A8N-SLI Deluxe - nVidia IDE Drivers and Secondary Channel Snafu
 

I posted a message here about a week ago about a new A8N system,
non-SATA and non-Raid. Just a single HD on Privary IDE and 2 DVD
devices on Secdondary. The problem was that WinXP would take 2 or 3
attempts to boot with each failure occuring at the same place where
the black Windows screen would appear. Disconnect the secondary
devices and Windows would boot just fine. All other system settings
and hardware were checked out OK. The problem sounds like hardware
(bad contoller) but since the reboot always occured at the same spot,
it sounds like a corrupted or bad driver to me.

I now have an answer for my problem but it still has me puzzled:
un-install the nVidia IDE drivers and the problems all go away. Go
figure.

These were Sony devices but just to rule out hardware incompatibility
I also tried other generic devices on the secondary and the failure
remained regardless of brand.

Am I really losing any performance advantage by sticking with the MS
drivers from Windows rather than using the nVidia IDE drivers? Of
course, the remaining nVidia chipset drivers are still installed.
Thank God for nVidia having the sense to offer an un-install option
for each rather than an all-in-one, take-it-or-leave-it
install/un-install.

Baldy

In article , Baldy
wrote:

I posted a message here about a week ago about a new A8N system,
non-SATA and non-Raid. Just a single HD on Privary IDE and 2 DVD
devices on Secdondary. The problem was that WinXP would take 2 or 3
attempts to boot with each failure occuring at the same place where
the black Windows screen would appear. Disconnect the secondary
devices and Windows would boot just fine. All other system settings
and hardware were checked out OK. The problem sounds like hardware
(bad contoller) but since the reboot always occured at the same spot,
it sounds like a corrupted or bad driver to me.

I now have an answer for my problem but it still has me puzzled:
un-install the nVidia IDE drivers and the problems all go away. Go
figure.

These were Sony devices but just to rule out hardware incompatibility
I also tried other generic devices on the secondary and the failure
remained regardless of brand.

Am I really losing any performance advantage by sticking with the MS
drivers from Windows rather than using the nVidia IDE drivers? Of
course, the remaining nVidia chipset drivers are still installed.
Thank God for nVidia having the sense to offer an un-install option
for each rather than an all-in-one, take-it-or-leave-it
install/un-install.

Baldy

The non-MS drivers frequently include their own RAM
cache for disk access. This gives an apparent boost
in performance.

However, as you've discovered, compatibility is a lost
art. Whether it is Intel IAA, a SIS, Via, Nvidia etc
driver, they all have problems to one extent or another.
Usually, where the s*** hits the fan, is burning CD/DVDs.

Another benefit of using the default MS driver, is if you
migrate your boot disk to another new motherboard, there
is a good chance the driver will allow the system to boot.
At least, switching to the default MS driver, before
changing motherboards, allowed me to migrate my disk on
my last upgrade (using Win2K). You might still want to
do a repair install, as the results can be less than
spectacular (I had video card problems).

HTH,
Paul

"Baldy" wrote in message
...
I posted a message here about a week ago about a new A8N system,
non-SATA and non-Raid. Just a single HD on Privary IDE and 2 DVD
devices on Secdondary. The problem was that WinXP would take 2 or 3
attempts to boot with each failure occuring at the same place where
the black Windows screen would appear. Disconnect the secondary
devices and Windows would boot just fine. All other system settings
and hardware were checked out OK. The problem sounds like hardware
(bad contoller) but since the reboot always occured at the same spot,
it sounds like a corrupted or bad driver to me.


Not sure if this will be of any help or confort to you but...

I am running exactly the same arrangement as you. I am using BIOS 1006 and
the very latest driver pack from the nVidia site.

I am not seeing the same problems as you. I am unable to suggest any
remedies to your particular problem other than:

Flash up to 1006
Clear the CMOS
Set to Defaults
Replace DMA66 cable to Optical Drives
Check Master/Slave settings on Optical Drives, and reverse them to see if it
will play ball the other way around.
Uninstall your current nVidia driver pack
Install latest nVidia driver pack.

