Help! HD problem with my SOYO 6Ba+IV

[Rachet]

I recently bought a new Soyo 6Ba+IV motherboard. I decided to get a new HD when I saw that CompUSA was selling their brand(Maxtor), 60 Gig 7200RPM Ultra 133 for $99.00.

The system boots to "A" if I use a boot disk and I don't have the HD connected. I believe it can't recognize the HD.

Does anyone know if the motherboard will recognize the drive if I upgrade the Bios? The Soyo site does not say what the Bios will do. What version of the Bios should I use?

Normally I would buy Asus or Abit - Soyo does not seem to have as much documentation on their web site.

Thanks for your help.

 

[mrzed]

You need to clarify your question there.

What OS are you using? If you are running XP or 2000, it won't auto-detect the Highpoint ATA66 controller. Until you install it, nothing will be recognized on those channels. You need to download the HPT 366 drivers and install them. If you are using XP, you will get a non-certification message, ignore it.

When everything is set up correctly, you will not see the HD during the BIOS boot process anyhow. There will be a separate boot screen for the Highpoint controller.

Have you set the jumpers on the new HD correctly? If you have less than 4 IDE devices, you should be able to install each HD on its own separate channel as master. The new HD would probably be set to cable select when you got it (if you are not sure, check the info that come with it) this will work fine if it is on its own channel.

You should install the new HD on one of the ATA 66 channels, or you won't get the full performance out of it. I seem to remember they are the coloured ones. Not sure though.

Whatever you do, don't mess with updating the BIOS. Not saying it will mess anything up, it's just a waste of time.

 

[Kanly]

<< The system boots to "A" if I use a boot disk and I don't have the HD connected >>




If the HD is not connected, where else would it boot to?

 

[Rachet]

I mentioned the system boots to "A" drive to show that the system seems to work fine and I don't believe there is a problem with the motherboard.

I am using 98SE - i tried using the HD on the regular ide controllers and that didn't work either.

The only jumpers I believe I needed to check on the motherboard, was the FSB setting of 66 or 100.

The other settings were thru the bios with the HD being automatic.

The motherboard comes with 2 ide controllers @33 and 2 @66.

I thought if I was using the 33 controller, I would be okay.

Maxtor's documentation had an additional page inserted that explains an additional jumper was sometimes needed on the HD - I tried it both ways.

The CPU is a 400 PII, case is a new Enlight with a 300 Watt PS, and the video card is ATI @work.

Thanks for your comments.

 

[Kanly]

Well, just a few thoughts:

The 6ba+IV is not "new" anymore. It was discontinued by Soyo about a year or so ago.

It is/was one of the best BX mobos ever made.

I've had two of them running for over 1 1/2 years now -- both were rock solid and could take chips much higher in overclocking than other boards I used.


I'm running the BA5 bios and it recognizes HDs in DOS up to 120GB.


The problem is, even if the HD is connected to the ata-33 channel it is not even seen in the bios?

Is the ATA cable plugged correctly into the mobo and HD? I.e. blue end to motherboard, 1st black end to HD.