Promise 100 card/Bios Problem

Garnet · Post by **Garnet** » Wed Oct 24, 2001 8:45 pm

My specifications:
Promise Ultra 100, Bios version 2.01 (build 27)
Motherboard - Asus CUSL2
Primary hard drive (NOT attached to Ultra 100) Maxtor 96147H8 60gb, 5400rpm - Partitioned as drives C, E, F, G
O/S Windows 98se
Ultra 100 devices - Maxtor 91303D6 13gb - Partitioned as drives D & H
The Problem:
I was using mobo bios 1003, with Pentium 3 - 700mhz processor and the ultra 100 was working as it should. The bios detected the controller and the Maxtor hard drive perfectly. I upgraded my processor to a 1000 mhz. and the controller continued to work as before, but the 1003 bios required an upgrade to properly detect the faster processor. I upgraded to first 1009 and then 1011.002 with the same results. The Ultra 100 was detected, but I received the message "Ultra100 Bios is not installed because there are no drives attached". Then the hard drive attached to the card would activate just before the screen goes from dos to windows. The Ultra 100 card is detected at the same time in the boot with all bios, but only 1003 detects that there is a hard drive attached to the card. Also with the Bios 1009 or 1011.002 installed, my primary 60 gig drive on the onboard IDE which is partitioned C, E, F, G, is listed under device manager as C, D, E, F and the 13 gig drive on the Ultra 100 controller card is listed as G & H, where it was D & H before! Under My Computer, the drives are shown as they should be, as they were with Bios 1003! The drives do work as they should in either case.
I have my primary HD (60gb) attached to the mobo, along with my DVD, Zip and Onstream tape drive. My Ultra 100 has a 13 gb drive (partitioned D,H) attached, with a Drive Image of primary C on D. I want the drive attached to the Ultra 100 recognized early in the boot in case I need to restore my primary drive image.
I wonder if the fact that the 1003 bios is different than the rest is causing the problem? This is from the Asus site, which shows that the other bios have SDMS v 4.12.00 as part of it.

FINAL = beta Status incl. SDMS BIOS
- = 1011.002 SDMS v4.12.00
1009 = 1009.003 SDMS v4.12.00
1008 = 1008.010 SDMS v4.12.00
1007 = 1007.003 SDMS v4.12.00
1006.A = 1006.004 SDMS v4.12.00
1006 = 1006.003 SDMS v4.12.00
1003 = 1003.003 not included
1002 = 1002.005 not included
1001.A = 1001.002 SDMS v4.12.00

I would appreciate anyone's assistance in finding a solution to this problem. Thank you very much.

Garnet

smb · Post by **smb** » Wed Oct 24, 2001 8:55 pm

Have you gone into the bios and specified that the SCSI device be the 3rd boot device ?

bitSLAP · Post by **bitSLAP** » Wed Oct 24, 2001 11:06 pm

smb: he doesn't want to boot from the Promise card.

What happens is that the bios only controls the disks outside of windows. Once in windows, the driver takes control. Also, Windows has a chance to sort out hardware conflicts that the mobo bios fuct up.

Sometimes a hardware conflict will cause the Promise bios to mess up on drive detection (Promise is WRONG on their website). Try removing all non essential harware (sound, lan, modem) and try it. Also try turning off the "PnP OS" setting in your bios.

My second guess is that the new bios doesn't like having two ATA100 controllers at the same time. Try disabling the onboard controller just to see if it picks up the drives.

Are you sure you didn't knock any of the connectors loose in the case when you dropped the CPU in?

Hope this helps.

Garnet · Post by **Garnet** » Thu Oct 25, 2001 4:50 am

double post

Garnet · Post by **Garnet** » Thu Oct 25, 2001 4:53 am

Thanks guys for the replies. bitSLAP you are correct, I don't want to boot from the Ultra 100. PnP OS is off and always runs in off position. I have moved the PCI cards around and assigned IRQ's to each of the SCSI card, Ultra 100, modem and sound. There are no recorded conflicts. There are no loose cables. I simply have to flash back to 1003 bios and all works perfectly. I have now tried that 3 times, I flashed from 1003 which was working to 1009 which didn't work, then back to 1003 which worked and so on and so on! If it wasn't for the fact that 1003 bios doesn't detect my 1000 processor, I'd stay with it. There must be a solution! I have also tried every bios setting that makes any sense.
I will try removing the other cards and see if it is actually a device conflict, but it doesn't make sense that the devices work OK with one bios and not the other....or does it?
All suggestions are welcome!

Sorry double post above. It posted before I was finished????

smb · Post by **smb** » Thu Oct 25, 2001 1:14 pm

If you set the Promise card to be the third boot device, it won't boot from it.

1st boot device = floppy
2nd boot device=hard drive 0
3rd boot device=scsi controller(promise controller).

FYI, you can restore an image from any hard drive letter.

Have you tried an ATA66 controller instead of the ATA100.

You might try going into the bios and assigning an IRQ to each card.

Also, run FDisk, and see if the first partition on your second hard drive is set to active.

Garnet · Post by **Garnet** » Thu Oct 25, 2001 7:48 pm

Hi smb, yes I have the promise card set as the 4th boot device. I also have the IRQ's assigned to each card. My second HD's first partition is active. I have not tried a different card.
I think I'll go in this weekend and remove the HD from the Promise card and put it on the onboard controller and put either my Zip or Onstream drive on the Ultra 100. I guess that will fix it.

I really would have liked to find a solution, it bugs the he!! out of me!

smb · Post by **smb** » Thu Oct 25, 2001 8:27 pm

you can try putting both hard drives on the promise controller, and booting from it. You would prrobably get the effect your looking for.

Garnet · Post by **Garnet** » Fri Oct 26, 2001 5:03 pm

Fixed it!

I put the Ultra100 in a different PCI slot, made the HD on the Ultra100 the primary master and everything works as it should. Perhaps just unplugging the Ultra100 and rebooting did the trick, I guess I'll never know! Is is very strange that it worked OK in that configuration with bios 1003, but wouldn't with the upgrade bios. I knew it had to be something simple.

Thanks guys for taking the time to think about my problem.