Promise ATA 100 controller makes Windows 98 hang at startup \ VOGONS

Promise ATA 100 controller makes Windows 98 hang at startup

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First post, by spacesaver

Posted on 2020-07-22, 11:10

spacesaver Offline

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It's been 2 weeks since I've set up my 1st retro desktop and one of my last hurdles is getting fast disk access. I have a CUBX-E with a Promise PDC20265 IDE controller, attached to SSD through an IDE->SATA adapter. It runs at ATA66. I successfully installed the Win9x driver from http://firstweb.promise.com/support/file/Driv … 0driver_b42.zip

But Windows 98 will freeze at the DOS screen that comes after the logo screen if anything is plugged into the Promise IDE. What works:

*Boot from the Intel IDE controller with no other drives
*Boot from the Promise IDE controller, but without the Promise driver installed. In device manager, you'll then see an unknown PCI mass storage controller. Strange how it works without a driver. However, this is hardly any faster than ATA 33 and randomly freezes when there's disk activity

I've tried the following and they all freeze

*Booting from the Intel IDE controller and with another SSD (IDE -> mSATA @ ATA33) connected to the Promise IDE
*Removing all cards except the graphics board
*Removing other SCSI drivers

Seems like a driver problem since it partially worked with the Microsoft or BIOS driver? Or is the IDE -> SATA converters causing problems?

Reply 1 of 2, by Repo Man11

Posted on 2020-07-22, 13:25

Repo Man11 Offline

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It sounds to me as though you have a resource conflict. I would disable anything not being used - serial ports, parallel port, unused IDE port(s) and see if that solves it.

"I'd rather be rich than stupid" - Jack Handey

Reply 2 of 2, by swaaye

Posted on 2020-07-22, 14:46

swaaye Offline

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That's a Promise Ultra100 PCI card then? The 440BX PCI bus is picky. Promise Ultra66 was troublesome like this with 440BX. You should check around for a BIOS update for the Promise card.

But if it won't work even alone in the system and you've tried all the slots, not looking good.

I usually just use the onboard UDMA33 instead of messing with PCI IDE/SATA cards.

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