[Athlon64] CD / DVD not working properly, Neao K8T800 Pro series.

Question

Hi all,
I purchased a MSI K8t Neo2 motherboard along with a AMD 64 3200+ (socket 939) in the beginning of May.
When i installed the parts in my case I experienced some problems getting windows (which I reinstalled) to detect all the Harddrives i had.
I solved this by putting 3 HDD's on one IDE interface, and 1 on a separate controllercard. on the other IDE interface i put my Sony DRU-700A DVD alone.
This worked, to a certain extent.. When I place a disc in the DVD, windows gets a hizziefit and starts to lag insanely, when it's finally done, it won't autostart the discs i put in, i can't double-click it from My Computer as i get the error:
"F:\
Only part of a ReadProcessMemory or WriteprocessMemory request was completed."
Doesn't tell me much.. I then try ro right-click F: and select "exlore", AHA! this works. I get into the disc and i can move around in the foldertrees, but it takes time.. My GOD it takes time...
When i finally reach my destination and try to execute a .exe file, this happens:
"F:\ is not a valid win32 application".
At this point one starts to think: "ok.. i know that.. but the exe-file i tried to start IS..."
NOTE: From time to time i've noticed that it switched between these 2 error messages, i.e i get the "not valid" when trying to start the disc and the "ReadError" when starting a .exe-file, and vice versa.
I have the latest bios, i have tried adding a LG CD-R/W tp the process and tested if that worked, see results here: www.vikholm.se/say_what.gif     
I might not be the sharpest tool in the shed, but i know that CAN'T be right?
I then went into the Device Manager and selected "uninstall" on my Sony DVD, thinking it has to find new hardware on reboot and reinstall it. Windows finds nothing, and i can't seem to get it back again..
Anyways, i noticed that 2 updates to my mobo was avaliable through MSI Live Update, so i choose the newer one and install it, thinking it might solve this problem.
Select reboot -> Click "exit now" on firefox.exe  -> run for work as i', late -> come home now just to see that windows did NOT reboot as i got an error code from some exe-file.
Anyways, reboot properly this time and half-way through the boot up it reboots again, and at the loadingscreen where you can see the biosversion and such it says:
"Sec Master drive is not ATAPI compatible
F1 to Resume"
This is my LG CD-R/W. I press F1 and it boots just fine, and i see that my LG is no longer avaliable in My computer.
These are my problems.
To sum things up:
1. Could it be my mobo that is screwed up in the IDE interfaces?
2. Could it be my IDE cables? (i don't have any others to try with =( )
3. I've been in contact with Sony's support, accordign to their firmware testers and producttest programs, my device worked as it should.
4. Anyone have any tips on how to get my Sonydevice back to windows without reinstalling windows? It not, i'll just have to reinstall.
5. If all else failes, can anyone lend me a handgun so i can end my misery?
Thanks a million for reading and if you have the slightest idea of what might fix ANY of the problems stated above, do not hesitate to post. Please.
Milk and cookies for anyone who helps me solve this 

Answer 1

Quote from: Tiresmoke on 09-July-05, 01:49:28
The promise controller is simply there to add to their Sata Raid ability. It is not for opticals.
Then let's do some RTFM:
Quote
Pages 1-2 and 1-3
Promise 20579 On-Board (Optional)
>Supports two SATA and one IDE
-  RAID 0, RAID 1 and RAID 0+1 supported
-  RAID function work with ATA133+SATA H/D or two SATA H/DConnect up to two SATA devices (such as SATA HDD, CD-ROM, DVD-ROM and
two ATA133 devices
> SATA 150MB/s with extensions (SATA II Phase I)
> RAID Smart function
> SATA ATAPI device compatible
That clearly states the ability to get opticals connected. It is admitted, that there only SATA opticals are mentioned.
Quote
Page 2-18
Parallel ATA/Serial ATA RAID Connectors controlled by Promise
20579: IDE3/SER1/SER2 (Optional)
The brand new Promise 20579 chipset supports  one IDE connector IDE3 and two
serial connectors SER1& SER2.
IDE3 is a 32-bit Enhanced PCI IDE and Ultra DMA 66/100/133 controller that provides
PIO mode and DMA mode 0~5, Bus Master, and Ultra DMA 66/100/133 function. You
can connect up to 2 hard disk drives---one IDE master and one IDE slave.
Other devices than HDDs are not mentioned in the IDE3 section.
Conclusion: According to the documentation, opticals can be connected to the promise controller, at least if they are connected to the SATA-interface.
Own experiments show:
If an optical drive is connected to IDE3, the promise controller detects it correctly. If a bootable media is inserted, it is detected as bootable by the controller BIOS.
An old LD 8240 CD-Writer (only MWDMA2/PIO4 capable) works partly, if attached to IDE3, but there are errors. Playing Audio CDs and DAE generates drop-outs. CD burning results in corrupted data on the media.
If I connect a LG 4163B DVD-Writer, there are no issues concerning CD-playback or DAE. CD-recording was not tried out. The DVD-RAM feature fails, possibly due to driver interference.
This shows, that there at least a CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive (PATA) might work on the promise controller, but that also depends on the drive itself.
Michael