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Upgrading Cognac MB bios?
Topic Started: Feb 1 2005, 02:07 AM (340 Views)
Svenson
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[ *  * ]
Hi Guys,

I have an E-Tower 667ix that's been upgraded with 256k memory, Western Digital 40 gig hard drive ("audio/video" drive with 8 meg buffer), and a 1.1 Ghz processor.

The system is running on Win98 Second Edition with all current updates.

I just installed a BenQ 1620 DVD burner and it works fine at 8x and slower speeds, but slows down tremendously if I specify a faster burning speed.

I posted a note to the BenQ forum on CDFreaks and I was told that I need to enable UDMA 4 on my hard drive and at least UDMA 2 on my secondary ide port that the burner uses. Unfortunately my bios does not allow any selection of UDMA for either of the ide ports.

I see there are two bioses for HPs, v3.03 and 3.07, for download in the motherboard section of the website - has anyone used these to upgrade a Cognac board? Will flashing the bios cause any driver problems or anything?

I'd like to get my burner working at it's full speed, but it's burning a full DVD in about 9 and half minutes and I can live with that if bios flashing is to much of a hassle or too risky . . .

THANKS!

-Bob-
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dsf260
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Don't bother with the HP BIOS. It adds no additional features, and may actually disable some of the features of the cognac (notably the sound).

Buried on the HP site, it says that these BIOSes support the Tualatin processors (up to 1.4 Ghz), but no one to our knowledge has gotten them to work--and we have tried many, many times.

The recommendations from the BenQ board are correct--although your system should allow you to set the UDMA mode appropriately.

I suggest that you download the Intel Application Accelerator v. 2.3 from the following site:
http://www.intel.com/support/chipsets/iaa/index.htm

This will replace drivers for your disk subsystems with optimal ones from Intel--they are a bit faster. They will allow you to change your UDMA mode with an included utility as well.
T1090--Upgraded everything except floppy drive
MSI KM2M Combo-L w/ Athlon XP 2400+ Tbred-B
INWIN 523G case w/ 250w PS*GF3TI200 64MB*OrangeMicro Firewire/Network PCI card
2x WD Caviar 120GB*Lite-ON 40x12x48 CD-RW*768 MB PC133 (1 512, 1 256)
Original T1090 license of XP Home running (sort of)

Compaq Presario 910US
Upgraded to undervolted XP 2400+ (from 1500+)*512 MB*W200 Wireless (802.11B)*30GB*Combo DVD 8x/CD-RW 24x

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Svenson
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dsf260
Feb 1 2005, 08:15 AM
Don't bother with the HP BIOS. It adds no additional features, and may actually disable some of the features of the cognac (notably the sound).

Buried on the HP site, it says that these BIOSes support the Tualatin processors (up to 1.4 Ghz), but no one to our knowledge has gotten them to work--and we have tried many, many times.

The recommendations from the BenQ board are correct--although your system should allow you to set the UDMA mode appropriately.

I suggest that you download the Intel Application Accelerator v. 2.3 from the following site:
http://www.intel.com/support/chipsets/iaa/index.htm

This will replace drivers for your disk subsystems with optimal ones from Intel--they are a bit faster. They will allow you to change your UDMA mode with an included utility as well.

Hmmmm,

The recommendation on the BenQ forus is NOT to install the Intel Application Accelerator as many have had problems with it interfereing with burns or flash upgrades to the drive . . .

Of course I guess I could install it and if there's a problem then I know where to look!

Gulp, okay, lemme work up courage to start screwing with my system and I'll post back what happened (unless the thing dies while I'm messing with it!).

THANKS!

-Bob-
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Svenson
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Well that didn't work! The Intel Application Accelerator actually slowed it down!

I found that I had to change the hard drive option to "user" before I could change the udma setting, but it didn't fix it completely.

Before switching the hd to udma 4 anything over 8x slowed WAY down - took about 20 min to burn a disc! After changing the udma anything over 8x just burns at 8x.

After installing the Intel Application Accelerator anything over 8x slowed down to 15 min to burn.

Oh well, I'm spending too much on media to spend much more time at this!

I think it's just time to upgrade and turn this 'puter over tot he kids . . .

-Bob-
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dsf260
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The highest setting that any DVD or CD drive can run is UDMA-2. I'm surprised that the computer would actually let you set UDMA-4.

It's likely that the computer will downshift into a slower PIO setting (these are slower than UDMA) when set for UDMA-4.

