MS-6330 MB and Promise Ultra 100

[zalax]

A friend of mine had a HD crash on his Gateway.
Specs

MB MS-6330 Ver 2.1
VIA KT 133 Chipset
VT82C686A
1 CD Drive
1 Floppy
640 MB of 133 memory.

When I opened the case to replace the HD, I noticed a 80 wire/40 pin cable attached to a Promise Ultra 100 card. The CD was plugged into the onboard IDE channel 1.
So I attached the new Wester Digital HD into the cable, and booted it up.
The onboard BIOS on the card wouldn't load due to "no drives attached.
I tried both channels. No luck. So I attached the HD to the onboard IDE channel 2, but the BIOS wouldn't recognize it. Switched the CD and the HD, and the BIOS recognized the CD on channel two, but not the HD. So I pulled the Ultra card, system won't complete POST. Re-inserted card, and went to the BIOS to see if there was a RAID setting I could disable-nothing. IDE configuration is set to "Both" so I don't know why it won't recognize both onboard channels.
Can't seem to find the exact MB manual, as I suspect its a somewhat proprietary build for GateWay,
and there's only 1 set of jumpers. Anyway my fallback position would be to Master the HD, Slave the CD, and attach them to one of the onboard IDE channels, but this has got me real curious..

As always any help is appreciated----ZALAX

 

[OpTiMuSpRiMe]

remember to check the pin settings on both drives and make sure that you don't have them both set to master...another question is this the main hdd for the system or a backup for storage???

 

[OpTiMuSpRiMe]

see if there is any way that you can get me the motherboard make and model and i can find the manual or atleast a refrence guide for you... it does sound like a bios setting issue though..based on the pci ultra ata card in there... i wonder why that was being used..most chipsets these days are running the ultra ata 133 right on the motherboard channel..get that info for me and post it back here thanks mate

 

[OpTiMuSpRiMe]

sorry man should have read a little more closely here i have the model right MS-6330

 

[OpTiMuSpRiMe]

are you sure that this # VT82C686A shouldn't be a ( B ) at the end instead of an A

 

[OpTiMuSpRiMe]

this page might be able to help you out alot...it has all manual info on it
http://www.evertek.com/include/offs...182tc.shtml&ReturnLoc=http://www.evertek.com&

good luck mate

 

[Tedster]

I used to have that motherboard. IT worked for a long time until it got zapped by a surge caused by lightening.

I'd try anbother controller card. Yes the motherboard is proprietary, but it is a decent board. The board can use different types of ram (non-gateway) so it's not REAL proprietary - only the BIOS.

 

[zalax]

That is the exact board in the case. Now here's a problem I am having. If I take out the Ultra card, the computer will not complete POST, as a matter of fact, it does absolutely nothing. If I slot the card, but hookup the HD on IDE 1, and the CD on IDE 2 (both on the motherboard, not the card) the BIOS only recognized one device. and if I switch channels, same thing. So I know the IDE channels on the board are good. And I have looked in the BIOS until I'm cross-eyed, and I can't find anything about disabling that damn card, or its slot. As a matter of fact the BIOS menus are very rudimentary, nothing like my ASUS board I have at home. Shouldn't I be able to ignore the card, and use both MB IDE channels for my devices?

By the way, thanx for the help, it is truly appreciated--ZALAX