Windows 2000 installation and promise ata 100 problem

[aegris 0]

I have an Asus a7v with a 1 ghz athlon and 256 meg of pc133 ram. i have a ibm deskstar 45 gig HD and it uses the promise ata 100 controller. i am trying to install windows 2000 on a seperate partition. the problem is win2k wont even find my HD when i run the setup. I tried to provide the 3rd party drivers for the promise controller but i still get the inacessable boot device error msg. any one with any ideas on the reason for this?? thanks

[Dirty Harry 0]

Quote:

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by aegris:
I tried to provide the 3rd party drivers for the promise controller but i still get the inacessable boot device error msg. </font>

What you mean, where and when did you try ? During the W2K setup, it gives you an option to load these from a disk. You should have the (newest) drivers on a floppy and feed the PC at that stage.

Are you set to boot from the correct drive?
Are the settings in the promise bios OK?

H.

[aegris 0]

Quote:

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Dirty Harry:
What you mean, where and when did you try ? During the W2K setup, it gives you an option to load these from a disk. You should have the (newest) drivers on a floppy and feed the PC at that stage.

Are you set to boot from the correct drive?
Are the settings in the promise bios OK?

H.</font>

yes, i have the latest drivers on a floppy and load them when i try to install.yes my computer is set to boot the correctly im pretty sure, check cd , then floppy then the ata 100 drive, im not sure what you mean when u say check the promise bios.. its build 35, so im guessing it is correct, not really sure though.

A

[Brian Frank 0]

Okay, I have the A7V, so here's two things you can do: either put the hdd on the primary (non-promise ide) controller and after installing Win2k install drivers for it and then hook it up, or put the drivers from the Asus cd, not the downloaded ones!, and hit F6 during the early setup. Win2k will ask you 2 times to provide the drivers for the ata100 controllers.

Personally, Id say to just to use the first option, that way you wont pull your hair out.

[Brian Frank 0]

Another thing, when he said check the bios, that means when you boot up hit the Delete key when the system is detecting stuff, but you gotta be kinda quick. USE YOUR MANUAL THAT CAME WITH THE MOTHERBOARD, GENIUS!

Make sure that during setup the ATA100 controller is set to enabled but not as first boot device until you finish setup.

The promise controller does not have a separate bios, so any settings you can change are strictly in the bios.

Also, Aegris, if youve know someone who has a better knowledge of this than you, have them help you.

But make sure you look at the bios, and remember to use the manual!

[ntloser 0]

I was having the same problem trying to install the latest Promise drivers during the Win 2000 setup. I went to asus's and promise's ftp site and downloaded different versions of the driver until I found one that worked. I used driver version 1.60 build 19

from the promise ftp.

 

Hope this helps

 

 

[This message has been edited by ntloser (edited 11 March 2001).]

[aegris 0]

well

 

i tried the build 19 drivers and it still only asked for them once, then gave me the same inacessable boot device message. I have a feeling the only way it will get installed to use the regular ide channel. and to brian, what good will moving the ATA drive from the first boot device?, just curious and yes, i am asking other people for advice, this column. if i knew how to do it myself, i wouldnt be here, thanks...

[Brian Frank 0]

Well, there are two separate menus for boot items: the normal one for the regular set of ide controllers-the ones right in front of the dimm slots, and an option to control the booting of the ata100 controller. Only when your installing the OS does it need to be set to be enabled and then in the boot menu where it says "Load onboard ata bios" (or something like that) that must be enabled. On the same menu there should be an option to boot off the ATA100 first, which should be set to no or disabled until you get Win2k finished loading. You need to have it not boot off the harddrive on the promise controllers until you finished installing so you can boot off the cd and let the install run its course.

And trust me: the only drivers that have worked are the ones off Asus CD;I have the board, this works as long as you have the drivers and another file-all under the promise stuff. And you have to hit F6 during the intitial setup or you will not at anytime be able to install the drivers.

Im not bashing on you, cause I know its a difficult board to get going under Win2k, but you really seemed lost.

You could also have a bad board too.

[aegris 0]

well, in the end, i just put the HD on the regular ata 66 controller and installed win2k on that channel, then installed the drivers and switched it back to the ata 100 controller and it works fine.. i gave up on installing on the regular drive..heh. so thanks for the help all

[jefftron 0]

I'm surprised this problem isn't better documented. I've had precisely the same troubles as aegris, albiet with no happy ending.

 

I run an Asus A7V, and a Maxtor ATA-100 drive. I am fully aware of the boot device driver portion of the win2k setup and have had success using it with the external Promise ATA-100 adapter in the same machine. However, the on-board device (which is theoretically precicely the same - even uses the same driver) will not install correctly under win2k setup.

