Help with IWILL Raid Controller

[ymNA]

ok, I have the IWILL raid controller card (SIDE-raid100) with the HIGHPOINT 370 chipset. After I update the bios, windows can't recornize the card anymore. I think I got the right bios, don't know why this happen, but anyway I saved the old bios on the floppy and now I want to load back the old bios but it said "no support controller....blabl"

the question is anyone using this card and know how to overwrite the bios no matter what?

like in the command promt you type

"load oldbios (something here to tell it to overwrite)"?

thanks

 

[redduc900]

When flashing a HighPoint RAID card's BIOS with a newer version (or older version), the Windows drivers for the card need to match the BIOS version. If say you're running the newest HP v. 2.31 BIOS, you would need to be using the v. 2.31 drivers for your RAID controller...under "SCSI and RAID controllers" in Device Manager. Any mismatch between BIOS version and Windows driver version will cause a conflict in Windows (and Windows will usually greet you with a Blue Screen upon bootup).

You can grab the latest HP BIOS and XP drivers from their drivers page here...

http://www.highpoint-tech.com/drivers.htm

...unless Iwill would like you to use their own (possibly modded HighPoint) BIOS and drivers...still, the BIOS and driver version will need to match.

 

[ymNA]

thanks for the reply,
but I think somehow after I updated the bios, it messed up the card and I can't install any of the drivers (all type i could find on their web site) I guess windows no longer see the card as a raid controller anymore, it just say "new PCI device"

EDIT: plus now I can't update any other bios. got the "No support Host Adapter found" msg.

 

[redduc900]

ymNA, just a few questions for you...

1. Where did you download the updated BIOS from, what version was it, and what version came with the card originally?
2. Before you flashed the card's BIOS, did you reset your chip to it's default clock speed (not overclocked)?
3. When you get to your desktop, does the "New Hardware Found" wizard pop up, and if so...what exactly does it say?
4. Do you get a Blue Screen before Windows completely loads, and if so...what is the exact error message?

 

[ymNA]

ymNA, just a few questions for you...

1. Where did you download the updated BIOS from, what version was it, and what version came with the card originally?
2. Before you flashed the card's BIOS, did you reset your chip to it's default clock speed (not overclocked)?
3. When you get to your desktop, does the "New Hardware Found" wizard pop up, and if so...what exactly does it say?
4. Do you get a Blue Screen before Windows completely loads, and if so...what is the exact error message?

ok

1. I got the new BIOS from the IWILL site ( http://support.iwill.net/raid100.htm ) and I downloaded the SIDE RAID100 BIOS ver2.0.1019. I don't know what version that card came with.

2. The system wasn't oc.
3. Yes, the new hardware wizard came up and said "New PCI Device found" as if before the bios update it would say somthing like "New Host Controller or something found". So I think the new bios make the RAID card into something else and not a RAID card anymore.
4. It doesn't have any BSOD. I just got the card yesterday and just put it in my PCI slot and doesn't run my HD off of it yet.

thanks for the reply, hope you can help or someone can......

 

[redduc900]

Did you download the r20_1019.exe, which contains the updated XP drivers for the 2.0.1019 Bios that you flashed? If so, did you try pointing the "Found New Hardware" wizard to the folder which contains the updated drivers that you just extracted from the executable? The following is a direct link to the r20_1019.exe from Iwill, just in case you haven't downloaded the updated drivers...

http://support.iwill.net/download.asp?path=drivers&file=r20_1019.exe

 

[ymNA]

yeah, I did that, but the system couldn't look for the driver. I tried the automatic thing and didn't work, I tried the one that I choose the location of the driver and still didnt' work.

 

[Ugmore Baggage]

I have an Iwill with onboard raid but I prefer to use an IDE controller card -- I lost a drive on the raid port and I'm too superstitious to try it again.

Anyway, I have to enable the raid sockets in the mobo bios even though I'm not using them. If I don't, the IDE card isn't recognised.

 

[redduc900]

Iwill's support site is pretty much useless IMO, I couldn't find any info at all concerning troubleshooting Side-Raid BIOS flashing or anything else regarding Side-RAID in general. I would try flashing your card with the newest HighPoint BIOS, since the controller chip is made by HP. The r20_1019 Iwill BIOS is outdated anyways, the newest HP BIOS and driver version is 2.31.

Flash the card's BIOS using the "Load" command at a pure DOS prompt, and point the "Found New Hardware" wizard to the folder you extracted the updated 2.31 drivers. You can find the updated BIOS and drivers here at HighPoints driver site...

http://www.highpoint-tech.com/370drivers_down.htm

...You should have the two following HP files on a bootable floppy (or F8 to a command prompt, and insert a formatted disk containing the files)...Load.exe and the BIOS file. Type "Load" (without the quotes) at the A:\> prompt.

 

[ymNA]

the problem is I can't flash any other bios anymore. I think the load.exe can't find the card so it always says "No Support Host Adapter Found", so it doesn't flash the bios.

I used Dr. Dos to flash my bios, dont' now if that will make any difference.

I guess i'll just go ahead and RMA it back to Newegg. and I'LL NOT FLASH ANY BIOS ANYMORE.

oh yeah, is the Promise FasTrak100 worth the money?