All right, so how do you move IRQ's around?

[RAB]

McRhea,
Since you are still having troubles, could I get you to try something that might give us another clue. It won't require any physical changes or new drivers.

In Device Manager, double click on the Sound Blaster to open the Properties box. At the bottom of the first box, there is a selection that says "Disable device in this hardware configuration". Check the box. (Don't worry, we can uncheck it later and it will work again without reloading any drivers). Choose OK and Windows will probably instruct you to reboot for the change to take effect. Reboot. Since we can't take the physical device out, we have to get it out somehow and this is the easiest way I can think of.

Now when Windows restarts, you won't have any sound. We'll turn it back on later. But now, try a couple of games to see if you are still freezing up. If not, we will know for sure that its the sound that's causing the conflict. If you don't get freezes, look in the IRQ list again and see if the sound card has disappeared and show us the list this way.

I still think we have to find a way to get the Promise to a higher IRQ than anything but the G400. I'm hoping that disabling the Soundblaster will allow the Promise to move up to IRQ11. Remember, I had the same identical freezing, and moving my network card to IRQ11 is what fixed my problem entirely. The Promise and the G400 both use busmastering, but the Soundblaster probably doesn't. So we need to keep anything from getting between the busmastering devices so they can communicate.

After you see if the freezing has stopped and copied your IRQ list to a new message, we can turn the sound back on. Go back to Device Manager and uncheck the "Disable device in this hardware configuation". Click OK, reboot and you should have sound back.

Let us know what happens.

RAB

[Jorden]

Hmmm Rab,

Post me if you disagree to await Bixler's results on the Promise card first.
We're trying to take it step by step...

Bixler from the Promise step first, me from the mobo step first. Don't overload McRhea with questions and data. He's not used to it.

I'm not telling you to back off, RAB, just asking you to go the pace we're going at...

And that includes any of you out there, waiting for your time to ask a question to McRhea, or giving him a 'possible solution'

Jorden.

[Bixler]

RAB:

You've brought up a distinct possibility, but we do need to get the driver issue dealt with first. McRhea had his original problem fixed, (which started on another thread) and had the hang stopped until board swapping caused Windows to install the old (Bad) drivers again for his Promise card. Thanks for weighing in--that's a neat diagnostic trick to use on newbies, I'll remember it.

McRhea:

You asked a question in your last reply that I didn't answer, and it may help you to understand why we are putting you through all of this, and after pondering your questions (mostly good ones ) I thought it would be good to do a little more explaining.

God! Haven't we had enough

Your IDE devices are messed up. They were messed up when you got the computer. The friendly cow who hooked up your Gateway when you bought it failed to reorient the IDE cables when the Promise Card was installed. We could probably start another 80 post thread on whether that matters or not, but for now---for the purpose of correcting the Driver problem, you are OK.

The confusion you are suffering about Primary and Secondary IDE is due to what Gateway didn't do in the first place which was to plug your CD in the Primary Onboard IDE when they installed the Promise card to handle your HDD. Now don't call them up and flame them--it MAY not matter, but it does create confusion.

The Windows OS is designed to handle IDE channels Onboard. Where's your Primary you ask? It is now empty, disabled in the BIOS, and unavailable to Windows--That's OK, maybe, but Uncle Bill likes to put scary warnings in his OS when you don't do things HIS way. Yes, your Promise card is the Primary IDE now, but that really isn't correct terminology, and Windows doesn't understand.

Now continue to follow procedures, first things first--Correctly install the Patched Promise Driver. I'm just warning you that LATER--AFTER you've got the card drivers right, it may be necessary and would certainly be more organized to put the CD on
the Primary onboard IDE channel (the one that is now empty and disabled.)

RE: "It makes sense to let the Promise card control both IDE devices"

Well, No, not really. The Promise Ultra 66 was really designed around High Speed Hard Disk Control--not other, slower storage devices like CD's etc, so my advice would be to let Win98's drivers, not the Promise card run your CD from onboard.

But I really don't know if it matters.

Opinions anyone??

That's all for now. Once this Promise Issue is dealt with, Jorden, RAB, Alfie, and several other friendly helpers who have been watching will weigh in help you tweak your BIOS settings, and get your IRQ's right.

[This message has been edited by Bixler (edited 19 November 1999).]

[Jorden]

May I ask why the Promise Ultra66 is inserted anyway?? McReah, could you look at the topside of the Harddrive for me, and tell me what it says there?? Or look through the manuals you have.

Does it say anywhere that your harddrive is Ultra66, ATA/66 or anything else with 66??

I'll await Bixler's results on your Promise card before I go further into this.
And I know I asked alot of questions as well... as did RAB. But I refuse to give an answer before you and Bixler went through the Promise part

Jorden

[RAB]

I'll wait. Sorry for the overload.
RAB

[Alfie]

And the beat goes on...

