Booting from Silicon 0680 Card

[anvil82]

I found this Startech pci2ide card, which has a silicon image 0680 chip on it.

The exact info on the chip is

Sil0680ACL144
2G2442
0311

I can't seem to boot from it, so I was wondering if there was a way to make a floppy (or cd preferably) that would boot, load the drivers for the card, and then boot from a drive connecting to the card?

I am using an ata100 drive on an ata33 onboard controller right now and its too slow. I installed it in windows xp and it works fine with other ata100 drives, so I know the card works.

Thanks to those who can offer some help.

[kct2]

In the BIOS under boot order one option should be SCSI, I think that card would fall under that heading.

[Quick69GTO]

That’s correct. Change the boot order to SCSI first.
But first, you need to leave the drive connected to the ATA33 port.
Follow these steps before you change anything.
Shut down and install the controller card to an available PCI slot.
Leave the hard drive connected to the ATA33 port and do not change the boot order in the BIOS yet.
Let the system boot normally. It will find the controller card and ask for the drivers.
Install them and reboot. After the system has rebooted, shut it down.
Now move the hard drive cable (make sure it is an 80 conductor cable) from the ATA33 port to one of the ports on the controller card.
Boot the system and immediately enter the BIOS and change the first boot device to SCSI.
The system will reboot and it should boot to windows and a lot faster I might add.
Good luck!

[anvil82]

Sheesh I should have tried SCSI.

Thanks guys I'll try on Tuesday when I'm back at work.

[anvil82]

It didn't work setting it to scsi.

Then I found a setting for "offboard pci device" or something of the sort, I set it to slot1 (the pci slot the card is in) and it booted :D

Thanks.

It's MUCH faster now.

[Quick69GTO]

Never heard of that setting before.
I guess different BIOS’s for different machines.
I’m glad you found the proper setting.
Laters.

[anvil82]

One thing I have noticed is my Seek TIme (measured using HDtach) has about doubled to 22ms+