PcChips M575 - Will every harddrive < 32 GByte work ?

[Ronni]

Hi, I have a PcChips M575 mobo, which I recently flashed successfully with the latest available Bios (Release 04/02/1999S from the old BNS-website).
Everything works well (OS=Win98SE) and now I want to build in a larger HDD (I only have poor 1 GByte).
I have already found out, by writing an e-mail to PcChips-USA and by posting in the PcChips-Lottery-BBS, that the HD-Limit for this mobo with updated Bios is 32 GBytes (without drive-overlay-software, which I don´t want to use because I want to install Linux in addition to Windows and so the Win-Based overlay software will not really solve the problem and two 30-GB-drives will be completely sufficient for my purposes).
Ok, I know now that 32 GB is the limit for my board and Bios, and I have seen several offers of 30 GB-Drives at really acceptable prices in a second-hand-magazine, but I´m not sure if I can use EVERY 30 GB 3,5" E-IDE Harddrive, or if I have to check, if it fits to some further specifications, like special/maximum values of cylinders, heads and sectors.
And what about DMA 33/66/100 ?? Following the board´s manual it supports Ultra DMA/33 (33 MB/s) and Bus Master IDE DMA Mode 2 (and PIO Mode 0 to 4).
Can I also use DMA 66 or 100 or 133 drives, (with reduced transfer-rate) or will such drives make trouble with the DMA 33 of my board ?
I think I also read anywhere on the PcChips-Lottery-BBS that DMA of this motherboard doesn´t work at all although claimed in the boards description, because of any Bios or hardware (chipset ?) bugs.
Is this right ? And how to use a modern HD in this case ? Using some PIO-mode ? Which one ?
I hope anyone has some facts.
Additional information: If only some M575-boards have DMA-problems it may be relevant to know that I´ve seen a "1.1" or "v 1.1" printed on the board near the keybord-connector so it has to be version 1.1 of the M575.

I have already placed a post like this in the PcChips-Lottery-BBS, but I didn´t get there the informations I need, so according to the advice of one of the PcChips-Lottery-BBS-Members, I now try it here. I really hope anyone can tell me, if I have to look for further specifications beside the 32 GB-Limit, because it would be very annoying to buy a 30-GB-drive and see afterwards that it will not work !

SOMETHING DIFFERENT: I really want to say a big "Thank you very much" to the webmaster of this great site, without Wim´s BIOS Page (and the PcChips-Lottery) I wouldn´t have been able to update my Bios, not even to identify my motherboard ! This is really a big help for all owners of elder computers, who want to enhance the possibilities of their old machine, especially if they don´t have much PC-experience (like me) !

[ajzchips]

The latest BIOS for the M575 is known to support 80GB HDDs without overlay. The UDMA33 feature of the board is "broken"... ALi's problem, not PCCHIPS'. You'll have to either use PIO mode, or MWDMA2.

[Ronni]

Thank you for your reply, ajzchips.

I´m very surprised to hear that my board should support HDDs up to 80 GBytes without overlay-software, I had sent E-Mails to BNS-Computer and PcChips-USA and they both replied that the limit is 32 GBytes (Bios-Release 04/02/1999S), and the replies to my post in the PcChips-Lottery-BBS told the same. Are you really sure with the 80 GBytes ???
If it´s really possible to use 80-GB-HDDs I think that I would need another (patched ?) Bios, the 04/02/1999S-Release is the latest official PcChips Bios-Version for the M575, so where could a newer or patched (no risky Beta-Version) Bios be downloaded ?
Another question: What is MWDMA2 and how can it be activated ?
And which option gives the best perfomance PIO (Mode 4 ?) or this "MWDMA2" ?

[KachiWachi]

What version of Windows?

PIO-4 and MWDMA2 have the same transfer rate (16.67 MBps) but in DMA mode the system will have less CPU overhead. You can test this using HDTach.

See ->
http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/if/ide/modes_PIO.htm
http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/if/ide/modes_DMA.htm

[Ronni]

Hi Kachi-Wachi,

My Windows is Win 98 SE, version 4.10.2222 A, can you tell me if I can use MWDMA2 (with ALi-Chipset-DMA-bug), because - with the same speed but less stressing the CPU - it seems to be better than PIO 4.

[KachiWachi]

ALi bug is for UDMA and not MWDMA2...different animals. Yes...turn off UDMA in the BIOS, and Win98SE will run the drive at MWDMA2 just fine. You can verify this in the Device Manager.

Dont forget to move your SMART.VXD to enable SMART status monitoring. See -> http://support.microsoft.com/default.as ... -us;265854