Please help me...

[btvillarin]

I just got my hands on a copy of Windows 2000 and I want to see how much more stable it is compared to Win98/SE.

Just surfing some computer hardware/enthusiast pages, I came across this one from the House of Help. <A HREF="http://www.houseofhelp.com/articles/win2k_guide/" target="_new">Windows 2000 Configuration Guide</A> <A HREF="http://www.houseofhelp.com/articles/win2k_guide/printable.htm" target="_new">Printable Version</A>

After reading that, I had a question concerning this paragraph:
<i>"Users with a 686B southbridge will want to uncheck the VIA PCI IDE Bus Driver, as all the IDE drivers included in 4-in-1's since version 4.27 have had data-corruption issues with 686B SB's. This is the reason for those users to install the ATA-100 hoxfix. It includes a newer IDE driver that is at least better than the one that shipping with Win2k. Hopefully newer 4-in-1's will fix this issue."</i>

Now, should I do what this person is recommending? If so, what exactly am I doing?

<i>"Next up is an ASPI layer. Windows 2000 doesn't ship with one by default, yet one is needed for many programs that use optical drives. This includes programs such as burning software (but these generally come with their own ASPI layer) and CD-ripping software. The "standard" seems to be the Adaptec ASPI layer. You can download version 4.60 of Adaptec ASPI layer <A HREF="http://home.concepts.nl/~jvdam/aspi.htm" target="_new">here</A>."</i>

What does the ASPI layer do? I have a HP CD-Writer 9150i, and I use HP MyCD as my software. Do I need to update this ASPI???

Also, in the article, a fix is mentioned to for ATA100 hard drives because Win2K doesn't support Mode 5 by default. Is it true (from the consumer's point of view)?

I hope these questions aren't too difficult or stupid to answer. But, I really would like a trouble-free...err, I mean an install with the least amount of trouble in the long run.

Thanks for any replies...if not, it's understandable.

<b>System Specs:</b>
Asus A7V133 rev 1.05
Athlon T-Bird 850MHz OCed to 933 (7.0x133)
256MB SDRAM PC133 CAS2 (Crucial)
IBM 75GXP Deskstar 30GB ATA100
ATI Radeon 32MB SDRAM
SB Live! Value
3Com NIC 3905B-TX
HP CD-Writer 9150i 8x4x32
Generic Floppy Disk Drive

 

[Guest]

Good questions! I have Win2k on two A7V (not A7V133 so I have a different chipset) systems and it has worked fine. I am using the 4in1 driver version 4.28b with no problems. Win2k prior to SR2 did not use ATA100, the disk worked fine just not in ATA100. There was a hotfix for this which is included in SR2. Personally I would follow the suggestion about the VIA PCI IDE driver. To do this there are two things to do. First, put the latest version of the Ultra ATA100 driver on a floppy. Start the installation and when asked if you want to install another disk driver just after starting the install choose "yes" and install the Ultra ATA100 driver. If you don't then win2k won't even see the ATA100 controller or drive. Continue installing win2k and when you run the 4in1 driver uncheck the box for "VIA PCI IDE Driver". Another interesting point that I discovered. The VIA 4in1 install program appears not to detect what operating system you are installing. Win2k doesn't share interupts (at least not like win98) so you don't need to install the miniport driver if that is one of the options during the 4in1 install.

I don't know very much about CD burners but I would assume that the ASPI layer or whatever would get installed by the setup program.

 

[ejsmith2]

I'm using 4.31, sp2 on my win2k machine. I have a 45GB 75gxp on the primary, Kenwood 72x on the secondary, and a 6.4GB IBM on the promise controller. Everything runs just fine, and I've not run into the data corruption using .rar disk images (crc32 check).

It played havoc with me the first month I got it, until the 4.28/4.29 drivers came out. You've got good parts, so if you're not getting good results, most likely you just need to reformat the partition, and load the 4n1 drivers right off the bat. I'm not sure about the ATI drivers, but I use the 12.40 detonators for my GTS Pro card.

 

[btvillarin]

Hey, thanks for replying. I really appreciate it.

I have DSL, so downloading isn't a problem. I have downloaded Service Pack 2 and the ATA100 fix from Microsoft. I have the latest VIA 4in1 drivers (4.31).

Win2k prior to SR2 did not use ATA100, the disk worked fine just not in ATA100. There was a hotfix for this which is included in SR2.

How do you verify that ATA100 (mode 5) is in use?

Personally I would follow the suggestion about the VIA PCI IDE driver. To do this there are two things to do. First, put the latest version of the Ultra ATA100 driver on a floppy. Start the installation and when asked if you want to install another disk driver just after starting the install choose "yes" and install the Ultra ATA100 driver. If you don't then win2k won't even see the ATA100 controller or drive. Continue installing win2k and when you run the 4in1 driver uncheck the box for "VIA PCI IDE Driver".

My hard drive is plugged into the Primary IDE controller. So, it'll recognize it. Should I still take your suggesting about putting the ATA100 drivers on a floppy disk, F6, etc...? So many questions, but I don't wanna sound stupid. I tried reading what fixes might be on the 4in1 4.31 drivers, but to no avail.