[Bixler]

Did about 15 minutes worth of testing, and verified the diagnosis.

McRhea:

When you swapped your Promise board, As I just did, Windows did indeed reinstall the old drivers which recreated your problem.

Here's what I found: in the Windows/System/Iosubsys directory where the bad driver resides, Windows reinstalled the old bad version, since the file had been renamed as you had done before when you were temporarily working. You now have TWO files in the Windows/System/IOSubsys directory, one named PU66vsd.vxd (bad) and PU66vsd.pti (bad, and renamed)

Delete BOTH of those files (right click on the file name in Windows Explorer and click on the delete option, and ignore any scary warnings.)

I've carefully checked, and I know this works.

If you do any more board swapping, remember this procedure---just go in and delete that bad file.

Long term, you need to install the updated driver, and become familiar with the procedures I posted on how to do that, but I know this little trick will get you working.

[HeloX]

i dont know, but i dont have assign-IRQ-to-VGA checked and my G400 works fine...

==================
Celeron 433@540
Asus P3B-F
Matrox G400 32 DH
SB Live!
no ISA pheripheral

[McRhea]

ALL RIGHTY!!!! Sorry I’m late guys, It was my one-year anniversary with my Girlfriend today... we went out and have a romantic $200 dinner... God do I love her!!!

Anyway, Bixler, I put the Ultra 66 drivers on a diskette, and reinstalled them, after getting rid of the old ones, it SEEMS fine for now.... I haven't renamed the pu66vsd.vxd to pu66vsd.pti yet.... if I have to I will. I'm just replying here after reinstalling the Ultra 66 drivers, I’ll let you guys know how they work and if there's still hanging.

Jordan:
Here's my BIOS:

Phoenix BIOS 4.0 release 6.0
2w2sb0x0.15a.0015.p10

That's all I could see.... is that what you want? Or is there something else I overlooked?

I went to Gateway, and found this pic of my mobo, I’m sure it will help in the "big picture" of my screwed up system!


That's my mo bo, ain't it ugly?
If you want the FULL url to go look at ALL the little parts by themselves, right here.

Jordan: (2nd reply) What do you mean? I have no idea why the Ultra 66 is installed, it came with the computer... Oh wait, I do know, it's because I have a 10 gig HD... my HD is a 10 gig 7200RPM ATA HD... according to the invoice that came with the comp. Right now on the hard drive itself, it says Western Digital. Did that help?

All right guys, as I’ve been writing this reply, the system has hanged about 4 times... it's a lot better then it used to be, and I haven't changed that Ultra66 file to pu66vsd.pti yet, so cross your fingers and hope for the best, I’m going to run some more tests and stuff before I rename the file... I’ll be back.

(The pic didn't want to work... hehe)

[This message has been edited by McRhea (edited 20 November 1999).]

[Bixler]

Delete those two files my boy

DELETE

Then reboot

"The driver is not performance related"



[This message has been edited by Bixler (edited 20 November 1999).]

[McRhea]

I did delete them! I searched for them again, just incase a copy was hiding somewhere. So I got both of those files, and when i rebooted, Windows promptly asked me for the disk! I think the Ultra is up-to date.

One thing I noticed, now my system seems to hang only when I access something... It's not random anymore. If I click on a link, it jerks around, if I open a file, same thing happens.

[Bixler]

If Windows asked you for the disk, you've deleted something else too. PU66vsd.vxd is not a critical system file. When Windows asked you for the disk, did you put in the new one with your new unzipped files on it?

If so, you still need to KILL that ***! file just to be safe. At that point, we'll be able to move on.

And you could share a little info on your date last night too

[McRhea]

What file are we talking about? The pu66vsd.vxd? I went to Device manager and removed the Ultra 66 and those 2 drivers before rebooting. And yes I did put in that disk with the latest files and I D/Led. Are you saying I should just go and delete the pu66vsd.vxd? Don't rename it?

About my date, IT WAS GOOOOOOOOD.... My parents went to our summer house for the weekend, so i have the whole house to myself. My girlfriend is sleeping right over there, on my bed. It's 2 AM here, and we are both really tired... I'll tell you what, that was one of the best f*ck's i've ever had... Wow! I hope most of you are older then 18.... Hehe... I'm 20 myself. We spent about 2 hours, uhhh, playing... HAHAHA, with each other, that is.

[Jorden]

2am ?? Where do you live then? Hawaii??

Jorden, who thought it was 9am or there-abouts now in California

[McRhea]

I KNEW someone was going to ask that question... Ok guys, I'm in SOUTH KOREA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOL

I came over with my parents, and I'm here teaching English... just conversational English, so knock it off with the jokes!
When I said I was 20, I lied, I'm actually 19. Asian countries add 1 year to your age because of the 9 months in yo mamma's tummy. It's pretty cool here....