HELP ! Ultra ATA/66 Problem !!

[av1998]

I have a P3-500 system with Abit BE6 mainboard, 128 RAM and WD 27 Gig 7200 Ultra ATA/66 hard drive. It has been working great through the months running on ATA/33. Last night, I tried to utilize the ATA/66 feature. I flashed the latest BIOS from Abit, and also updated the HPT366 driver from High Point. Then I switch the IDE connecter from IDE#2 over to IDE#3, which is the UDMA66 channel. I went into SoftMenu to modify the BIOS setup so that it boots to EXT first, which means UDMA66.

Well, needless to say, the system freezes up and died on me. Now, even after I returned all settings back to before and moved the connecter back to IDE#2, I'm getting a blue screen. The system would go through Windows98 splash screen and then receives an error. The blue screen of death would appear and after rebooting a few times, I've given up trying anything else on my own. It's best for me to get some advice from here before attempting any other course of actions. Please help. Thank you.

[JimG]

Hi av1998!
I have a P2-400 using an Abit BE6 motherboard also. I had the exact same problem you did. I flashed the BIOS and updated the HighPoint drivers, and my computer wouldn't work! In the end, I had to reinstall Win98, because I could not get it working again. I hope someone can help us. Just thought you'd like to know you're not alone with this problem.

[blade_146]

You need to make sure your using an 80 wire 40 pin ultra 66 cable. If not you'll have trouble. But you probably knew that already.

[Pollux]

i'm not sure if this will fix your problem, or even if you've found your way back into windows yet, but did you install the drivers in windows? if you go to the device manager you'll either see two unknown "pci mass storage controllers" with exclamation points or you'll have your scsi icon with the two hpt366 controllers under there already installed. if you've already installed them in windows i'm not sure what's going wrong. i'd try going back to your original bios and trying to boot back into windows and check your device manager.
-pollux

[kwai]

this is someone else's suggestion so i haven't tried it myself (the latest highpoint drivers solved my similar problem), but they said to delete the file:
c:\windows\system\iosubsys\hptpwr.vxd

try it, reboot, and see if it helps.

[tlwhite76]

After you flashed your BIOS, did you clear CMOS and reset your BIOS? Keep in mind the ATA66 HD will not be recognized in the BIOS, think of it as an external device. Your operating system should be fine. Let us know how it goes.

[av1998]

UPDATE: I've tried to troubleshoot the problem using msconfig ..... seems like probably the config.sys and autoexec.bat are not loading up the device drivers properly. However, I couldn't pinpoint to the specific device. What can I do now ? Can I remove all my cards from their slots and remove all drivers associated with them ? Then install each back one-by-one ? Or is there a more efficient way to solve this problem ? Please advise. Thanks a lot.

[av1998]

UPDATE: It's confirmed that either my config.sys or my autoexec.bat is causing the blue screen problem. There are some instructions in those 2 files;

config.sys -> DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS
DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\EMM386.EXE

autoexec.bat -> SET BLASTER=A240 12 D3 H7 P330 T6
SET CTSYN=C:\WINDOWS
C:\PROGRA~1\CREATIVE\SBLIVE\DOSDRV\SBEINIT.COM

I believe those instructions are related to my SoundBlaster Live Value sound card. The problem is, can I delete them and how do I delete them ? Please share your thoughts. Thanks.

[gene1938]

I have a new A-BIT MB cgoing through similar problem-I think you can try and uninstall the sound blaster( on CD it should have a uninstall file)Then reboot& see if it still gives you the same error then reinstall (you might have to pull the sound card before you reboot) Keep us posted-I'll let you know what I find on the 66 drivers--gene

[TOAD6147]

av1998
Did you say you changed your boot sequence in the BIOS to boot from an external drive? If so you need to change it back to A, c, External, or what ever as long as it can find C: because the HighPoint controller really isn't external, it just seems that way. I have the BE6 and that's the way mine has been from day one. On initial install the BIOS and OS seemed to recognize the drive as just a standard one until the controller BIOS was activated by the drivers.
John