 

[btvillarin]

Since I have one disk, and I rarely copy files from my CD-RW, I have a lesser chance of getting blue screens from the 686B/SB Live! incompatibility.

Anyways, I was just planning on putting the Promise ATA100 controllers on a floppy during Win2K setup. Then, installing VIA 4-in-1 4.31 drivers (all of the available options), the graphics, and the Win2K SP2. Does this sound okay?

 

[Guest]

Since I don't have the A7V133 I can only assume it is set up like the A7V meaning that the ATA100 is separate from the IDE. Meaning both physically (different connectors) and different bios. If you connect to IDE1 or IDE2 you get PIO MODE4 at best. To get ATA100 you need to connect the HDD to one of the two Promise Ultra connectors. On the A7V (mine, at least) these are blue as opposed to black for the IDE. You also need a different ribbon cable which has much finer wires than the regular cables but this should have come with an ATA100 drive. At any rate, to answer your question you need to use the Promise Ultra ATA100 driver. Since I assume win2k is already installed you could try installing the Promise driver with the HDD connected as it is to the IDE connector. I would restart and make sure it installed ok in the device manager and then shut down, switch the connector to the ATA100 connector and restart the computer. As the computer starts you should see the promise controller text and it should find your HDD. Once it identifies your drive everything should work ok. BUT, I didn't install my drive this way, I installed mine during win2k install like I described before. I think this should work. If not all I can suggest is to reinstall win2k with the drive attached to the ATA100 connector and use the promise driver as described.

As far as how to tell if you have ATA100? During boot the Promise controller searches for HDD's connected to its connectors (the ATA100 connectors). If if finds something it displays the type of disk and, I believe, the mode.

give it a try & let us know what happens.

Even the simplest things can be impossible...

 

[btvillarin]

I took the steps I explained in my last post, and it went successfully.

To test if my HD was using Mode 5 on my Primary IDE slot, I ran tests at <A HREF="http://www.pcpitstop.com" target="_new">PCPitStop.com</A>. Note: The A7V133 came with two ATA66/100 cables.
After one test, I shut down, moved the cable to the ATA100 slot (using the Promise chip), and started up again. Of course, I had to enable searching for ATA100 devices in my BIOS and stuff. After having to restart Win2K once because some devices were installed, I checked Device Manager. My hard drive was described as a SCSI disk device. (So far so good...) After another test at PCPitStop, I compared my results:

On Primary IDE slot
Cached speed 276.72 MB/s (201%)
Uncached speed 3.76 MB/s (107%)

On ATA100 slot
Cached speed 273.25 MB/s (198%)
Uncached speed 3.78 MB/s (107%)

So, although there was a percent or two flucuation, I think it's safe to conclude that with my HD in the IDE slot, I was running in Mode 5.

As far as how to tell if you have ATA100? During boot the Promise controller searches for HDD's connected to its connectors (the ATA100 connectors). If if finds something it displays the type of disk and, I believe, the mode.

The reason you might not be able to go by this is because although your BIOS might say it's utilizing Mode 5, Windows might not.

 

[btvillarin]

Update:
After trying to see if I can install the ATA100 fix from Microsoft, it wouldn't install because SP1 was required and I had installed SP2. So, probably, this fix was already included. It didn't matter, because as I earlier tested, I was already using Mode 5 (ATA100).

Anyways, as in the post above, everything has been okay. MP3s have been playing fine with the default Win2K SB Live drivers, yada yada yada...

Thanks for all the help in the relatively easy transition into a more stable OS.

 

[btvillarin]

I was just searching for anymore last minute questions. I came across two more, I guess...

Continue installing Win2k and when you run the 4in1 driver uncheck the box for "VIA PCI IDE Driver".

Can you explain why you wanted me to do this?

Another interesting point that I discovered. The VIA 4in1 install program appears not to detect what operating system you are installing. Win2k doesn't share interupts (at least not like win98) so you don't need to install the miniport driver if that is one of the options during the 4in1 install.

VIA 4-in-1 v4.31 had no problem recognizing that I was using Win2K. Have you updated your drivers?

 

[bw37]

btvillarin,

1. AV7133 is based on KT133A chipset which supports ATA-100 natively. That's why your primary IDE is ATA-100. AV7 was based on KT133 (no "A") and only supported ATA-66 on primary IDE so needed to use promise and it's drivers to use ATA-100.

2. W2k including SR1 also didn't support ATA-100, only ATA-66. Thus the ATA-100 hotpatch from MS. SR2 includes the ATA-100 patch so you don't need to install it with SR2. (BTW SR2 doubled my HD speeds from SR1 even with hotpatch on Iwill KK266 board).

3. Prior to SR2, Via IDE drivers did not work well with w2k (my low HD speeds w/SR1?), so many recommended not installing that portion of the 4in1's. I'm not sure whether you need them with SR2. So I say start without, and if it works, leave it, if not, reinstall the 4in1's with IDE busmaster. I have full 4in1 install of 4.29 4in1's, and as I said, when I upgraded to SR2, my HD speeds went way up. The via busmaster still shows in device manager, so I assume it's still active.

BW

the more I learn, the less I'm sure I know... 😱