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.

[arn]

Try this:
In the "standard cmos setup" set secondary master to "auto".
In the 'boot sequence' EXT doeesn't have to be first, just so its there.
Just below boot sequence where is says 'boot sequence EXT means' make sure this says "SCSI".
If your overclocked, return to normal speed until you get it to boot. Your still not there for speed until you get the drivers installed in Windows.

Let us know how it goes. Hope this will help.

[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.

[Richard_Cranium72]

Try disabling pnp in bios, also on one of my machines I found out the hard way that the ide cables would go in backwards. Make sure the cables and ram are seated good, sometimes it'll go down but not all the way, the last 1/10" is what it took to connect.

[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.

[arn]

In your start menu go to run and type in "sysedit". Autoexec.bat, config.sys, sys.ini, protocol and win.ini will come up and you can edit these here. Don't delete "himem" windows needs this to run properly.

[Dave_H]

Before you delete them, you could put a REM in front of the line(s) and that line won't load. Then you can easily put it back in by removing the REM. Make them look like this.
REM config.sys -> DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS

If you can wait, I'm sure someone else
who knows all about this stuff, will be able to help you with the exact lines you should have. Sorry I could't help much. http://www.sysopt.com/forum/frown.gif
Dave


[This message has been edited by Dave_H (edited 01-22-2000).]