DRU500AX with promise controller causes 100% CPU

[Smile_M]

Hi,

I use DRU-500AX connected to Promise 100TX2 PCI controller. When writing with Nero or any other program CPU load is 100%.

Buffer keeps droping fron 20% to 8%

When connected to motherboard there is no problems

I'm using:

Motherboard ASUS P4T
1.7Ghz Intel P4 CPU
512MB RDRAM
80GB Seagate Barracuda 4 (as primary master)
DRU-500AX (as primary master on promise controler)
Leadtek Geforce 3 Ti500 TDH
400W Aopen PSU
Windows 2000 with SP3 and all updates installed. All drivers and bios are updated.

Any ideas on why there is a problem when connecting DRU500AX to the Promise controller card?

[Coop]

Smile,

The external controller you have it hooked up to is optomized and recommended for fast IDE devices (hard drives), not slower optical devices, which is why you're experiencing problems. As you are using Win2k, you will probably see all sorts of error logs in the event viewer as well.

[bdgriff]

It will be almost impossible to NOT have errors w/ the setup you have.
You need your h/drives set up to the raid in either raid 0 or 1 setup. Then utilize your motherboard ide's for Sony and whatever other optical drives your using. Good luck.
Hey, just out of curiosity, why are you using a RAID if you only have ONE harddrive????

[Smile_M]

Promise 100TX2 is not a raid controller. It is a simple IDE/EIDE PCI controller. I have another 2 HDD as secondary master/slave on the promise controller and they work fine.

I tried to connect my Plextor 40/12/40 burner (normaly conected to the secondary motherboard master) to the promise card and write something.
The situation is exacly the same 100% CPU usage. I tested read speeds and they are normal without any CPU load or any problems. It appears that the problems begin when the drive begins writing the CD. After lead-in when nero sais burning track the CPU gets to 100% and buffer craps out.

[bacardi/avt]

Hey, smile_m

I have the same Promise controller and I could not even get it to read from the optical devices when I first hooked them up to the controller card. Then I read the manual (I know it's like cheating) and this clearly stated that NO cd/dvd devices should be connected to the card since it was designed only for use with HDD's. When I moved my cd/dvd back to the mainboard and all my HDD's to the controller card it worked like a charm.

So my advice just move all HDD's to the controller card and use the motherboard IDE for your cd/dvd devices.

by the way, I have the following devices in my system:

IBM 30 GB HDD
IBM 60 GB HDD
Western Digital 80GB HDD
Plextor 12/10/32A - cdrw
Hitatchi GD 7500 - dvd
Ricoh MP5125A - dvd+rw

no probs at all

While I remember....the C: drive DO NOT have to be connected to the motheboard IDE, just hook it up as primary master on the controller card and it will work as normal (just in case you did not know this)...

Hope everything works out

[Smile_M]

Hey, smile_m

I have the same Promise controller and I could not even get it to read from the optical devices when I first hooked them up to the controller card. Then I read the manual (I know it's like cheating) and this clearly stated that NO cd/dvd devices should be connected to the card since it was designed only for use with HDD's. When I moved my cd/dvd back to the mainboard and all my HDD's to the controller card it worked like a charm.

So my advice just move all HDD's to the controller card and use the motherboard IDE for your cd/dvd devices.

by the way, I have the following devices in my system:

IBM 30 GB HDD
IBM 60 GB HDD
Western Digital 80GB HDD
Plextor 12/10/32A - cdrw
Hitatchi GD 7500 - dvd
Ricoh MP5125A - dvd+rw

no probs at all

While I remember....the C: drive DO NOT have to be connected to the motheboard IDE, just hook it up as primary master on the controller card and it will work as normal (just in case you did not know this)...

Hope everything works out

Thanks god someone else has the same controller card and if you download this Promise 100TX2 datasheet

"http://www.promise.com/marketing/datasheet/file/Ultra100TX2_rev_826_DS.pdf"

You will see that it should support CD/DVD-ROM/RW etc.

Have you tried various PCI slots is your MB with Intel or VIA chipset?
My MB has i850 chipset as it uses Samsung PC 800 RDRAM.

[bacardi/avt]

Yeah you are rigth, it does say it should support cd/dvd devices in my manual too (I checked. I was wrong). Anyway my computer config is as follows:

MB: Tyan Tiger 230T S2507T
CPUs: 2 x 1.13 GHz Intel PIII Taulatin 512 kb
MEM: standard PC133 1x 128MB + 1 x 512 MB
Chipset: VIA 82C694T
OS: Windows XP Proffesional SP1
GFX: MSI Geforce4 4200Ti with 128MB DDR ram
Sound: Soundblaster 128 pci
network: AMD 10 mbit + 3Com 10/100

that is about it, I think...

I forgott to say that I actually had a worse problem when I first installed the controllercard. I hooked up the HDD's to the MB ide controller and my cd/dvd's to the Promise and the machin wouldn't even start, it just started booting and then died when the promise controller was checking for deviceses. I then called my brother who work as a consultant with servers at big companies (he has a lot of different MS certificates and so). He told me that they had the same problems in tha past with controllers from Promise and that they had spoken to Promise about this. They had then been told to not hook the cd/dvd to the controllercard since they were not designed to handle that kind of deviceses. I then asked him if I should get another brand of controllercard and his advice was NO, since the Promise controllers are the best on the market. He just suggested that I move the HDD's to the controller and the cd/dvd to the MB onboard controller. So I did and I haven't had any probs sinces then.

So my advice to you is to just forgett about connecting the cd/dvd to the Promise card and do it the easy way, but then again I don't know how many deviceses you have to connect (maybe you can't do it that way).

[Smile_M]

@bacardi/avt

Thanks for quick replies I appreciate your help. I have a Master level brainbench Technical support certificate myself but I see so weird problem for the first time

Then again I'll give it a try in another system if it fails under W2k/XP than I'll be happy that you saved me from reinstalling my stuff over and over and....

Thanks

[JackS124]

Smile,

I tried the same combo with my DRU-500a and it absolutlely will not work. I tried every PCI slot on my Asus A7V333 mobo and all produced the same result - 100% CPU utilization when I attempted to use the drive.

As someone else said, you'll need to plug the Sony directly into one of the motherboard IDE connectors and move a hard drive to the Promise controller. Once I did that, the DRU-500a worked like a charm.

As an aside, I tried a couple of old CD-burners I have and the only one that would work on the Promise controller was an old Plextor that was PIO mode only.

Jack

[TBoneit]

Bottom Line, DOn't try to burn to a CD or DVD Burner hooked up to the Promise controller. 100% CPU and fluctuating buffer.

Just hook the burner and the Boot Drive to the motherboard and any extra drives to the promise.

The Promise has one Big benefit.

Using the Promise with the boot drive hooked up to it and drivers loaded into Win2000 or WinXp, You can move the windows to different motherboards (Usually!) without having to go through contortions or reloading the windows.

The normal mode when changing motherboards with those two Windows is the "Blue Screen of Death). Normally caused by changing the IDE Controller.

I've done this several times at work and it works great.

Cheers