most likely ide controller is running in pio mode

try going to device manager, locating ide controller > update driver > Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller Driver and then reboot and test

Update driver with what?
I already installed the sis ide drivers, it does the very same behaviour.
It's like the computer is idling for a minute, no read or writing to the hard drive\cf card.
The same doesn't happen on windows 98.
Dma and ultra dma are enabled:

Nemo1985 wrote on 2023-03-20, 17:11:

Update driver with what? I already installed the sis ide drivers, it does the very same behaviour. It's like the computer is idl […]
Show full quote

Update driver with what?
I already installed the sis ide drivers, it does the very same behaviour.
It's like the computer is idling for a minute, no read or writing to the hard drive\cf card.
The same doesn't happen on windows 98.
Dma and ultra dma are enabled:
Immagine.JPGImmagine2.JPG

I think that your IDE utility report is only reporting what the IDE Device says it can support, not what is actually in use between the controller and the device at the current moment. My experience is that devices will only report UDMA2 if a signal is getting through on pin 34, so it looks like you have an 80 conductor cable, which is the correct cable for this.

I would expect that the device should run at the highest common mode available between the controller and the device as long as UDMA is enabled for the storage controller in device manager, and it looks like you have that set correctly, too.

The SiS 962L storage controller on your board only supports up to UDMA6, so that is the mode your drive is likely using.

I don't know that any manufacturer ever made a PATA IDE controller for a PC or a SATA PATA bridge that supported UDMA7, but I'm always looking.

douglar wrote on 2023-03-21, 11:37:

I think that your IDE utility report is only reporting what the IDE Device says it can support, not what is actually in use betw […]
Show full quote

Nemo1985 wrote on 2023-03-20, 17:11:

Update driver with what? I already installed the sis ide drivers, it does the very same behaviour. It's like the computer is idl […]
Show full quote

Update driver with what?
I already installed the sis ide drivers, it does the very same behaviour.
It's like the computer is idling for a minute, no read or writing to the hard drive\cf card.
The same doesn't happen on windows 98.
Dma and ultra dma are enabled:
Immagine.JPGImmagine2.JPG

I think that your IDE utility report is only reporting what the IDE Device says it can support, not what is actually in use between the controller and the device at the current moment. My experience is that devices will only report UDMA2 if a signal is getting through on pin 34, so it looks like you have an 80 conductor cable, which is the correct cable for this.

I would expect that the device should run at the highest common mode available between the controller and the device as long as UDMA is enabled for the storage controller in device manager, and it looks like you have that set correctly, too.

The SiS 962L storage controller on your board only supports up to UDMA6, so that is the mode your drive is likely using.

I don't know that any manufacturer ever made a PATA IDE controller for a PC or a SATA PATA bridge that supported UDMA7, but I'm always looking.

That's probably right, bios reports ATA133:

If your problem is related to the IDE DMA then maybe try the Universal ATA drivers ?
http://alter.org.ua/en/soft/win/uni_ata/uni_ata.php
(I'm not sure, I'm just guessing).

I also have this card and am having a lot of problems. I can confirm that the system doesn't like having serial and LTP disabled. I don't have any problems with boot speed, but I do have much more subtle problems: the screen flickers randomly, the card works intermittently, sometimes with graphical artifacts that aren't related to the graphics card, and above all, it corrupts data during USB transfers and from the network. Mine had two swollen capacitors, which I replaced, but it seems like something else is wrong.

I have 3 of those motherboards, one I use as a war zone (testing whatever I get), I can confirm the very same issues. I recently noticed that the Sis videocards (300 series) make the computer crash with artifacts, while using a Geforce 2 mx won't give such issues. I don't have any swollen cap but considering how cheap it is a recap is just a good thing.

Nemo1985 wrote on 2026-05-16, 21:06:

I have 3 of those motherboards, one I use as a war zone (testing whatever I get), I can confirm the very same issues. I recently noticed that the Sis videocards (300 series) make the computer crash with artifacts, while using a Geforce 2 mx won't give such issues. I don't have any swollen cap but considering how cheap it is a recap is just a good thing.