 

Specifically, it prompts for the driver (after hitting F5 or F6.. it's been a while) and I go ahead and provide it. It accepts it, and everything seems fine until it's time to reboot. Blue screen - every time. "Inaccessible Boot device" I think is the message.

 

Aegris does not have a damaged/faulty motherboard. I've spent weeks on this problem, finally accepting that I'd have to continue to use my PCI adapter instead of the on-board. However, this isn't an option now, because of all of my other devices which seem to conflict with the external adapter.

 

I've been assuming that this problem will be rectified with a firmware update to either the promise BIOS, or the Asus BIOS or a new win2k compatible driver.

 

Incedentally, the aforementioned solution did not work for me. I tried installing win2k on the regular ata-66 bus, then installing the ata-100 drivers, then switching the cable to the ata-100 bus, and predictably, I was met with the same blue screen as in the installation of win2k.

 

Any new developments - I could really use it, asWin98 is just getting too unstable for my liking!

 

Thanks all

[CameronD 0]

Quote:

...
Any new developments - I could really use it, asWin98 is just getting too unstable for my liking!

I just tried a 98-> 2000 (sp3) conversion. I used the "switch IDE controllers" technique but had trouble getting it to reboot when I switched it back again. Either the missing boot device error or a blue screen with IRQL_NOT_LESS etc in scsiport.sys.
Tried various Asus drivers and eventually came across a ver 2.00.0.39 on the promise web site. It is now running happily.

Except?... win2k has decided to make the promise controller, the video card, sound card, network and both USB controllers ALL IRQ 9.. and it was doing that even before the promise driver was installed (or rather, after I uninstalled one of the many). It is certainly not the default config in BIOS, or on the Linux system that shares the hard disk.

Just when you think you're getting to know one system, along comes a different set of quirks.

Cameron.

[adamvjackson 0]

The SP3 version of scsiport.sys is incompatible with the promise ata100/133 controller cards, that's why you get the bsod. There's an easy fix, just replace both instances of scsiport.sys with the sp2 version. For more details, so a search of the forums here for scsiport.sys....

[jefftron 0]

This is interesting.. I did get the card working by using (predictably enough) the latest promise drivers.

 

But I have had conflicts like crazy! At least I'm guessing that they are conflicts because it is usually the use of combinations of devices that causes the system to become unstable. Could this "scsiport.sys" have anything to do with it? What are the symptoms of this incompatibility?

[adamvjackson 0]

Random BSOD with IRQ_LESS_THAN yeah that error message... That seems to be the primary symptom, at least that's all that I've seen. Perhaps others have other symptoms. To be honest, I didn't leave it like that long enough to notice other 'symptoms'. If you need the SP2 version of scsiport.sys, send me an email and I'll be more than happy to send you the file.

[AndyFair 0]

Quote:

Except?... win2k has decided to make the promise controller, the video card, sound card, network and both USB controllers ALL IRQ 9.. and it was doing that even before the promise driver was installed (or rather, after I uninstalled one of the many). It is certainly not the default config in BIOS, or on the Linux system that shares the hard disk.

Just when you think you're getting to know one system, along comes a different set of quirks.

Cameron.

W2k & XP both use IRQ sharing - it's perfectly normal to see most of your cards using the same IRQ.

Rgds
AndyF

[Nayl 0]

Here's the fix straight from Asus tech support -

 

Go to the Downloads section of the Asus website, and click on the link for the A7V 266E motherboard. The Promise driver there is compatible with the A7V, both MB's use the same Promise controller.

 

Got this info by calling the Asus tech support number.

[pr-man 1]

well i installed SP3 and damn if my HDs are running slow as molasses. Just noticed that promise put the 39 drivers out to fix a compatibility problem with SP3. Drives running better but not as well as they ran under Winxp. should I switch out scsiport.sys anyway with SP2 version?

[Mekadave 0]

Quote:

The SP3 version of scsiport.sys is incompatible with the promise ata100/133 controller cards, that's why you get the bsod. There's an easy fix, just replace both instances of scsiport.sys with the sp2 version. For more details, so a search of the forums here for scsiport.sys....

Just saw this on Promise's website, as I'm getting one of these controllers for my board:

http://www.promise.com/support/download2_eng.asp?mode=download&product_id=11

Driver
Name File Size Version Platform Release Date
Ultra100 TX2 Windows Driver 106.7 KB 2.00.0.39 Windows 9.x/ME/NT4.x/2000/XP 2002/09/30
Description
- Fixes compatibility problem with Windows 2000 Service Pack 3

[adamvjackson 0]

Thanks for the heads up, I was wondering when that was going to be released.

[Mekadave 0]

No problem.

 

I also just noticed that the Ultra 100 driver and the Ultra 100 TX2 driver are the exact same zip file.