Promise Ultra100 TX2 ATA problem

[kenmo]

I have a Promise ATA controller (model Ultra100 TX2) with two hard drives attached.
It has always worked faithfully for me. My bootup drive is attached to ide on the mobo. I also have two dvd burners attached to the second ide channel on my mobo. The hard drives attached to the Promise controller are scratch drives for video projects (capturing, authoring, ripping, etc).

Last night I replaced my mobo and cpu. Now if I have the hard drives attached to the Promise, Windows XP will not load, it just hangs.... However if I remove both hard drives, Windows bootsup fine.... Windows XP Pro control panel shows no problems with the Promise card... I've tried with one hard drive disconnected and Windows still hangs upon bootup...

I downloaded the newest firmware for the Ultra100 TX2 and flashed my card. I've tried the newest Windows driver from the Promise site... But still no luck....

I had an older Promise Ultra66 and I swapped that card in and attached both hard drives, and Windows XP loads fine and recognizes the drives....

In another computer I have a Promise Ulta133 TX2 that I may try in this computer as well...

Checking the Promise site I have not found any mention of this problem, but Google (web & newsgroups) has returned instances of others having this problem but with no fixes...

I did re-install my OS but I did not have my Hauppauge PVR250 or Promise card attached. I did not install these cards until I patched XP to sp2. So perhaps I should have had the Promise installed before installing Xp...????


Thoughts????

Thanks

Kenmo

[lordsmurf]

Is that card from Promise, or was it the one Western Digital gave out? They are not the exact same card, not entirely. They each have their own drivers.

[smearbrick1]

Did you check your BIOS boot order? You may want to look into this and make sure the Hard Disk on the Primary IDE is set to boot first.

[kenmo]

It's a Promise card and not a WD or Maxtor....

Yes... my boot order is set to FLOPPY, CD-ROM, IDE 0:0

In bios the Promise card although an ide controller, it appears as SCSI...

[Morse2]

Hi Kenmo;

1. In your BIOS try enabling "Reset ESCD" (this could be listed as "reset configuration data" or some such depending on your BIOS) - this is an option that will force the computer to "look over" all the attached devices prior to booting the OS. By default it's usually "disabled", but it's there specifically to help out in case a hardware change is preventing the OS from booting. You'll find this in your PnP/PCI Configuration section if it's an Award BIOS.

2. If that doesn't work, try uninstalling the card, shut down the PC, pull power plug, remove card, reboot to Windows, remove the "ghost devices" from device manager (*see following paragraph*), shut down again, remove power, add the card without drives attached and reinstall the TX2 normally. Hopefully after all this fooling around Windows will get the message that you would like to use your card and HDD's!

3. Sorry, but at this point I've run out of ideas past a clean reinstall. Hope it doesn't come to that, since the MS "phone activation" types are becoming ruder by the reinstall IME.

*To do this you have to:
a. Start->My Computer (right click)-> Properties->Advanced->Environment Variables->System Variables->New and enter "DEVMGR_SHOW_NONPRESENT_DEVICES", with a value set to "1".
b. Start->My Computer (right click)->Manager->Device Manager->View and click on "Show Hidden".
c. Find the "light gray" entry for the now removed TX2 card and uninstall it. Also uninstall all "grayed out" drives that are no longer present (CAREFUL - ALWAYS CHECK IN PROPERTIES BEFORE UNINSTALLING DEVICES - YOU SHOULD SEE A MESSAGE TO THE EFFECT THAT THE DEVICE IS NO LONGER PRESENT). This also applies to all "missing" storage volumes. It could be that Windows is looking for the HDD's in the wrong place due to the way you reinstalled.

This general procedure will also allow you to solve other issues with missing storage devices (i.e. sometimes Explorer.exe wants to look at a HDD that you have removed from your system - this will cause Explorer to hang in a truly annoying fashion) like removable HDD's USB Flash Drives, etc.

Good luck and let us know how it turns out!
All the best,
Morse

[lordsmurf]

Not re-installing Windows after swapping mobo/CPU often has problems with HAL (hardware abstraction layer). At very least, go boot from the Windows install disc, goto INSTALL the OS and then run the REPAIR utility, which should fix HAL (not always, but usually). Or a fresh re-install (not a repair).

