ATA100 question for fellow A7V133'ers

[Spidey]

I don't get it! ATA100, UltraDMA100, Ultra ATA100, DMA, ATA WHAT THE %^$#^%$#!
Guys, I have a Fireball Plus AS. Which is an Ultra ATA100 7200rrpm
20.5 Gig
I Have the thing pluged into the "Primary Ultra ATA100 IDE" slot on the mobo (A7V133) and using the 80 conductor cable. (end conector, and the hard drive jumper set as CS)
Now I'm not sure what drivers are to be installed. If I go to device manager for hard disk controllers it shows the driver as
Primary IDE controller (dual fifo) and the Promise driver is sitting in the SCSI controllers. I'm not sure if I have this set up right. In bios I am set to ATA100/SCSI
If I run Sandra benchmark for my Hard Drives it scores like a UDMA/33. I also cannot keep my hard drive from falling asleep in Bios. All it show is an IDE drive and it has power down already disabled. I'm really confused. My Jumpers 13 and 14 are set at ATA100. Can someone straighten me out on which drivers should be installed and where they should be.
Thanks guys. This is just one of those gray areas thats driven me nuts.

 

[PDL]

The first thing you should do is set the jumper on the drive to "master", not CS. I have never set one to CS cause most hardware doesn't support it.
Then check the benchmarks and see if it is better.

 

[Spidey]

I changed it back to default (master) and no difference.
Now what I did do was put the hard drive cable back into the Primary IDE slot on the MOBO. Bingo!
My benchmark was full scale!
Now the question, why? I think Asus might have a BIOS mis-config here. Now on boot up, the screen says no Ultra ATA100 enabled because no drives are installed. What???? Yes there is. But I am able to keep my hard drive from sleeping now, and everything is normal except the mobo does not recognize that there is indeed a ATA100 drive installed.
Is there anyone out there who has noticed this or might have an explanation?

 

[Goldwing]

I have noticed similar lack of performance on my ata100 channels. I have an ata33 hd on my standard connectors which is faster than my ata66 hd on my ata100 connectors.

btw: the "no ata100 drives installed" means that there are none on the ata100 channels.

 

[Spidey]

Hey Goldwing how you doin?
So you've noticed this to.
I made a mistake, One boot up it actually says "Ultra 100 Bios is not installed because there are no drives attached"
And you are right, it is because I have my drive pluged into Primary IDE.
But when I plug it into the Primary ATA100 slot it runs like crap. Asus has a problem here and I hope they release a fix in the next bios update.
I am going to send an e-mail to Asus tech. and see if I can get a reply.

 

[Goldwing]

The only advantage I am currently getting from using the ATA100 channels is the ability to boot on either the std primary hd or the hd on the ATA100 channels in the bios. I have also lately been having the system hang at the ATA100 search on bootup. Very annoying.

 

[briant6]

I've had the same problem....I'm using the A7V133 also.....check out my posts at directron.net support forum....

http://directron.infopop.net/2/OpenTopic?q=Y&a=tpc&s=476097824&f=186097824&m=9840918022

After disabling the drivers in device manager, it causes a "system hang" everytime before the desktop loads...I thought I am the only one who has this problem....There must be something wrong with either their drivers or bios or maybe both....

 

[Spidey]

Looks like the same problem Brian. (I read your posts from the other site)
I did however e-mail Asus. Don't know if I will ever hear back but .........
There definately is a problem with the ATA100 configuration.
Goldwing, how were you able to choose which one to boot from? When I have the drive in the ATA100 slot bios doesn't even know it's there. Like Brian said in one of his posts on the other thread, for hard drive it says none.

 

[JimmyG]

You need to install the promise 4 in 1 drivers and set turbo mode. The drive needs to be plugged into the primary 100 connector. Do not connect your CD Rom to the same cable because it will slow everything down to the speed of the CD Rom.

 

[briant6]

Jimmy,
what do you mean by turbo mode? I already installed the 4-in-1 drivers before installing the promise ATA 100 drivers...after installing the ATA 100 drivers, got "windows protection error" at boot up...this happenned when the HDD drive was connected to the ATA 66 primary connector....when i connected the HDD to the ATA 100 primary connector, the computer restarts itself continuously......any suggestions? Spidey, if you hear something from the tech at ASUS, please post it up here....Thanks....

 

[Goldwing]

Spidey (May 30, 2001 01:46 p.m.):

Goldwing, how were you able to choose which one to boot from? When I have the drive in the ATA100 slot bios doesn't even know it's there.

