TomG · Oct 7, 2003

John,

The BE6 does not have the ability to disable the Highpoint controller in the bios.

0_Qed · Oct 7, 2003

TomG wrote:

if the OS was originally on the Highpoint controller and you then moved the drives with the OS to the Promise, then the OS is sort of getting lost when it is trying to boot because it is trying to find the boot path to the Highpoint, in so many words.

reinstalling would likely be a good fix and you will have to remember to hit F6 to install the Promise drivers early in the install when prompted for third party drivers.

as for the Highpoint controller, just hit cancel on the driver install and then go into device manager and select Do Not Use This Device at the bottom of the dialog.

Cant but agree fully ... all your points ..

Raises the <?> of =really= starting with a "clean slate" ... IE ... your OS 're_install' on top of an empty ESCD data area .

<?>
Can you use your influence with Abit to get them add a "small" feature to the Abit DOS flasher which simply, just "clears" the ESCD data in the eeprom chip, and which does =not= reflash the bios file in the head-end of the chip ??

It would 'seem' that
. a) an 'empty' ESCD area, leading to a new, clean re_probe , plus . b) an OS re_install, would lead to a better install ... yes ??

*If* I recall correctly, the 'flasher' quickly shuts down if =no= .bin file parms are supplied, even tho the ESCD "clear" flag is supplied.

Qed.

TomG · Oct 7, 2003

there is already a switch included in the awdflash.exe utility. the "/cp" switch is supposed to clear the ESCD, or PnP area of the CMOS. assuming that it actually works as intended, then we have that ability now.

John Lewis · Oct 7, 2003

On Tue, 7 Oct 2003 07:15:26 -0400, "TomG"
wrote:

John,

The BE6 does not have the ability to disable the Highpoint controller in the bios.

Thanks Tom for the correction. I have a BE6; in fact the PC I am using for my email, news etc. However, it is so very long since I had to go into BIOS that I forgot...... early Altzheimer's probably............

John Lewis

--

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Network+ certified

ftp://geerynet.d2g.com
ftp://68.98.180.8 Abit Mirror <----- Cable modem IP
This IP is dynamic so it *could* change!...
over 117,000 FTP users served!
^^^^^^^

...

TomG · Oct 7, 2003

no prob. I am familiar with the Alzheimer's issue.

0_Qed · Oct 7, 2003

TomG wrote:

there is already a switch included in the awdflash.exe utility. the "/cp" switch is supposed to clear the ESCD, or PnP area of the CMOS. assuming that it actually works as intended, then we have that ability now.

True ... but but wait ...
that switch appears not to 'work' if neither of flash, or save, is activated via the inclusion of a '.bin' file in the respective cmd ln 'parms' .

'Technically',
I believe the ESCD data table typically locates in the hi_order mem_space of the eeprom chip , as opposed to traditional CMOS chip mem_space .

In the past, I've tried just that 'flag' ... no go.
kg7-r ; w/ =not= the latest bios file ; w/BS

At that 'time' ... long ago ...

I seemed to find that , with =repeated= OS+driver installs, I got the best results from . a prior re_flash of the same version bios file , . at the same time, using the above mentioned " /cp " cmd ln parm .

I attributed the 'better' installs to the presence of a fresh(empty) ESCD data table and a complete, new hdwr 'probe' ... no real 'proof', just a supposition . Dunno, really.

The " /cp " parm seemed not to 'work' alone without some sort of included flash/save function ... essentially a dupe_flash + " /cp " parm .

I had a Plextor CDRW device that " came & went " ...
plus 2 HDs ( 2 of 4 ) mounted in rack/tray units ...
the combo "of which", seemed to make for the 'repeated_ness' factor ... all in all , a minor pia ... good for the soul.

Qed.

TomG · Oct 7, 2003

I don't think any of the switches work (except the backup switch) without an actual flash taking place. but, normally, you wouldn't be wanting the CMOS to be cleared and ESCD cleared except during a flash. there are certain to be exceptions to that but generally speaking, that would be the time when these events are most desirable.

Epis · Oct 8, 2003

(John Lewis) wrote:

Did you disable the HPT in BIOS? See the BE6 manual for the the correct BIOS entry. Manual is on-line at Abit if dog has eaten original copy.

Have you tried your IBMs on IDE1 ( Set to Master and Slave) and your CD-ROM/CD-RW on IDE2 ?

I am a little puzzled why you bothered with the UATA board at all. Surely your IBM drives of that size are a little old, ATA 66 or less ? Hardly see any performance difference using IDE1 instead of the Maxtor controller. The Maxtor also consumes a valuable PCI interrupt. The HPT366 consumes another ...

Thank you for your replies.

Why I bothered with the UATA board is that I got random hangups and I read somewhere that the way to get rid of that is to use a HD controller other than HPT366.

Well I couldn't get XP to start normally at all no matter what I did, if the Maxtor board was present and there was a drive connected to it, even if it was the drive that had no OS or program files on it. I did not try change every BIOS setting (ESCD etc.) because I don't understand much about that, and I figured the probability of getting it right would be too slim.

So I tried to connect the 10 GB drive (boot drive containing OS) to IDE1 and the other to IDE3 (which is HPT366 UATA?). And now it seems to work. I tried some of the things that used to cause hangups, and got none so far. Have to test more, because sometimes all goes well for days and then on bad days the piece of crap runs 10 minutes at best before crashing.

Yes the drives are ATA66, and I thought the performance would be much better using UATA instead of IDE1. Am I wrong? I hope so, because if the setup I tried works I can just return the Maxtor board.

I'm trying to avoid re-installing XP because of the amount of work involved. I hate to even think how much time I've already wasted with this thing.

Upgrading the mobo (... and CPU... and RAM... and...) is not an option either, because I think the old P3-500 works just fine even for the thing I use it for, which is simple video editing. 3 years ago it was a good computer, and I think the fact that there are now better ones on the market doesn't make this one any worse as long as I can keep it running. Now I know the whole thing is designed to force me to buy a new system every 3 years, but I'm trying hard not to.

Upgrading is really the worst joke the industry has ever come up with, I mean has anybody ever upgraded a CPU? By the time you'd be wanting an upgrade, you'll find out that all the bus speeds and who knows what have changed so much that the only usable parts on your system are the mouse and keyboard, but why not just use the ones that shipped with your new $$$ package.

M