You should retry installing it w/ UDMA-2 as your chosen speed and see what happens.

T1090--Upgraded everything except floppy drive
MSI KM2M Combo-L w/ Athlon XP 2400+ Tbred-B
INWIN 523G case w/ 250w PS*GF3TI200 64MB*OrangeMicro Firewire/Network PCI card
2x WD Caviar 120GB*Lite-ON 40x12x48 CD-RW*768 MB PC133 (1 512, 1 256)
Original T1090 license of XP Home running (sort of)

Compaq Presario 910US
Upgraded to undervolted XP 2400+ (from 1500+)*512 MB*W200 Wireless (802.11B)*30GB*Combo DVD 8x/CD-RW 24x

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TJSEVEN
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OZ ... The Great and Powerful!!
UDMA-4 was for his hardrive not optical drive.
THE BLACK PEARL with a new sail!
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ Toledo Core 2MB L2 cache S939
Overclocked to something or other this week!
ASRock 939Dual-SATA2 MOBO
(3 PCI, 1 PCI-E x1, 1 PCI-E x16, 1 AGP, 1 Future CPU Port, 4 DDR DIMM, Audio, LAN)
4 Gig G.SKILL PC3200 DUAL DDR SDRAM
and other Stuff....!
ZOOM>>>ZOOM>>>

I ALWAYS SAY," IF YOU HAVE TO SPEND MONEY TO OVERCLOCK THEN IT ISN'T REALLY AN OVERCLOCK!!"
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Svenson
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I've tried that, it's slower than leaving udma4 on the cdrom . . . here's the results of today's playing:

*) I'm embarassed by this one - the cmos hd info was set to "auto" and when it's in auto I can't change much, but if I switched it to "user" I was able to switch things - including the udma!

*) Prior to changing anything it took 19:34 to burn a full disc when set at 16x and 9:02 when set at 8x.

*) Setting the hd to udma 4 moved the 16x burning time down to 14:49.

*) Setting the hd and the burner to udma 4 moved the burning time down to 9:29 for 16x and 8:41 for 8x.

*) I left the cmos alone at this point and upgraded to the Intel Application Accelerator 810 controller driver, the burn time then increased to 15:18 (Grrr!).

*) I have read where the IAA driver caused some people grief, and it didn't help anything at all, so I uninstalled it and reloaded the original driver.

I have an open PCI slot . . . maybe I could avoid all this hassle by just installing a PCI / ATA controller like this one from newegg?

PROMISE PCI to IDE Controller Card, Model "ULTRA100 TX2" -OEM

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc....-102-002&depa=1

Thanks!

-Bob-
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dsf260
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Sorry about the UDMA confusion--read your post too quickly.

Only 2 things I can think of:

1) Are the HD and the DVD on the same ATA cable, in a master/slave configuration? They should be on separate cables (one as the primary master and one as the secondary master)

2) Given that your system is somewhat limited in power--1.1 cele and 256MB, your performance might be limited by a computer that can't keep up with the burning process. When burning a CD, open up the task manager and see what your proc utilizaiton and memory paging stats are like. If they are significant, it would be time to upgrade. It might be as simple as dropping in another memory stick (but make sure you buy the right kind--see other places on this site for recommendations.)

BTW, the burning might have been slower, but did you see faster HD performance w/ IAA installed? The tradeoff might be worth it.

Hope that helps.
T1090--Upgraded everything except floppy drive
MSI KM2M Combo-L w/ Athlon XP 2400+ Tbred-B
INWIN 523G case w/ 250w PS*GF3TI200 64MB*OrangeMicro Firewire/Network PCI card
2x WD Caviar 120GB*Lite-ON 40x12x48 CD-RW*768 MB PC133 (1 512, 1 256)
Original T1090 license of XP Home running (sort of)

Compaq Presario 910US
Upgraded to undervolted XP 2400+ (from 1500+)*512 MB*W200 Wireless (802.11B)*30GB*Combo DVD 8x/CD-RW 24x

Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
TJSEVEN
Member Avatar
OZ ... The Great and Powerful!!
Question: Have you actually looked in device manager to see what they are really running at??
THE BLACK PEARL with a new sail!
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ Toledo Core 2MB L2 cache S939
Overclocked to something or other this week!
ASRock 939Dual-SATA2 MOBO
(3 PCI, 1 PCI-E x1, 1 PCI-E x16, 1 AGP, 1 Future CPU Port, 4 DDR DIMM, Audio, LAN)
4 Gig G.SKILL PC3200 DUAL DDR SDRAM
and other Stuff....!
ZOOM>>>ZOOM>>>