HTH

On Tue, 5 Apr 2005 10:23:50 +0100, "3200+" wrote:


I am running exactly the same arrangement as you. I am using BIOS 1006 and
the very latest driver pack from the nVidia site.

I am not seeing the same problems as you. I am unable to suggest any
remedies to your particular problem other than:

Flash up to 1006
Clear the CMOS
Set to Defaults
Replace DMA66 cable to Optical Drives
Check Master/Slave settings on Optical Drives, and reverse them to see if it
will play ball the other way around.
Uninstall your current nVidia driver pack
Install latest nVidia driver pack.

HTH


Admittedly your advice is the only thing that I didn't try (BIOS patch
and nVidia latest release pack). I'm surprised that nobody else has
come across this same glitch but I suspect that this particular system
that I'm setting up for a client is sort of just a half-assed gamer
system. Can't figure out why anyone would want to run this mobo with
just one All-In-Wonder video card and just one 100GB non-SATA HD.

Lately I've noticed several chipset manufacturers all touting their
latest and greatest IDE drivers, i.e. ViaTech. Two weeks ago I had a
similar problem with the new VIA IDE drivers (not to be confused with
their 4-in-1 driver pack). Those VIA drivers looked nifty and glitzy
on the properties sheet tab but caused many disk access errors. Once
they were removed, the standard MS drivers worked flawlessly. So I'm a
little gunshy about even trying nVidia's latest attempt to join the
masses. Maybe one I feel luckier..........

Baldy

On Tue, 05 Apr 2005 14:26:54 -0700, Baldy wrote:

On Tue, 5 Apr 2005 10:23:50 +0100, "3200+" wrote:


I am running exactly the same arrangement as you. I am using BIOS 1006 and
the very latest driver pack from the nVidia site.

I am not seeing the same problems as you. I am unable to suggest any
remedies to your particular problem other than:

Flash up to 1006
Clear the CMOS
Set to Defaults
Replace DMA66 cable to Optical Drives
Check Master/Slave settings on Optical Drives, and reverse them to see if it
will play ball the other way around.
Uninstall your current nVidia driver pack
Install latest nVidia driver pack.

HTH


Admittedly your advice is the only thing that I didn't try (BIOS patch
and nVidia latest release pack). I'm surprised that nobody else has
come across this same glitch but I suspect that this particular system
that I'm setting up for a client is sort of just a half-assed gamer
system. Can't figure out why anyone would want to run this mobo with
just one All-In-Wonder video card and just one 100GB non-SATA HD.

Lately I've noticed several chipset manufacturers all touting their
latest and greatest IDE drivers, i.e. ViaTech. Two weeks ago I had a
similar problem with the new VIA IDE drivers (not to be confused with
their 4-in-1 driver pack). Those VIA drivers looked nifty and glitzy
on the properties sheet tab but caused many disk access errors. Once
they were removed, the standard MS drivers worked flawlessly. So I'm a
little gunshy about even trying nVidia's latest attempt to join the
masses. Maybe one I feel luckier..........

Baldy

From all I've heard, the nVidia IDE drivers should not be installed.
From my own experience: I tried them a few months ago, but had to
remove them because they kept setting my DVD burner to PIO mode.

How does one uninstall the MS IDE Drivers and then reinstall the NVidia
IDE drivers? I downloaded 5.10 of the Unified Driver pack but it's not
abundantly clear what to do. I ran it but it looks it just extracts
itself to my C: drive as C:\NVIDIA\nForceWin2KXP\5.10.

Thanks,

Hi Baldy,

system. Can't figure out why anyone would want to run this mobo with
just one All-In-Wonder video card and just one 100GB non-SATA HD.


1 Reason:

Build in Raid 5 in my case.

The raid controllers alone with the inbuild chipset are more than the
Intire Asus board!!!


Regards Leif.