I ran into this same issue myself. Even after I ran repair, my TX2/133 was actually preventing the OS from loading. I removed the card, booted into the OS repair just fine. Then I removed all instances of the TX2 card from device manager, then power down and reinstalled it, then rebooted, and it was fine. TX2 came back on me, with all drives.

Part of my problem is the new board of mine, a VIA KT600-A is a piece of garbage. So I have some random Windows errors. My native on-board IDE drivers are erratic (problems with paging files) and then it cannot shut down (it BSOD's and I press the power button myself). Maybe you made the mistake the same mistake I did, getting a VIA board, known for being a pest?

Repair the OS, and consider pressing F6 and loading the TX2 drivers at that time.

[smearbrick1]

LS has it right. You definately want to reinstall Windows now that you have new components. It is never recommended to attempt a processor/motherboard upgrade without a clean install of Windows.

Also, why do you have floppy and CD booting first? I would set it to boot Hard disk first - it will boot faster. If you need to boot from CD or floppy, you can always change the setting.

[kenmo]

As I noted in my first post.... I did re-install Windows XP... However when I re-installed Windows (after formating the C drive) I did not have my Promise TX2 controller or my Hauppauge PVR250 card installed... I installed them after the OS and patching to SP2...

Yes, it's a VIA chipset, socket 478. First Intel I've had in years. Been faithful to AMD ever since I had a AMD K75

[lordsmurf]

SP2 could be an issue too. I would do a repair install, but this time F6 the 3rd-party hard drive, meaning the TX2. Just don't install anything to it.

[cirving]

Very helpful thread.
I myself have been experiencing this issue and I will try some of these tips when I get home.

Just as an FYI though, I did do a re-install of Windows, many times.
Ever since I upgraded my computer (the whole computer) I had problems with my controller card, as well I've had problems keeping my SATA drive as my primary boot device.

After numerous re-installs of Windows I'm convinced it's simply the BIOS settings. I keep setting my SATA drive as my primary boot device and even disabling all the other ones, but they keep coming back and re-arranging their preferred order... which results in HAL errors every time I reboot, so I need to go into the BIOS again to change it. It's a pain. I will try that Reset ESCD option though (or something similar). It's an Asus A8R-MVP motherboard.

Also, when my system does pick up my controller card at startup (Ultra133 TX2) and displaying my hard drives, they're always showing as UDMA2 (66Mbps). When they should all be UDMA5... they were always UDMA5 before. Any ideas?

[cirving]

Also, is this a problem with ALL controller cards? Cause I'm thinking of just replacing the Promise card I have for a HighPoint Rocket 133....could this just be a compatibility error?

[lordsmurf]

I think it's in the BIOS. There are a number of ACPI and APM settings that can cause issues, it depends on what BIOS you have.

[HatchetMan]

Kenmo - In my experience, those Pioneer and LG dvd writers you have do not necessarily like promise cards (or vice versa), especially when connecting both of them to the card, let alone one at a time. For the Maxtor HDD's, have you ever tried running the MaxBlast software? When I changed my config, what finally worked was moving the card to a different PCI slot. Go figure.

[budz]

If you're going to use a PCI CONTROLLER card for DVD BURNERS it's best to use one that has the SILICON IMAGE 680 CHIPSET instead of a PROMISE CHIPSET. This has been discussed at Cdfreaks.com that PROMISE CHIPSETS do not work with dvd burners. I use SILICON IMAGE 680 CHIPSET's in my pc's without any problems. Here's a cheap PCI SILICON IMAGE 680 CHIPSET CONTROLLER CARD for $15.99:

http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=SY-SIL-133R&cat=CCD

I use 2 of those PCI CONTROLLER CARDS.

[lordsmurf]

Promise work fine with hard drives and DVD-ROMs. The time I tried to use it for a burner, it only worked maybe half the time correctly, but it may have been the ancient computer at fault too.

[kenmo]

Tried various bios settings as advised in this thread.... Also booted up off of WinXP CD to do a repair however with this Promise TX2 installed, Windows XP CD also fails to boot after I get the inspecting system message....

I don't have this problem with the Promise ATA66 card though...

[kenmo]

Just poped the Promise ATA66 and I don't have the problems I do wit h the Promise ATA100...

[kenmo]

This Promise Ultra100 TX2 adapater is just not going to work in this computer for whatever reason.