80GB: 06/14/1999-VP3-586B-W877-P5VP-A+

[TomasHanson]

Hello everybody,

I've got a little Problem with my HDD and the BIOS of my Board

HDD: WD800JB
Board: ECS P5VP-A+ (Elitegroup VIA MVP3)
Award Modular Bios V4.51PG
BIOS ID: 06/14/1999-VP3-586B-W877-P5VP-A+
Bios Version 2.2h (06/01/1999) ->latest Bios from ECS for this Board.

The BIOS seems to crash while it tries to detect my Harddrive.
If I jumper the HDD to 32GB the Bios detects it without a problem, so
I think it got the mentioned 64GB-BUG.
I tried to patch my BIOS like Petr Soucek described it on his Homepage
http://www.ryston.cz/petr/bios/ with a GA586HX Bios, but I didn't have
success.
If anybody has a possible solution, please help me!

Thanks and greetings
Tomas Hanson

[NickS]

I'll take a look....patched a while back, see the "untested" file at the URL in my signature. Please provide feedback !!

[TomasHanson]

Hello NickS,

Thanks for the hint. I already flashed it.

It works very fine. The HDD is auto-detectable at the Bios-Auto-HDD-
Detection and also works with Auto Settings at Standard CMOS Setup)


Thank You very much. This was a big success.


Then I tested different MS Operating Systems:

Windows 98 SE works fine (It seems to use BIOS routines to access
the hdd while installing)

Windows 2000 and Windows 2000 Server do not work (I'm thinking that
these OSes use their own routines to access and copy files to the hdd.
There are long pauses between the differnet steps of installation; finally
the \WINNT - folder couldn't been created)

Otherwise Windows XP Pro works good (MS must have checked their
installation routines!)

Linux isn't tested yet.

Greetings

Tomas Hanson

[NickS]

Thanks for the feedback. I wonder whether the Windows 2000 issue is related to UDMA modes ? Long pauses make me think of disk time-outs. Can you try using the HDD manufacturer's utility to set UDMA mode to UDMA 33 ?

[TomasHanson]

Hi,

I took WD's DLG and limited the HDD to UDMA 33. Unfortunately this didn't make any difference.
I really don't know what's the problem.

Also I've checked another way to install Windows 2000:
I replaced the 80 GB WD HDD by an old 6,4 GB HDD, installed the OS, made an image of the partition and copied it to the 80GB WD HDD.

Result:
Windows 2000 boots, but hangs at the startup splash screen.


Bye
Tomas Hanson

[NickS]

There's a KnowledgeBase article about not being able to create WINNT\Temp if it already exists e.g. if you are upgrading from a previous version of the OS, but I don't think your timeouts sound like that problem.
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=239596
[edit]There's a helpful site http://www.labmice.net/Windows2000/inst ... llbugs.htm which may have some other ideas ?

[TomasHanson]

Hi NickS

Thanks for the hints, I'll check them out.

Besides, is it possible that http://http://wims.rainbow-software.org is down?
The site isn't available.


Bye
Tomas Hanson

[Rainbow]

Host.sk freehosting is curretly down

[edwin]

Back online. And it's pretty fast...

[TomasHanson]

Hi NickS,

sorry it took a long time to answer. Unfortunately I'll need my server online this week. I'll try to fix the Windows2000 installation problem at the weekend and post the results.
I found out that if I let the hdd been autodetected in the bios, it works
with PIO Mode 4, but if I let it been detected during bootup, it works
with UDMA33. Probably something to check out.

Greetings
Tomas Hanson

P.S.

Thanks to the persons in charge to put http://http://wims.rainbow-software.org online again.

[TomasHanson]

Hi NickS,

as promised, here the results of my Windows 2000 - installation - marathon.
First of all, the limitation of the hdd access speed didn't make any difference,
as said.
Then I tested all possibilities to access the hdd, including deactivation of
BIOS detection of the hdd (as mentioned in some postings at the forum):

I wrote a nice table, but it was totally destroyed during posting.
So here's some replacement, I hope it's readable.

Code: Select all

Access Param. (at Bios info screen)|Win2000 install. possible?
--------------------------------------------------------------
LBA, Mode 4, 80GB                  | no
CHS, Mode 4, 80GB                  | no
LRG, Mode 4, 80GB                  | no   
LBA, UDMA 2, 80GB                  | no (aaaarrgghhhhh!!)
NONE                               | yes !!
--------------------------------------------------------------

Detailed Parameters at STANDARD CMOS SETUP:

Code: Select all

TYPE|SIZE |CYLS |HEADS|PRECOMP| LANDZ |SECTOR|MODE
----------------------------------------------------------
USER|80   |9729 |255  |0      |38308  |63    |LBA
USER|80   |38308|16   |65535  |38308  |255   |CHS
USER|80   |4788 |128  |65535  |38308  |255   |LARGE
AUTO|-----|-----|-----|-------|-------|------|AUTO
NONE|-----|-----|-----|-------|-------|------|NONE

So it is possible to install Windows 2000 on this hdd (until first reboot). But I don't know how to boot from the hdd to finish installation, without activate it at the BIOS.
Even the WD Diskmanager cannot bootup the hdd without activating it at the bios.

Do you know a fix for this problem?

Greetings
Tomas Hanson
[edited by NickS to put parameters into tables using code

Thanks for the hint!