Promise controller is buggy!

I used Promise for about 3 months now. No problems with data integrity but it has definately some bad influence on the memory (controller).
Since the Promise controller was responsible for failing the MS Memory diagnostics util (http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp) and because I got some overal instability problems, I switched back to the VIA controller for my RAID0.
MS Memory diagnostics now runs the tests without problems as do Memtest86 and Prime95. So there IS definately something WRONG with the promise controller!
Perhaps it has caused more problems (for example my freezing network connection). I'll test that in the next few days.
O, about the speed? There is almost no difference between the two. VIA is about 2Mb/s faster as Promise, in Sandra 32bit.
I like the 'passed' word.

Quote
I think the rule should be go with whatever is the most stable.
I agree, and if I don't had any other problems I would had stay on the Promise cause I indeed never had instability issues with my raidset. And VIA seems just as stable as Promise with that advantage that Memdiag runs now like a charm. And perhaps my NIC too.

Similar Messages

Raid 0 SATA on Promise Controller, Sata drive on Intel?

Hi all, wondering if I can run this setup:
(Specs in my Sig)
2 SATA WD Raptors, RAID 0 on the Promise controller
1 Maxtor 80Gig SATA on the Intel Controller
Is this an option or not?
I am setup on the Raptor's already and would like to install another HD on the Intel if it can be done like mentioned.
Thx for the help!
/D

Ok, I connected to the Intel SATA 1 plug and all is fine. WinXP found the drive, installed it and away I go.
Only other question I have..Is there a specific driver I should use for it now?
It shows up in the Device Manager as Follows in 2 places:
Disk Drives
Maxtor 6Y080M0
and
IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers
Intel(R) 82801EB Ultra ATA Storeage Controllers
Intel(R) 82801EB Ultra ATA Storeage Controllers
Primary IDE Channel
Primary IDE Channel
Secondary IDE Channel
Secondary IDE Channel
I'm not sure if it should show under SCSI and RAID Controllers.
Blazer: That link is dead. I would like to read the article if ya can find it again. Thx
Dirtnapper: I read another post here somewhere about what you are looking to do. It can't be too far back in the pages, possible in a link in the RAID guide at the top.
/D

[Athlon64] CAN'T SEE SINGLE SATA DRIVE / K8T NEO no Promise controller

I have a K8t NEO -the cheapskate version with no PROMISE SATA controller or on-board Firewire
I have been running on XP SP2 on 2 IDE drives, everything is ok. I added a SINGLE SATA drive and turned the VIA SATA controller on in BIOS. I did the MSI Live Update and have the latest VIA SATA driver, latest chipset, latest BIOS, latest EVERYTHING. At boot, the VIA SATA controller reports my Hitachi SATA as Channel 0 Primary" in the SATA devices table. Going into the SATA RAID menu it tells me "You can't make RAID with just one drive" which is true, of course. But the point is the controller SEES the drive.
I've run MSI Live Update and have the latest BIOS, latest SATA XP driver, latest EVERYTHING.
Windows XP doesn't see the SATA drive.
In XP I see a VIA RAID CONTROLLER in Hardware / Device Manager which is DISABLED. When I right-click then click ENABLE on the VIA RAID CONTROLLER the machine reboots immediately. I tried safe mode, same thing. I tried BIOS settings of "No PNP O/S Installed" and "Yes PNP O/S Installed" and reset the NVRAM. No change.
I think there must be an IRQ conflict.... I have a sound card (on-board sound is turned OFF in BIOS) and AGP video card, and that's it- no WiFi NIC or anything else to eat up IRQ resources. I use the Realtek on-board ethernet.
I tried my Windows 98 partition and that booted, detected the new hardware (VIA SATA) and I installed the driver from the MSI CD and Win 98 is happy with the SATA drive..... it sees the drive just fine.
How do I make Windows XP see the SATA drive?

