Ultra ATA/100 Controller Card Woes

[palladrj]

Hi All

This may be longer than most care to read, but here goes.

I purchased a CompUSA Ultra ATA/100 controller card. My intention was to keep my 80GB Seagate with WinME OS on the on-board Primary IDE channel, and the Secondary, Primary connected to a docking bay with another HDD. The controller card Primary, Master would be connected to the CD-ROM, and the Secondary, Primary to the CD-R/W. This configuration would allow for future expansion.

Problem: CD-R/W would not do a disk copy with NERO. A copy from a CD to HDD was slow (120 minutes to copy 40MB). Even I knew that something was amiss.
Upon posting of my calamity, I was advised by HAL9000 that controller cards are not designed for CD-ROMs. OK I said, I could live with that. I’ll just move my HDD to the controller card and all will be well in technoland. Not so my adventuresome friend, PC would not boot. My mindless, intolerant, subservient PC advised me that I had more to learn about frivolous enhancements. It would not recognize the HDD that I had connected to the controller card. I inserted a startup disk, and executed FDISK. The HDD on the controller card was not formatted. OK, now I know why it would not boot from the HDD. Moved the HDD w/OS back to on-board, booted ok.

Question: How can I get the system to recognize the HDD on the controller card? Is it possible w/o reinstalling WimME? If adding a controller card were a common enhancement, I wouldn’t think that one would need to reinstall the OS to enable the HDD. Furthermore, I wouldn’t think that one would purchase a controller card and only gain one channel (Pri and Sec) for CD-ROMs. What is it that I don’t understand? Am I doing something unusual?

Thanks to those with stamina.
Palladrj

[mike breck]

Hi again palladrj,

How have you jumpered the Seagate - Master or Cable Select?
If using Cable Select are you using an ATA 66/100 cable with the blue, gray, and black connectors.

My Promise card came with such a cable and advised using it.

However, I couldn't get the new Maxtor 20Gb in my P200 to be recognised with the HD jumpered to CS - but it did when I jumpered it to Master.

So what I'm saying is if it's jumpered to Master then try CS. If jumpered to CS, then try it jumpered as Master. Try both ways and see if any works.

But do use an ATA 66/100 cable.

HTH

[palladrj]

Thanks Mike,

How have you jumpered the Seagate - Master or Cable Select?
Tried both.

If using Cable Select are you using an ATA 66/100 cable with the blue, gray, and black connectors?
Yes, 40 connector/80 wire, blue to MOBO, black to HDD, red stripe to pin 1.

Tried different PCI Slots, different cables, and different connectors on the card, and I'm worn out switching and thinking. I think that I'll let it set for a week, and maybe it will repair itself.

On the bright side, I'm clean, indoors with air conditioning, my faithful dog at my feet, and not out in the heat under my car with oil running down into my armpits.

[mike breck]

Hey, glad to hear all is well with your world.

My view is these minor niggles are but pimples on the skin of our well-balanced universe and should not be blown out of proportion less they disturb our Karma.

I find a few beers help to restore the balance and make one feel at one with the universe again.

Unless some one comes up with a better idea, I think this card may be faulty. You shouldn't have this much trouble getting the card to work.

Have you phoned their tech support? Can you return it?

[palladrj]

Have you phoned their tech support?
I haven't tried that yet.

Can you return it?
I think it's past the 15 days.

The card does, however, work with a second HDD. Just won't recognize the HDD as beign formatted wit a boot sector.

I'l let it rest.
Thanks again for your time and patience.
palladrj

[palladrj]

Hi All
OK, here are the results. After much effort and no success, I decided that the controller card had to be bad. In my experience, I’ve learned that most problems are due to mother-in-law, children, wife, girlfriend, ignorance, illness, operator error, configuration, software, and finally hardware. I returned the card to CompUSA, and exchanged it for a Maxtor ATA/100 Controller Card. Installed the card, installed the drivers, connected the CD-ROM and R/W, and burned a CD. As confirmation, I powered down and connected the HDD to the card. The card BIOS found the boot sector, and booted successfully.
This is not a condemnation of CompUSA products. It is only my isolated experience, which consumed two weeks of my life. I did, however, learn much in the process.
Palladrj

[mike breck]

Glad you're up and running

[morriswindgate]

I hope that you learned, that when it comes to componants, always buy a brand name. With all of your time and trouble, if you charged for it, it turned the generic CompUsa card into one that costs four or five times more than the Maxtor (Promise)

[palladrj]

Hi morriswindgate
Another issue that I failed to mention was with the media. I believe that you have posted on the value of brand name media. I have purchased most every brand of CDs. This was primarily due to the fact that they were either free, after rebate, or at a greatly reduced price. Here is my experience with a 24X TDK-R/W:

Rated at 32X, will burn consistently at 20X, no faster
Rated at 16X, burns at 24X consistently
Rated at 12X, burns at 16X consistently
Rated at ANY-X, some burn at spec speed, some slower, some faster, inconsistent within the package

In other word, I have come to rely on some brands, and test others before burning. Since testing requires more of my time, I have a stack of Christmas tree decorations standing by.

Again, I provide no names to condem because my testing may be unreliable and/or unique to my system.

palladrj

[morriswindgate]

I use the cheapest media I can get. Currently I am using the generic media from www.supermediastore.com and it will burn at 32x. I cannot remember the last time I used any brandname media.
But when it comes to hardware, I only purchase brandnames I recognize. This is twofold, one I know the quality and the manufature and two, I know that when I need updated drivers they will be there for downloading.