A while ago I wrote with regards to my new Hard drive that I had bought (IBM Deskstar 34GXP 34Gb) as my second drive, along with a Fujitsu 10.2Gb drive as my Master. The problem that I am having is that both drives when connected correctly run in MS-DOS mode and when checking the driver settings I find that the driver for the Hard Drives and/or motherboard are not working correctly, Somehting to do with the Dual fifo driver.
I was told by a friend that it was my motherboard driver that needs upgrading, and this is currently where the problem lies as I have found out what number it is a 686 BX, but with regards to the manufacturar I have no idea. The computer itself is an ADVENT 8620. And on the internet I can appear to find little.
The motherboard does support ATA 66. I know that both Hard drives work fine.
The only other problem that I do have is that I can not actually install windows 98??
The way I do that at present is to use the factory settings disk. But this is not the way I wish to do it. What happens is that I get into the windows 98 setup and instantly on the first test it does the hard drive beeps violently at me.
Problems and more problems!
Can any one help?
The best way to find out the manufacturer is to note the bios number that appears on the bottom of the screen during boot up then find a site that decodes that number to a manufacturer (there are several).
------------------
marsh_dave@hotmail.com
The number at the bottom of the screen during bootup is
i440BX-W977-2A69KG09C-00
From what I have found so far this is an Intel 440BX xhipset manufactured by Giga-byte but I cannot as yet find the model number (9C), can you help e further?
Your motherboard is a Gigabyte GA-686BX
To download a new Bios (if necessary) and any other bits and pieces, go to http://www.giga-byte.com/gigabyte-web/newindex.htm
Below is the info from the site about the last three bios updates. HOwever, before going to get anything, read the messages in our FAQs forum about setting up hard disk drives - you won't see they are there, though, unless you change the "days to view" setting to be One year.
Bob C
GA-686BX
File Name BIOS Version
(Date)
Version Description
6bx_29.zip 2.9
(Feb.26, 1999) 1. Add an item "Processor Number Feature" in "BIOS FEATURES SETUP" to Support "Processor Serial Number of CPU" disable for Pentium® III Series CPU
686bx_28.zip 2.8
(Jan.26, 1999) 1. Support Pentium III
2. Includes AWDFLASH.EXE
686bx_27.zip 2.7
(Jan.14, 1999) 1. Support Katmai
2. Support power LED off in ACPI indicator off mode
3. Includes AWDFLASH.EXE
I’m afraid I am still having problems with this, the situation is the same! I read the information provided on the FAQ’s, but still no luck.
The set up is Gigabyte GA-686BX with a Pentium 450Mhz the Master Hard drive (Fujitsu) is on the IDE channel 1 socket with the secondary Hard drive (IBM Deskstar 34 GXP 34.2Gb) also on the IDE channel 1, on IDE channel 2 is a DVD drive (creative Dxr2).
I’ve checked the UDMA setting or in my case DMA, I am assuming here that this found by going to settings, system, Disk Drives, GENERIC IDE DISK TYPE47 properties settings as this only place that I have located DMA and this is already ticked.
I am currently using 4.10.1998 Windows 98. The controllers that I have for the Hard drives are
Intel 82371AB/EB PCI Bus Master IDE Controller
Device type : Hard disk controllers
Manufacturer : Intel
Hardware version : 001
Device status : This device is working properly
DRIVER TAB
Provider : Microsoft
Date : 5-11-1998
Primary IDE Controller (dual fifo)
Device type : Hard disk controllers
Manufacturer : (Standard hard disk drivers)
Hardware version : Not available
Device status : This device is either not present, not working properly, or does not
have drivers installed. (Code 10.)
Try upgrading the device drivers for this device.
DRIVER TAB
Provider : Microsoft
Date : 5-11-1998
Secondary IDE Controller (dual fifo)
Device type : Hard disk controllers
Manufacturer : (Standard hard disk drivers)
Hardware version : Not available
Device status : This device is working properly
DRIVER TAB
Provider : Microsoft
Date : 5-11-1998
Also to take note is in Device Manager, Disk drives there is a fault on the
GENERIC IDE DISK TYPE 47
On the properties
Device type : Disk drives
Manufacturer : (Standard disk drives)
Hardware version : Not available
Device status : This device is not working properly because a device it depends on,
Primary IDE controller (dual fifo), has been dramatically disabled
Also in System properties it say’s
Compatibility-mode paging reduces overall system performance
Drive C is using MS-DOS compatibility mode file system
Drive D is using MS-DOS compatibility mode file system
On the first the Help message is :- Windows was unable to identify a real-mode driver or memory-resident program loaded in your Config.sys or Autoexec.bat file. You will see another message that lists the name of the driver or program causing the problem.
Because Windows could not identify the driver or program, it has switched to MS-DOS compatibility mode to ensure the program will run. However, this decreases overall performance. To improve performance, remove the program or driver causing the problem, or contact its manufacturer for an upgraded version.
The last thing I have tried to do is upgrade from the Gigabyte web site by loading in the most recent bios settings and this fails to work either the above information is with the latest updated bios installed (6bx.29)
I hope that I have not overdone the information, but I figured that all information was necessary to see the full picture, I hope that it is all here to be able to solve this very frustrating problem that I have, your time is most appreciated.