Have you tried starting XP with CD and entering recovery, log on as admin and see if SATA drive is there? Remember to "F6" with a floppy drive of SATA drivers for
-XP-... I'm assuming you already have as you said all is uptodate. When the boot BIOS for the VIA SATA apprears and you press "TAB" I believe it is, you can mess with the SATA functions. Sorry if does not apply to your compy or you've already done all this.... BTW you CAN run a RAID array with one HDD, at least thats what I did on my Promise controller.
In my Device Manager under Disk drives it looks like this (notes bracketed are noting position):
Promise 1+0 Stripe/RAID0 SCSI Disk Device (Bus Number 0, Target ID 1, LUN 0 (G:\ 1-160GB IDE Seagate/notice ONE drive)
Promise 2+0 Stripe/RAID0 SCSI Disk Device (Bus Number 0, Target ID 0, LUN 0) (F:\ 2x200 SATA)
ST3160023A (Location 1 (1) VIA IDE D:\)
VIA SATA RAID 0 SCSI Disk Device (Bus Number 0, Target ID 0, LUN 0) (E:\ 2x120 SATA)
WDC WD800JB-00CRA1 (Location 0 (0) VIA IDE C:\)
Under the boards BIOS, is the SATA drive listed under the BOOT table??? In my system it lists the above 5 partitions (7 HDD's total), floppy, 2 CD/DVD drives, etc...
Oh also in Device Manager IS the VIA SATA controller appearing in the "SCSI and RAID controllers" tab??? I have set mine to just SATA before and of course now it says "VIA SATA RAID Controller"... for you it should read "VIA SATA Controller". Remember there are 2 different drivers for the SATA controller, one for SATA and one for SATA RAID. Look on your floppy disk or if you saved out the updated driver. I made a new floppy with the latest XP drivers. When booting from WINXP CD, and promted for "F6" and press it, later it will show you TWO different drivers after reading the floppy disk for XP. You obviously want the non RAID driver... hope that helps somewhat... g'luck

Tryng to format Raid 1 (Mirror) array on Promise controller

Ok, I installed the two brand-new, indentical hard drives, booted up the computer, the promise utility noticed that I had two drives plugged in with the promise controller set to RAID mode, so it ran the thing and I set the array to security (aka: Raid 1) so then it does it, and says I can reboot. Now, the manual said that the only step I have to complete now to finish it is to run FDISk or whatever to format the "drive" (Since the array is treated as one drive). I do have to do this, but hwo do I do it? I run Win 2000 Pro if that helps at all. I am trying to make it an NTFS filesystem however, so would FDISk even work? I thought FDISk only makes FAT32 file systems... Anyway, what do I do to finish setting up my RAID 1 array and get to finally use it?
Doggonit

I use Win 2000 Pro and there is no Maintenance or Performance in the Control Panel. I tried reinstalling the drivers and even uninstalling the drive as it showed up in the Device Manager under drisk drives. It simply came back the same way as before, as some 1x2 Promise RAID1 SCSI drive that was functional etc, but I dont know hot to format it and I can't see it in Windows Explorer, or in the BIOS, altough during bootup it shows the Array every time and if I check out the Promise array manager (Ctrl+F) I can see it and it is functional and all that.
Ok, this is it:
In the device manager (Control Panel->System->Hardware->Device Manager) under the disk drives menu I see my working 80Gb drive that the OS is on, and has its "Location" as: " Location 0 (0) " and then there is the:
Promise 1X2 Mirror/RAID1 SCSI Disk Drive Device
In the properties of this it says: Bus Number 0, Target ID 0, LUN 0
Also, for the Write cache, the box is unchecked, as in not enabled, and it is grayed over, so I can't even change it. I guess this is beacuse the drive is not yet formatted and cannot be written to yet, right?
Is there a conflict between the 80GB drive and the RAID1 Array on the BIOS level that I should fix somehow? Is the Location of the 80GB one be 1 or do those numbers for the array have to be 1 ?
I think I really wont be able to get this to work without some major help. Now I see why IDE drives still rule. They are more accesible from the BIOS.
Doggonit

Promise controller setting for added harddrive

Hi,
I have 2 SATA hard drives (non-raid) on the 1st channel of my board (Intel controller). My XP boot drive is on drive 0 and other stuff on drive 1. I have an addition SATA drive (non raid) I installed on the 2nd channel (Promise controller). To get it to start I set it as RAID on drive 3. My question is, should I set the onboard Promise back to SATA or leave it as RAID. It works now as is. I was going by the FAQ on this site, but I did not see it say anything about setting it back. Thanks.

