From: Bob Wright :Subject: Re: [PCBUILD] Abit BE6-II and Maxtor 7200 rpm
drives (Part II)


> At 07:10 AM 06/26/2000 , David Ray wrote:
> >I have the HPT366 controller on this system, not the HotRod.
> >
> >I have basically given up on the built in controller. With that in mind,
I
> >purchased a Promise Ultra66 controller card to put in the unit. But, I am
> >concerned about IRQ conflicts in the system. Primarily, this unit is for
> >video tape capturing and editing. I have a capture card from Pinnacle
> >systems to put in the unit and it does not like to share IRQs. Currently,
> >all that is in the system is an ATI Rage Fury Pro 32 meg AGP card
> >(obviously in the AGP slot). Also in the system is a SoundBlaster Live
> >Platinum card in Slot 1. So my questions are as follows:
> >
> >#1. To disable the built in ATA-66 controller, I need to disable the
> >controllers in Win98. But, it appears as though there is an option in the
> >BIOS as well to disable it. Does that need to be set as well?
> >
> >#2. I need to add the Promise ATA-66 card and a NIC (NetGear 10/100). So,
> >are there particular slots that I should use for this? I am assuming that
> >by disabling the on-board controller, that will free up one of the IRQs
> >that is being shared with the PCI slots?
> >
> >#3. Slots 2 and 4 also share an IRQ as well, yes?
>
> The Abit BE6 series motherboards share PCI IRQs as follows:
>
> PCI Slot #1: (adjacent to the AGP slot): shares IRQ with AGP slot
> PCI Slot #2: does not share an IRQ
> PCI Slot #3: shares IRQ with onboard UDMA66 controller
> PCI Slot #4: does not share an IRQ
> PCI Slot #5: shares IRQ with first ISA Slot
>
> I would leave PCI Slot #1 vacant to avoid conflicts with your
> AGP video card.
>
> Disabling your onboard UDMA66 controller in the CMOS settings of
> your Bios will remove the need worry about the IRQ conflict with
> PCI #3.  But, even with that said, if you are only installing two PCI
> cards, install them in PCI Slots #2 & #4.   You can assign the required
> IRQs in your Bios, especially IRQ10 or 11 for your Network card which
> is always a good idea, as many Network cards will not use any other
> IRQ without difficulties.
>
> Just as a thought, I would return the Promise UDMA66 card and acquire
> a UDMA100 card.  You can download a firmware update from Maxtor
> that will make your UDMA66 drive a UDMA100 drive...  effectively
> increasing the performance of your data transfer 150%.  If you are
> going to these efforts, you might as well get the most out of your
> system.  Here is the URL for the firmware upgrade for your Maxtor
> hard drive:
>     http://www.maxtor.com/technology/technotes/21009.html
>
>      Bob Wright
> The NOSPIN Group
>

According to the manual on the BE6:
PCI slot 1 shares an IRQ with the AGP slot
PCI slots 2 does not share an IRQ
PCI slot 3 is used by the HPT366 controller
PCI slot 4 shares and IRQ with PCI slot 5 and USB
PCI slot 5 shares and IRQ with slot 4

The BE6 II configuration is slightly different:
PCI Slot 1 shares IRQ with AGP slot
PCI Slot 2 shares IRQ with PCI slot 5
PCI Slot 3 shares IRQ with HPT366 Controller and USB
PCI slot 4 does not share an IRQ
PCI slot 5 and the HPT366 controller use the same bus master control
signals, so if the HPT366 controller is enabled PCI slot 5 should not be
populated unless the card doesn't occupy the bus master signal.

I would install the Promise card in PCI slot 3 and disable the HPT366 in the
BIOS.  Most people have not had any problem with the Promise card sharing
with USB.  The video capture card that does not like to share IRQ's could
use PCI slot 4, leaving PCI slot 2 or 5 for the NIC.  I would assign the
IRQ's in the BIOS, hopefully you should have at least IRQ 10 and 11 free.
You can free up another IRQ by disabling SB 16 emulation in Device Manager
which is only needed if you are playing DOS games. It is found under
Creative Miscellaneous Devices in Device manager.  My Sound Blaster Live
shared an IRQ with a TNT2 video card until I upgraded to the NVidia GeForce
DDR without any problems.

Hope this helps,

Mary Wolden

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                       Drew Dunn<[log in to unmask]>