Are you experiencing data corruption too? It's no small thing... All my installations fail because the files arrive on the disk corrupted. I haven't found a solution yet.

Devil996 wrote on 2026-05-16, 21:10:

Nemo1985 wrote on 2026-05-16, 21:06:

I have 3 of those motherboards, one I use as a war zone (testing whatever I get), I can confirm the very same issues. I recently noticed that the Sis videocards (300 series) make the computer crash with artifacts, while using a Geforce 2 mx won't give such issues. I don't have any swollen cap but considering how cheap it is a recap is just a good thing.

Are you experiencing data corruption too? It's no small thing... All my installations fail because the files arrive on the disk corrupted. I haven't found a solution yet.

I had some data corruptions but only on the fat32 partition. I just use a ssd and I connect it to my main computer to transfer things. Windows xp in ntfs works without issues.

A little OT, but I own a similar mainboard called ECS L4S5A/DX+.
It came inside an abandoned Fry's Electronics Mac G4 tower lookalike (knockoff) chassis.
Fry's Electronics appears to have extensively used ECS mainboards for their store brand (Fry's Electronics or GQ branded computers) computers.
6 to 7 years prior to going out of business, I think Fry's vice president of merchandising was getting kickbacks from several vendors, and one them was ECS.
He supposedly got arrested, on the spot, at their San Jose HQ for this.

I have played around with a really old 3.3 V AGP graphics card like Cirrus Logic CL-GD5465 (Laguna 3D) plugged into the universal AGP slot.
The testing was done on Linux so I do not know if the Windows graphics device driver works or not.
It is a nice board, but has a weird settings issue with keeping ACPI S3 State (STR or Suspend to RAM) activated.
I forgot the procedure, but it involved erasing ESCD to get the STR setting back.
STR itself works very well if it is active.

And the motherboard is now dead.
I left it run the memtest and when I went back to check the screen was black, when I tried to reset it didn't boot.
It's weird because visually is everything ok. Before put the other one in place I will completely recap it with nichicon caps on the cpu and polymer on the around the motherboard.

I have the predecessor to this board the M930LMR, and it had obviously bad caps when I saved it from an Ewaste place. I recapped it, and it has worked well ever since.

I finally found from where the bad smell was coming from. I'm just worried that no protection triggered at all, not in the psu, not in the wall, not in the plug socket I use.

Can anyone help to understand what went wrong here?
The ATX connector is melted in the motherboard now but what went bad? The psu? The motherboard?
Because the psu is (was) quite precious an enermax EG365 well beefed for the pre p4 era rails (v5 and v3.3)

This is a known defect with the board. If you've noticed, it's rare to not have a 4-pin connector on a socket 478. For the fired connector, it's hard to say why. Sometimes, not inserting the connector all the way can cause this. Or it could be a problem with the power supply. Check it. What's certain is that it's carrying a lot of current.

Devil996 wrote on Today, 22:13:

This is a known defect with the board. If you've noticed, it's rare to not have a 4-pin connector on a socket 478. As for the flashing, it's hard to say why. Sometimes, not inserting the connector all the way can cause this. Or it could be a problem with the power supply. Check it. What's certain is that it's carrying a lot of current.

The connector was all the way down, it was my testing machine for quite long time now without any issue (prior to this one).
What I wonder if it was the psu who went nuts or the motherboard.
Any advice about how to remove the psu atx connector from the board? It seem very well melted

Yes, it's true. You can see from the photos that the connector is pushed all the way in. I don't know, I think you're a victim of this board's poor design. Let's hope I don't end up like that. Make sure the power supply you're using isn't a lightweight one, and that it has at least 16-18A at 5V. Even pulling it out is a real pain now. Heat it up, but be careful not to heat the base, or you'll pull the connector off the motherboard. Do this with the board removed, from the bottom up.

If you get that connector off it's likely nothing will ever fit back on. May as well leave it there.

jmarsh wrote on 59 minutes ago:

If you get that connector off it's likely nothing will ever fit back on. May as well leave it there.

That's what I did in the end, I ripped the connector from the motherboard, then I was able to separate the psu connector from the plastic shelf from the one on the motherboard.
It doesn't look good