PCI Controller cards

Zuma · Post by **Zuma** » Thu Aug 14, 2003 4:03 pm

I bought one of these the other day and it installed just fine in my XP box.
The problem is when I plug the data cable into it, it locks up and then unlocks over and over again. The data ribbon that came with it I used from the motherboard to my first two drives. I used one of my rounded cables to go from the card to the 3rd and 4th drives.
Is there something different about the controller card cables?

TIA

Zuma · Post by **Zuma** » Thu Aug 14, 2003 8:20 pm

BUMP

No one has used these, or knows nothing about them??

Duzmor · Post by **Duzmor** » Thu Aug 14, 2003 8:57 pm

I would Try a 80 Pin Ribbon Cable For The Hard drives !!!

Duz !!

Zuma · Post by **Zuma** » Thu Aug 14, 2003 9:24 pm

Well the one it came with and my rounde one are both 80 pin. When XP installed it, it says it's a Raid controller, is this correct?

I know squat about Raid.................

LT-73 · Post by **LT-73** » Thu Aug 14, 2003 11:12 pm

What's the xact model of the Pci card?

Zuma · Post by **Zuma** » Thu Aug 14, 2003 11:15 pm

Not sure LT, it's a CompUSA generic

Brk · Post by **Brk** » Fri Aug 15, 2003 12:14 am

You're not trying to hot-swap the drives, are you? That is, you're shutting the PC off before hooking them up?

Install the drivers for it first, then shut down and install the card. Attach drives and Windows should recognize without lockups.

Zuma · Post by **Zuma** » Fri Aug 15, 2003 8:44 am

Yes Burke, I installed the card as per the manual (if you can call it that).
The thing is, that the card is installed right now with no problems. The minute I plug in a data cable to it, it starts locking up.
I must be missing something here,but I have no idea what

Brk · Post by **Brk** » Fri Aug 15, 2003 8:50 am

If the IDE cable the controller came with is a 40-pin/80-wire, there should be no problems. I didn't see if you said whether or not you're hot plugging them or if you're shutting down and then hooking everything up. Also, you might try setting both hard drives to Cable Select (CS).

However...when I first started using IDE cards, I had a lot of trouble getting them to work right when adding them to an existing installation of the OS, especially Win2000 or WinXP. But doing a fresh format and install of the OS with the hard drives attached to the controller has always worked properly for me.

Zuma · Post by **Zuma** » Fri Aug 15, 2003 9:00 am

Thanks for the help Burke, I am not hot plugging them, but I think I might try the cable select setting on the drives. They are set to master and slave right now.
If I must, I will do a fresh format, just did'nt want to go through all that if I did'nt need to.
Again, thanks for the replys

One other thing
I tried booting from the XP cd and using the F6 feature, but it asks for a floppy. I copied the cd onto a floppy but it still wanted some OEM text file, what the hell is that?

Brk · Post by **Brk** » Fri Aug 15, 2003 9:06 am

Originally posted by Zuma
One other thing
I tried booting from the XP cd and using the F6 feature, but it asks for a floppy. I copied the cd onto a floppy but it still wanted some OEM text file, what the hell is that?

The card should have come with a floppy with the drivers for the F6 install on it. CompUSA cards are usually rebranded versions of mainstream cards, so ifd you can find out what brand it is originally you can download the floppy disk from the maker.

Zuma · Post by **Zuma** » Fri Aug 15, 2003 9:28 am

Ok, this is a Silicon Image 0680 chip based card. I went and got some drivers, but it is not Raid capable until I flash it (and I'm not sure that I can).
It's about time to go to work so I will give this a shot tonight.

Thanks for the input guys

Zuma · Post by **Zuma** » Sun Aug 17, 2003 11:23 am

Burke, well changing jumpers to CS worked, it now see's the two HD's.
The problem now is that right after it boots to Windows, it does a memory dump and reboots.
It does this everytime

LT-73 · Post by **LT-73** » Sun Aug 17, 2003 11:52 am

Looks like that card is toast.

Brk · Post by **Brk** » Sun Aug 17, 2003 12:15 pm

Are you overclocked?

Zuma · Post by **Zuma** » Sun Aug 17, 2003 12:33 pm

No OC'ing.

I yanked the card out, it was just too much of a headache.

I will try it in another rig I am going to build soon.

Thanks for the help guys

ghost · Post by **ghost** » Mon Aug 18, 2003 12:47 am

It's difficult to help more without more info.

Are you booting from one of these drives? Are these the only drives on your system?

Since you've installed a PCI HDD card, I have to assume your mobo IDE connectors are all used up with other stuff.

I have the RAID-capable SI 680 in my system, perhaps I can help.

Zuma · Post by **Zuma** » Tue Aug 19, 2003 6:09 pm

Ghost, I was not booting from either of the drives. I only had the primary ide hooked up with two drives. These are in addition to the two drives on the MB primary and two Roms on the secondary on the MB.
With the card hooked up and finding the HD's, it would boot to Win XP, but after about 30 seconds on the desktop (boot) it would do a memory dump - everytime.

I am stumped, so I have pulled the card for now. One other thing though, with no data cable plugged into it, everything was fine.

ghost · Post by **ghost** » Tue Aug 19, 2003 10:50 pm

Let me make sure I have the connections straight.

1. Primary mobo IDE controller connection: 2 drives, one of them is the boot drive (C:\)

2. Secondary mobo IDE controller connection: 2 CD-ROMS

3. PCI card, not RAID capable: 2 drives, neither of them System drives, meant only for storage.

The problem is that Windows loads and starts, then does a memory dump and reboots.

How much hard drive space do you have left on your boot drive? Sounds like the system is trying to write a memory dump file but there's not enough space left on the drive.

Try to write down the error message you're getting, as much as you can.

What mobo are you using, btw?

zooner · Post by **zooner** » Wed Aug 20, 2003 12:50 am

I have promise ata66 controller card.

It wouldnt work on my abit be7, period. it would act just like you're talking about. However it worked with every other mobo and it currently works with my abit ic7

Zuma · Post by **Zuma** » Wed Aug 20, 2003 9:53 am

Ghost, you got it all right, I can't give you the error msg as I have pulled the card.

HD space on my primary is 10.3 GB free on a 40 gig drive (C)
My MB is an Asus A7N266-E

ghost · Post by **ghost** » Wed Aug 20, 2003 6:50 pm

I was just looking through your manual for your motherboard. Did you make any changes to the Advanced -----> PCI Configuration area of the BIOS? The numbered slots should be set to AUTO.

With my 680-RAID card I selected the proper Ultra DMA transfer mode via the Medley software included with the card. Did you install that software? It manages the card through Windows. If you don't have it I can post it for you to d/l.

Zuma · Post by **Zuma** » Thu Aug 21, 2003 7:03 am

Ghost, I don't recall any "Medley" software but let me look on the CD again. I will get back to you on this, thanks so much for your time with this issue.