Matt (A.K.A. the quiff)
P.S. This might not line up correctly, but it should if you copy it all on to word.
Please read to the bottom before doing anything.
You don't say what operating system you are using.
If, for instance it is Win98 - but a version that you installed over the top of Win95 - it may be that Win98 is still using Win95's hard disk controller.
Start in safe mode, go to system properties and DELETE - yes, delete - the hard disk controller.
When you restart, Win98 will install the correct hard disk controller.
Some questions, too.
Are you using an 80-wire ATA66 data cable? If not; that could be the problem.
Have you run IBM's ATA66/33 switching utility?
Most PC Bioses will not recognise an ATA66 drive, and treat them oddly.
Download the utility from IBM's site and run it in a realmode DOS mode (it is a DOS program). If/when you get a PC that does recogise ATA66, you can run the utility again and switch the drive to ATA66 mode.
Have you got the jumpers set correctly on the IBM drive? It is very easy to set them wrongly - as Peter Wells, our deputy editor will testify.
You need to ensure that the jumpers are set to do two things - make the IBM the slave and clip its capacity to 32GB (because your bios almost certainly does not properly handle drives as large as 34GB).
The instruction label on the drive (well, on the 37GB I am looking at) has four distinct groups of settings. The group you should be looking at (if the label is the same as on the 37GB - and it almost certainly will be), is the group on the top right - 32Bit Clip.
Choose the slave setting, which requires the use of a single jumper positioned to be on the two bottom most righthand pins, thus:
. . . . .
. . ___
In the pic above, ___ means jumper
Also, ensure that in your PC's Bios the setting for the IBM drive (ie primary slave) is set to Auto across the board.
Please let us know if this helps.
Bob C
I’ve tried them all and still I have the same problems, the windows I am using is microsoft windows 98, 4.10.1998.
I checked the jumper settings these are in the slave 32bit clip, I ran the IBMATA66 and the ATA66 was already installed. I also deleted the Hard disk controller (Intel 82371AB/EB PCI Bus Master IDE Controller.) It appeared to reinstall the previous version.
The only thing I am rather confused with is you asked me if I was using an 80-wire ATA66 data cable? I can only assume that by this you mean the IDE cable. However this still confuses me because is there only 40 pins coming out of the drive itself?
All I do know is the Drive does work, as between swapping between Master and slave drives it works fine as a stand alone unit performing at a very good speed, as I use the IBM as the Master disk while I am currently disabled in using both. I do not believe that by swapping the drive from Master to Slave can cause any of the problems, in terms of data on the disk and forgetting to change the jumper settings as I check this thoroughly every time before switching on.
In case I did not mention it before I can read from both of these drives when installed and write to them, but when using the DV300 it can not write fast enough, on the DvExpert though it believes that it is writing at 120mb per second, if only that were true!
Again your time is much appreciated
Matt
Matt
>>The only thing I am rather confused with is you asked me if I was using an 80-wire ATA66 data cable? I can only assume that by this you mean the IDE cable. However this still confuses me because is there only 40 pins coming out of the drive itself?<<
Read the posting in this section "Fujitsu and ATA66
Ken
YOu need to run the utility to get the disk to report itself as an ATA33 NOT as an ATA66.
So run the utility and switch the drive to ATA33 mode. The utility will tell you whether or not it has done this successfully.
Watch the PC as it boots up, and you should see that the drive is described as being in Mode 2 (ATA33 mode), whereas currently, it will show it as being in Mode 4 (ATA66).
The cable you need has 80 wires but sockets with room for only 40 pins. Count the wires -even if you miss a few you'll soon work out what sort you've got. And, if you've not got one with 80 wires, go get on asap.
Bob C
After reading the information on the ATA66 cable I rushed out to buy one!
But (you knew this was coming) It still doesn’t work same problem is occurring running it in both ATA33 and ATA66, I did notice that during startup it say’s S.M.A.R.T. capability enabled. This is good to hear it does appear to have increased the speed of the IBM drive when running solo as the Master with increased write speeds of 7mb a second to 12mb this was done with miro DVexpert and a read rate of 7 to 17mb weather this is accurate or not I don’t know, this was performed in ATA33 (UDMA 2), whereas in ATA66 (UDMA 4) it gives me the normal results. Do not get confused though this is when I run it as a single drive.
With the new lead I tried all of the above reinstalling the original bios (this does not support S.M.A.R.T. capability), I’ve gone back to the newest, I’ve attempted deleting the driver again and still to no effect.
So again I request your expertise on this,
Thanks
Matt.
I resolved the problem I managed to reinstall windows 98, but using the second edition. And my bios did need updating as it did not suport S.M.A.R.T. capability.
And as far as I can tell the factory settings disk was actually an upgrade from windows 95. But regardless of that everything appears to running smoothly, touch wood.
Many thanks for all the help, as I would possibly never had upgraded my Bios and I would have been none the wiser about the ATA66 cable.
One last request it appears still that I cannot defragment the IBM drive as it say's that I don't have enough memory and I have 128mb at present. Virtual memory is enabled on the other drive. but no luck with defragmenting.
Thanks
Matt