In the bios under 'Boot' menu (page 79) set 'Other Boot Device' to [SCSI/Onboard ATA Boot Device] and then promote it ahead of the 'IDE Hard Drive' and 'ATAPI CD-ROM' using the plus key (see item specific help area to the right on the screen). Then just save the bios settings and you boot off the hd on the ATA100 connector.

Which Bios revision are you using I am currently using 1004 (I didn't initially have this problem). I had 1002 originally and I think I will try 1003 or 1004a3 or if necessary back to 1002 in hopes of eliminating this glitch.

 

[Spidey]

Goldwing I am using bios 1004 (ya helped me with that one too )
I have everything set up the way you describe and it benches the same lame outcome. I'm wondering if they have the 2 ATA100 ports only working to speed when raid is in use with 2 hard drives. If I put my hard drive into Primary IDE slot it benches full scale. But on boot up it only scans for UDMA if it is pluged into Primary ATA100 slot. ( after the weird countdown symbol thing it comes back as UDMA 5) So, does it actually pick up the drive as an ATA100 even though it is in the IDE slot. you would think by the bench results it does. Maybe it just doesn't post it as such in bios. Yet.
Still confused.
Spidey.

 

[Spidey]

Dear Customer,
Thanks for choosing ASUSTeK.
The only reason that the Ultra100 BIOS will not install is if it doesn't
detect a HDD. If you don't have a HDD connected to our card, connect one. If you
do, check the HDD jumper settings and cabling. If your HDD is from WD, and it's
the only device on the cable, remove ALL the jumpers from the HDD. If the
problem still exists, contact tech support with the following information. What
are the HDDs that you're using with the Ultra100? What is the jumper setting on
each HDD? What is the version of the BIOS on the Ultra100? Make sure the HDDs on
the Ultra100 are defined as "None" or "Not Installed" in the CMOS. Are the
cables that you're using with the Ultra100 18" or less? Try switching the PCI
slot that the Ultra100 is in. Try resetting the configuration data in the CMOS.
This is usually an option in the PnP section of the CMOS. The only available
settings for this option will be "Enabled" and "Disabled". Set it to "Enabled",
save and exit, and reboot.

ASUS CSC Shanghai
ASUS Web site : <http://www.asus.com.tw>
ASUS Ftp site : <ftp://ftp.asus.com.tw>
ASUS Knowledge Base : <http://knowledge.asus.com.tw>
ASUS NetQ : <http://www.asusnetq.com.tw>

 

[Goldwing]

Boy if that doesn't sound like a canned answer. Its like they don't know A7V133 has the onboard Promise ATA100.
This is why I go here first for tech questions.

 

[Spidey]

Regis to ASUS Tech ...."Is that your final answer?"
Right up there with Stephen King novels, lol.
I'm leaving mine in the Primary IDE slot. Benches better and I can control the power down in bios.
Un-be-freakin-liev-able!

 

[David]

ATA100=UDMA100=Ultra100 they all mean the same thing

 

[Spidey]

Penguinfreak, we are aware of that. Read thru the posts and you will see what we are up against.
Thanks.

 

[Gunjaa]

Geez, smart bunch arent we....
the reason behind the 'ata-100 bios not detected' thingy is that it only loads when u have 2+ harddrives attached, and r using raid *slaps head*....
it has nothing to do with stopping ur ata-100 running at ata-100 (u r using proper shielded ide cable arent u ??)
if using single drive, plug into primary ide closest to mem (top).

 

[Goldwing]

Gunjaa (Jun 07, 2001 09:50 a.m.):
Geez, smart bunch arent we....
the reason behind the 'ata-100 bios not detected' thingy is that it only loads when u have 2+ harddrives attached, and r using raid *slaps head*....
it has nothing to do with stopping ur ata-100 running at ata-100 (u r using proper shielded ide cable arent u ??)
if using single drive, plug into primary ide closest to mem (top).

Pissy today aren't we?

1) The Promise ata100 drivers are loaded anytime any ata66 or 100 drives are attached to the ata100 connectors on the motherboard when it is set to ata100 not raid mode. Yeah slapping your head was appropriate.
2) As stated he was using the ata100 cable that came with the mb.
3) The system can be operated with a hard drive attached to either primary connector. (I have done both so don't tell me it cannot be done.)

In case you don't know this mb has 2 primary ide connector and 2 secondary connectors.

Ignorance is temporary but stupid is forever.

 

[BboySkid]

hehe little bit of tension I see!