Questions about Promise Ultra 100 controller

[Jon]

Setting up the BIOS to boot from SCSI is normal. I run IDE RAID on all but one of my systems and they're all configured that way. It will still boot without it set that way, but who am I to argue? Haha.

The hard drive parking is something I have no clue about. I'd have to hear it to know what's going on. Might want to try Promise support and see if a similar case was ever admitted. I've never had, nor heard of that before.

 

[Snoopy]

I called the Promise tech support. They didn't hear of this either (but the guy also told me that Canada - were I was calling from - is overseas.. oh well).

The only advices he gave me so far are to remove my SCSI controller (I have an Adaptec AHA-2940U) and if the sounds are still there to move the TX2 controller to a different PCI slot. Still why would this fix the problem since there is no problem booting up and using the controller?! The problem is just at shutdown..

He told me also that the ver 2.00 build 3 driver I have is the latest one and that I do not need any BIOS update.

I had to wait 10 minutes on the phone (long distance call... they have no toll free number) while the guy tried to find the Asus P3B--F on the Asus site (he never heard of this MB).

Otherwise that person was very friendly and nice and gave me his extension so I can call him back directly if the problem still persists..

About the sounds: most HDDs make such a sound (but just one) when they are powered off if they are configured to automatically park their heads in a safe position. It's like a metallic "click" that is simultaneous with the power cut. In my case, before this sound there is a sequence of other 3 similar sounds, at an interval of like 1/2 sec between, that appears to be a bit louder. They sound exactly like the heads would be moved suddenly from one side to the other.

Thanks..

 

[Snoopy]

So nobody here ever saw a Promise Ultra100 TX2 in action besides Jon..? Hmm.. Maybe I should change my stupid avatar, maybe some more people would answer to my desperate requests for H E L P



Snoopy (from overseas)

 

[Snoopy]

Just talked with WD customer support.. There's their theory: the LBA translation may be not done exactly by the MB BIOS (when the HDDs were partitioned and formatted on the computer being atatched to the MB IDE ports) and the translation that the Promise controller is doing.. So they suggested to just repartition and reformat the driver connected to the TX2 controller... The person told me that anyway on the long run I might get corruption problem if I would keep the HDDs on the controller w/o to have them pertitioned on the controller...

Jon, what do you think about this?

It sounds a little fishy to me.. I had moved HDDs on various computers with different BIOS programs several times w/o problem (w/o to need of course to repartition them). According with customer service rep opinion different BIOS manufacturers use different translationg schemes.. Still...

 

[Ebola]

I'm probably going to buy the card after thanksgiving. if i have any problems with it, i'll make sure to post something.