Promise Ultra100 Controller install query

[markp888 0]

Done a quick search of the forum on the general topic of IDE controller cards - some of the results are putting me off installing, hence this post...

 

I've got a "Promise Ultra100" ATA/100 IDE Controller card (PCI) to increase the number of IDE devices I can connect. Not interested in RAID etc, all I need is to add another hard drive from my old PC to use for data storage - it won't be a "boot" disk with OS installed.

 

My system is Win2k service pack 2, Athlon xp1800+ with Jetway V266B motherboard. My 4 current IDE devices are DVD Rom, Hard drive, CDRW, LS120 floppy.

 

Do you have any general tips for installing this card / this type of card? Any settings I should check etc? Or is it just a case of suck it and see?

 

It's just comments like, "don't use PCI slot 1 as it shares AGP blah blah" and similar that are making me nervous. It all sounds like techno-voodoo to me!

 

Any help appreciated.

 

Regards

 

Mark

[Sampson 0]

In general, the problems you probably have read about are in reference to the VIA drivers. If you installed W2K and defaulted to ACPI and all is well, while adding any device is somewhat like spinning the wheel of fortune, following the install procedure according to Promises' instructions, should work. Some have chosen to install their machines as Standard PC's which allows the Bios to determine the interrupts and ports because it has worked out better for them to avoid device conflicts especially with the VIA drivers.

 

The bios drivers for Jetway website are found at http://www.jetway.com.tw/evisn/download/ . Make sure that your bios is the most recent. You might want to try a couple of search engines to see the result of Promise and Jetway to see if any have had any conflicts.

 

Since you do have a CDRW and decide to chicken out, and if all you need is a medium for data storage, you can't really do better than that. While slower than a hard disk, the data, at least will not be as vulnerable as on a hard disk.

 

And, if you do install it, and there are some conflicts, there are some pretty knowledgeable people on this site who will try to help.

[markp888 0]

Thanks for the tips / reassurance.

 

Well... I grasped the nettle and went for it. It worked first time..

 

No need to worry after all. Only comment I would make post-installation is maybe consider "round" IDE cables. If I ever make use of the second IDE chain on the controller card there will be so much IDE cable floating about it will be hard to see anything in there!

 

Regards

 

Mark

[pbuckne 0]

Different note: Grasped the nettle? Odd saying, British? (United States here) I have an interest in foreign lingo, what exactly does it mean?

[markp888 0]

It is a British saying - sort of describes the moment you decide to go ahead and do something that you're a bit worried about doing!

 

You know it might hurt.... but you go ahead and do it anyway.

 

A nettle is sort of what you thought - a weed with stinging spikes. Hurt like hell but don't leave their spikes in your skin - just a nasty rash...

 

Regards,

 

Mark

[unix_based_punk 0]

The biggest thing is to check your manual to see with pci slots share with one another and with other onboard devices.

 

All but one pci slot on my Asus A7V motherboard shares with something else. It sucks. PCI slot 1 shares with the AGP. SLot 2 shares with the Embedded Promise Ultra ATA/100 Controller. Slot 3 is free. Slot 4 shares with the USB controller ports yes ports, there are more than one. And slot 5 shares with the Audio Modem Riser slot. Ugh.

[adamvjackson 0]

An IMPORTANT note to the original poster: I have several of these cards, and apparently, the drivers are incompatible with SP3 for 2k.. if you need to upgrade to SP3, you will need to either:

1. Obtain updated drivers from promise (not out yet, AFAIK)

2. keep a copy of the SP2 scsiport.sys (found in c:\winnt\system32\drivers) and copy that to the exact same location after you install SP3.