A follow up...
When I set the Promise Controller back to AS SATA, Windows "lost" the drive. It placed its yellow sign next to Promise Controller in device manager and the Disk Manager would not show the drive. I tried uninstalling the Controller in device manager and rebooted. Same.. yellow flag. I tried updating the driver to the latest (downloaded from MSI). It said something about the driver was reverting to the old one (which didn't work). Hmmm, so I updated the driver to the one from the Install CD that came with the board.. Success. All is working again. Odd, but now working. I may try to redownload the drivers and update but it is working, so I will leave it for now. Ihope this may help others.

Intel or promise controller?

I was wondering what controller I should use for my new system on a 875P NEO??
I have two SATA drives, and am wondering on which of the two controllers I should place them. The intel or the promise???
So how do they compare, cons and pros...

Quote
Originally posted by Mitch66
Quote
Intel RAID controller is integrated directly into the chipset since Promise is connected via PCI. It makes significant differencein peak bandwidth since PCI offers maximum of 133 MB/s ehich is less than SATA maximum speed 150MB/s. From this point of view Intel offers better performance.
Does not realy matter, -does it? My Raptor is never over 60 MB/s anyway. Has anyone got a drive delivering 133 MB/s+ ? :D
That is not really the point here, now is it?
The whole PCI bus maxes out on 133 MB/s, so if you run your raptor on the promise controller you only have 73 MB/s left.
The ICH5R is always the best choice on occasions like this.

Disable Promise controller on K8T NEO?

Does anyone know how to disable the Promise controller on the K8T NEO-FIS2R? I have disabled it in bios but I still see the Promise screen when I boot, or am I the only one that has this problem?

Never mind, I found the answer in another post

Promise controller acting strange, known issue?

at this point, i tracked all of my problems down to my promise controller..
while my hd's are on the promise controller, raid0, no go on the win2k install, and strange things with xp, like slow datatransfer..
but there are loads and loads more strange problems.
now i've connected my s-ata hd's to the via controller, using softwre raid0, but no problems anymore..
is it a known problem with the promise controllers?

Hi fboecom
Yes, you need Via IDE ( PATA IDE) enabled otherwise your CDs and IDE HDDs won't function.
To use Via SATA, the S ATA IDE needs enabled for SATA1 and 2.
I see I am going to have to do some work on the promise, it may well be the IDE3 connector works, except for optical drives. Ser1 & Ser2, I have had working in conjunction with the Via. But that was when originally trying to set up the Maxtors. I think I may have had the promise either disabled or on SATA. I will be ordering stock this week, so I will get another SATA drive and see just what works.
By the time you buy another disk next year, Promise will have rewritten their drivers, they will have to for new MS systems in pipeline, plus new 939 pin chips coming soon and Mobos to match.
Read this link, if you want to see how Merlinen got, is it 10 HDDs to run, I#m still thinking about his next advance.
https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?threadid=44351&sid=
Enjoy
jocko

Promise controller

I was wondering if I can use the Promise controller as a regular IDE controller. I have 2 CDRWs and 3 HDs. The only problem is that the cables cant reach.

sorry but im not really sure. if the promise controller is enabled and you plug it in i don't see why it wouln't work.
try plugging in just one drive as a master on the end of the cable and tell us if it works

Intel Ich5r -- Promise Controller

PROBLEM -
I have 2 SATA drives under the Intel ICH5R controller and one extra SATA drive running in slot 3 that is eing controlled by the probise controller. The goal is to have all drives under one controller, Intel or Promise. At first i wanted to have them all under the ICH5R controller but have found this doesnt work. Now i am wanting to know if it is possible to have all 3 drives running under the promise controller and if so then is it possible to simply transfer the current raid setup from the intel to the promise without having to start from fresh.

The purpose was not putting the 3rd drive intro raid but to have that drive run independently as its own entity under the same controller to eliminate loading up 2 controllers as it adds time to load up and also to resources.. Thats what im trying to reduce as this system takes a long time to load.

