Promise Ultra66 Controller

Question

Hello, everyone...I'm a first-time poster! I've had the chance to work on several XPS-T series PC's in the last few weeks. I have a 450, father-in-law has a 700 and I worked on a 500 for a co-worker. Basically, I installed Windows 2000 on the boxes and I learned a little about the Promise Ultra66 controller that Dell had bundled with these circa 1999-2000 systems. The original OS was either Win98 or WinME. After installing W2K, I had get a blue screen of death on boot and it was driving me nuts until I began to look at the Ultra66 as the culprit. I pulled the controller and used the on-board IDE interface and that was the ticket...no more problems. However, I decided to see if I could still use the Ultra and I found that it needed both a BIOS update as well as a drivere update. Since W2K was installed and would continually crash, I used the on-board IDE but also put the unconnected Ultra66 in a slot. This worked as I could access it to do the upgrades and it works great.

My question after rambling like I have is this: do I need to even use the Promise Ultra66 controller? These are all one drive systems so I don't need the extra ability to add drives. So does the card offere any throughput/speed advantages over the onboard IDE ports? I'm curious and if the Ultra really gives me nothing, I'll pull the cards as I'd rather have a direct connection to the motherboard's IDE.

Thanks in advance for any comments.
Jim

Majestic · Answer

In your situation the only advantage to using the controller card is for the faster data transfer speed.  The XPS T's motherboard IDE controller only has data transfer speed of ATA 33 versus the ATA 66 of the card.  If the card is causing that much problems then you might consider pulling the card  in lieu of the added performance.  Prior to pulling the card you should try the card's BIOS update as well as the driver update if you haven't done so already.  Those two items might resolve the problems you are having.

RPMcMurphy · Answer

Thanks for your answer. That's all I needed to know...that the motherboard does ATA33 and the Promise does ATA66. Even though I'll probably never notice the difference, I'll leave the Promise in.

By the way, I'm not having ANY problems now. The only problem was that Windows 2000 would blue-screen with the Promise U66 in use. I found both BIOS & Windows 2000 drivers for the card (though they are dated 2002!). I connected the drive to the onboard IDE but left the Promise U66 in a slot. That way, I didn't blue-screen and was able to see the card and apply a W2K driver update in Device Manager and then flash the Promise card's BIOS.

Works like a charm now! Again, thanks for your help. I'm not up on motherboard bus /IDE bus speeds, etc. so you've educated me.

Jim

chmader · Answer

I too am a first time poster and working on a friends Dimension XPST700r pc that has an ultra 66 pci card and the problem I am having is upon booting up I get a resouce conflict error.  I have tried removing the pci ultra66 card and using strictly onboard IDE and still get the resource conflict message.  I can hit ESC to bypass it and can see both the drive on the card and the one on the motherboard IDE.  I have looked everywhere in Setup and hardware manager to find the conflict and can not resolve it.  Any suggestions are welcomed on how to resolve this problem.  Thanks

Majestic · Answer

Chmader, considering the age of the system I would try a new motherboard battery.  A failing battery can produce a variety of erroneous errors on boot up.  A new 3-Volt, CR2032, coin cell battery can be purchased for around $3 (US) and is available at any Radio Shack, computer stores and most discount stores.  Prior to installing the new battery I would also do a 'hard' reset of the NVRAM.  To do that just follow the directions I have listed below..... With the machine unplugged from the wall remove the battery from the motherboard.  Then with the machine still unplugged press the On button for several seconds to dissipate any remaining electrical charge on the motherboard.  Then re-install the battery, plug the machine back into the wall and see if it will boot normally.

chmader · Answer

Well I went out got a new battery and did what you suggested but still getting the same resource conflict error Bus: 00 Device:11 Function:00. I have looked everywhere for anything on that and can't find it. It doesn't interfer with the Hard Drives as they are either on a different Bus or different Device. I can hit esc and bypass and all seems to run fine, but it is a pain and I know it is something small to fix. Just can't put my finger on it.

Thanks

chmader · Answer

Well I finally decided to take out all PCI cards and add them one at a time starting with the Ultra66 and it is cleared.    Hooray....... Thanks for the advice.

Majestic · Answer

Chmader, glad to hear you were able to resolve the problem.

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Promise Ultra66 Controller

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