I ALWAYS SAY," IF YOU HAVE TO SPEND MONEY TO OVERCLOCK THEN IT ISN'T REALLY AN OVERCLOCK!!"
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Svenson
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JUNIOR MEMBER
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> 1) Are the HD and the DVD on the same ATA cable,
> in a master/slave configuration? They should be on
> separate cables (one as the primary master and one
> as the secondary master)

No, they aren't. HD is primary master and Burner is secondary master and both are jumpered as masters (not cable select). I replaced the 40 conductor flat cables with 80 conductor flats and then 80 conductor Gladiator RDsXPs. The burst rate came up slightly with the Gladiator cables.

> 2) Given that your system is somewhat limited in power--1.1
> cele and 256MB, your performance might be limited by a
> computer that can't keep up with the burning process. When
> burning a CD, open up the task manager and see what your
> proc utilizaiton and memory paging stats are like. If they are
> significant, it would be time to upgrade. It might be as simple
> as dropping in another memory stick (but make sure you buy
> the right kind--see other places on this site for recommendations.)

I upgraded the memory with the CPU and it's got all slots used now. I shot for 512 but couldn't make it work, so I returned that memory and went to 256.

I can't find anywhere in Win98 to show the actual processor utilization?

The performance in system properties shows 65% free sitting on the desk top, I'll give it a shot while burning . . .

And, yes I've checked the device manager - I checked the "DMA" on the drives. Running IAA I didn't have that option . . .

> BTW, the burning might have been slower, but did you see
> faster HD performance w/ IAA installed? The tradeoff might
> be worth it.

Not with Nero Burst rate and transfer rates tests, it was slightly slower.

> Hope that helps.

It does! We may not have it fixed, but it's nice having some input and nudges in the right direction (be that a way to fix the machine or deciding it's time to upgrade).

THANKS!

-Bob-
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dsf260
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I forgot you are running 98 and not XP. 98 doesn't show processor usage in the task manager (from what I remember). I'm not that fimiliar w/ 98, but microsoft has a program called system monitor that may be preinstalled that will do this.

If that's not available, you can definitely download some freeware program to monitor this. I know MBM5 has this capability, but it also has lots of other stuff you don't need.

T1090--Upgraded everything except floppy drive
MSI KM2M Combo-L w/ Athlon XP 2400+ Tbred-B
INWIN 523G case w/ 250w PS*GF3TI200 64MB*OrangeMicro Firewire/Network PCI card
2x WD Caviar 120GB*Lite-ON 40x12x48 CD-RW*768 MB PC133 (1 512, 1 256)
Original T1090 license of XP Home running (sort of)

Compaq Presario 910US
Upgraded to undervolted XP 2400+ (from 1500+)*512 MB*W200 Wireless (802.11B)*30GB*Combo DVD 8x/CD-RW 24x

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Titi de Paris
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You have 2 monitoring systems in Win98:

1) Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Resource Meter

and

2) Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > System Monitor.

In option (2), you can select various displays, seen individually or simultaneously in the same page, using edit (add, delete, edit) and selecting the data you are interested in. You just have to play with it to find what you need to display. If Win98 crashes accidentally, just reboot (restart) and re-open the sites and the system monitor application.

Titi
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Svenson
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Titi de Paris
Feb 2 2005, 11:09 PM
You have 2 monitoring systems in Win98:

1) Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Resource Meter

and

2) Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > System Monitor.

In option (2), you can select various displays, seen individually or simultaneously in the same page, using edit (add, delete, edit) and selecting the data you are interested in. You just have to play with it to find what you need to display. If Win98 crashes accidentally, just reboot (restart) and re-open the sites and the system monitor application.

Titi

You're right, sortta!

Windows does not install those programs by default - you have to go to add/remove programs and then install it from the Win98 disc.

I found instructions on how to do that and how to use the programs last night, I just haven't had time to burn any discs yet, but I will later tonight.

THANKS!

-Bob-
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Titi de Paris
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Quote:
 
Windows does not install those programs by default - you have to go to add/remove programs and then install it from the Win98 disc.

They were installed by default on my machine; it seems it depends on the system (or on "Emachines" mood at that time). But it's not important, as long as you found where and how to get it, and if your concern is solved.

Good luck, Bob.

Titi
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