Survey - Promise controller and RAID 1

Who out there is running RAID 1 with and onboard Promise controller? I have been been battling this for nearly a month (link). I started out by following the MSI manual to the letter, then on to online suggestions, no luck.
For anyone who's successfully running RAID 1, I'd really be interested in the following survey info (mine included):
Mobo: (MS-6380 v1.0)
Promise Controller: (FastTrak100 - 20265R)
OS: (Win2k SP3)
Drives: (WD400BB)
Filesystem(s) on drives: (NTFS)
OS on RAID array?: (yes)
Array created from existing OS install?: (yes - tried both)
Setup difficulties?: (yes, not done yet)
TIA,
Danny

Been using RAID-1 here for quite some time now, no problems at all. Even had a Maxtor fail and recovery/rebuilding of the array was childs play.
Mobo: KT3 Ultra ARU
Promise Controller: PDC20276
OS: win 98-SE
Drives: two WD800JB
Filesystem(s) on drives: FAT32
OS on RAID array?: NO
Array created from existing OS install?: YES
Setup difficulties?: NO

875P HDD Performance w/Promise controller

I performed 3 tests on my FIS2R motherboard with the drives connected to the ICH5R controller and the Promise controller in various combinations. The ICH5R controller supports drives up to ATA 100 speeds, and the Promise controller supports drives up to ATA133 speeds (for parallel drives). HDD1 is a ATA100/7200RPM drive, and HDD2 is a ATA133/7200RPM drive.
I used both HD Tach v2.61 and Aida32 v3.61 for these tests. Both gave me similar results, so I'm posting only the results that I got from Aida in the quick linear mode.
Configuration 1:
      HDD1: ICH5R - 30.4 MB/s
      HDD2: ICH5R - 38.7 MB/s
Configuration 2:
      HDD1: ICH5R - 30.5 MB/s
      HDD2: Promise - 38.8 MB/s
Configuration 3:
      HDD1: Promise - 30.4 MB/s
      HDD2: Promise - 38.7 MB/s
When both drives were connected to the ICH5R controller (configuration 1), Aida confirmed that both HDDs were running at ATA100. This is what I would expect, but why is HDD2's benchmark 30% higher if they are both running at ATA100?
When HDD1 was connected to ICH5R and HDD2 was connected to Promise (configuration 2), both POST on bootup and Aida confirmed that HDD2 was running at ATA133. HDD1 was at ATA100. This is what I would expect, but why don't I see an improvement in the benchmark for HDD2?
When both drives were connected to the Promise controller (configuration 3), POST on bootup and Aida said HDD2 was running at ATA100. Why doesn't HDD2 run in the ATA133 mode? Is it because the Promise controller chooses the slower of the 2 drives as it's maximum rate?
Can anyone explain what's going on here?
Also, under Device Manager, I noticed that the Promise controller is identified as a SCSI device. I assume that this is normal.
MSI 875P FIS2R motherboard BIOS 1.4
CPU: 2.4 GHz P4/800 MHz
OS: W2K
RAM: 2X 512M Kingston Value DDR RAM, CL=3
Video: Radeon 9500 Pro
HD1: Maxtor 40G, 7200 RPM, ATA 100, NTFS formated
HD2: Maxtor 120G 7200 RPM ATA 133, FAT 32 formated
PS: Enermax 431W
Speakers: Logitech Z640

Quote
Originally posted by Keyan
You can check the WD easily - on boot, the Promise controller will report the drives attached and the DMA (hopefully 5) that they are in.
If using 875 FISR2, you only can choose SATA or Raid on promise IDE. So the the Promise controller will report SCSI only .
There could be about a thousand reasons why it's slower - slower write time on the WD, drive fragmentation, going across buses over PCI, some other program was aceesing one or both drives at the same time, the stars in the sky were aligned improperly , etc... Oh, and transferring a large file across paritions is ALWAYS slower than it is from drive to drive, you only have one read/write head working on a single drive, while you have 2 working when you go between 2 drives.
I also try to copy from partition to partition in my HItachi and speed also is very fast .
Now it is weird that changing the IDE channel is making both drives go into DMA 5 vs. one going to PIO....have you tried different cables?
I try 3 different cables and every cable can work on UDMA 5 Mode .

