Looks like you're stuck. Promise did this (shadowing option ROM into conventional memory) for speed and convenience.

Here's an old thread at Storage Review from someone that wanted to do something similar:

http://forums.storagereview.com/index.php/top … cation-request/

I also own an Ultra66 and Ultra100 TX2 PCI controllers, and both do the same thing; I just live with it. You could try a different PCI controller as well (I believe Silicon Image controllers don't do this type of shadowing).

Thanks! That's a very interesting link. I didn't really expect to see other people concerned about this, since these controller cards were released when dos pretty much died out already. Too bad it seems impossible to reclaim this memory though... 🙁

I would imagine if there's some way to find out if there are any parts of code that refer to this memory region, you should be able to relocate it and then update the referring instructions. If the controller itself is hardwired to expect its bios in this location, then things might become difficult.

Of course I could live with 6kb less, but I'm kinda concerned about things like the cad program discussed in your link. That's just one program, who knows what else might be hardcoded to expect this region empty?

And yes, I tried a Silicon Image once. Never could figure out how to use the drivers, and UIDE just crashed right on startup. These Promise cards seem much more reliable so far.

Are you really going to miss 6K though?

jwt27 wrote:

I would imagine if there's some way to find out if there are any parts of code that refer to this memory region, you should be able to relocate it and then update the referring instructions. If the controller itself is hardwired to expect its bios in this location, then things might become difficult.

I haven't seen anyone do a low level mod like that before. The only one I know of is to convert the Ultra100 card into a Fastrak RAID card:

http://www.weethet.nl/english/hardware_promiseultra100.php

Of course I could live with 6kb less, but I'm kinda concerned about things like the cad program discussed in your link. That's just one program, who knows what else might be hardcoded to expect this region empty?

I did try out AutoCAD 12 and 3D Studio 3 (both DOS CAD programs) at one time and they were buggy with Promise cards installed. Haven't experienced problems with other DOS software or games so far.

And yes, I tried a Silicon Image once. Never could figure out how to use the drivers, and UIDE just crashed right on startup. These Promise cards seem much more reliable so far.

I agree, Promise cards just work (even in old 486/Pentium PCs). My personal nemesis is HighPoint, always had problems/issues (hardware conflicts, bad drivers, corrupted data) and refuse to use them because of that.

JayCeeBee64 wrote:

I did try out AutoCAD 12 and 3D Studio 3 (both DOS CAD programs) at one time and they were buggy with Promise cards installed. Haven't experienced problems with other DOS software or games so far.

Well great. I actually use autocad 13 from time to time...

JayCeeBee64 wrote:

I agree, Promise cards just work (even in old 486/Pentium PCs). My personal nemesis is HighPoint, always had problems/issues (hardware conflicts, bad drivers, corrupted data) and refuse to use them because of that.

Thanks. My 440BX mainboard has one of these on-board (ATA 100). I did intend to try it someday... sounds like it's better if I didn't 😀

smeezekitty wrote:

Are you really going to miss 6K though?

Not directly. But I'm worried about compatibility. And I'm sure programs that rely on this area to be empty will just crash randomly instead of throwing nice detailed error messages pointing to the controller card.