K6 Delta Promise controller problem

I have a little configuration there:
PSU: 450W
MSI KT6 Delta-FIS2R
512MB DDR400 (CL3) Memory (not in compatibility list)
Athlon XP2600+
VGA Club3D MX440 64MB
CDRW/DVD attached in VIA PATA (Cyberdrive 32x12x48, Toshiba 16x48)
1 x 36GB SATA WD Raptor attached in VIA SATA controller
2 x 160GB SATA Maxtor 8MB 7200rpm attached in Promise controller (not in RAID mode)
OS: Windows XP, SP1, with a couple of Updates through Windows update
The problem is that, my two Maxtor drives attached to Promise controller, get a Scandisk EVERY time I boot. This also happened to my WD, but after updating VIA4-1, drivers and BIOS, this problem was fixed.
When I try to update Promise's drivers with the latest ones (378_55), they just don't work (The device gets an yellow "!" symbol, in the device manage).
The machine works just fine in all other aspects. It's only that problem that makes my nerves break. Any suggestions?

Quote from: Bas on 17-December-11, 01:00:24
The Promise BIOS is part of the motherboard BIOS, you can't flash it separate.
Thats's what I thought.
Quote from: Bas on 17-December-11, 01:00:24
I doubt you ever used the promise else it would have recognized the drives.
Just turn it off and use the SB600, it's faster anyway.
You are probably right about me using the SB600 as I as very unfamiliar with the board, and both RAID controllers looks almost the same when POST-ing
What I don't understand is why they put in an rather advanced RAID controlled like the T3 when the SB600 one was faster anyway? Would it not make more sense that the system would be faster with two separate controllers working on separate disks?

How to Setup RAID 0 on K9A2 Platinum using SATA 5&6 Promise Controller

Setup:
MSI K9A2 Platinum
2 x Sapphire 3870 HD in Crossfire Mode
2 x 500 GB WD Caviar Hard drives ( I want to put these in RAID 0)
Pioneer 115DBK DVD Burner
LITEON BD/DVD Player SATA
Phenom 9850
GSKILL 4 GB 1066
Antec P182 Case
Rosewill 850 W Power Supply
Windows Vista 64 bit
I am trying to set the RAID up on the PROMISE SATA ports 5&6. I have enabled the additional RAID controller in the BIOS and set the SATA controller to RAID. One drive shows up as JBOD and I can set the other to RAID 0 in the Fast Track utility. What do I need to do to change the JBOD to RAID? I'm sure its showing that I am a newbie at this and first RAID attempt. It's a new setup so I don't mind having to re-load VISTA.
Additionally - I cannot get the IDE DVD burner to work. If there is any obvious fix for this I'd appreciate input. The SATA BD Player works just fine.
Thanks for any advice!

Sorry, my explanation seems to be too short... some remarks:
- Yes, you need to go to the Promnise Setup prgram like you say;
- Yes, you have to delete the JBOD-array, but you also need to delete the RAID-0 array. Both drives become available now to setup RAID.
- Make a new striping (0) array and select both drives to use -> make array and reboot.
- go into bios and select the RAID-0 array as second boot device and your DVD/CD as first boot device (for now);
- reboot and boot off the Vista Setup CD/DVD.
- Wait until Vista asks to select the drive to install to. It will show you the RAID-array or it will show you nothing. If it shows you noting (and I bet it won't ), then choose to manually install a driver. Now, you can select the Promise driver to use. Vista will load it and recognize your RAID array. Select the array and tell Vista to install.
- Now start hoping that it will work out!
Good luck!!

Promise controller in i386 machines

I have been trying to install Solaris on a intel based desktop running a Promise Ultra100 TX2 IDE controller card..
the OS cannot recognize the controller card and cannot install as it does not see any HD to install against....
any help or suggestions would be appreciated..

Quote
I think the rule should be go with whatever is the most stable.
I agree, and if I don't had any other problems I would had stay on the Promise cause I indeed never had instability issues with my raidset. And VIA seems just as stable as Promise with that advantage that Memdiag runs now like a charm. And perhaps my NIC too.

Promise controller is buggy!

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