NEC (Transfer Rate Test) Using (Sil 0680 Ultra-133 ATA Raid)

[XND1n01h]

Well I just purchased a Silicon Image Sil 0680 Ultra-133 Medley ATA Raid Controller for my several DVD Writers. And everything went well up to when I did the Transfer Rate Test on my NEC ND-3500AG. I know that an issue like this was discussed somewhere in the forum but I cannot seem to locate that thread, so if anyone baring any knowledge on this issue I would greatly appreciate some help. :bigsmile:

Here's the Transfer Rate Test

[eltranquil]

Your drive is most probably in PIO or Multiword DMA mode... In the past, I had problems of that kind with a controller based on the same chipset and my Nec 2500A drive... I wasn't able to solve the problem, so moved all my HDs to an external controller and hooked my opticals to the mainboard IDE.

Read this thread...

If you don't know how to check if your drive is in UDMA mode or not...

Troubleshooting: Enabling/Checking DMA in Windows XP, 2000, Me, 9x.

Hope this helps,

ET

Well I just purchased a Silicon Image Sil 0680 Ultra-133 Medley ATA Raid Controller for my several DVD Writers. And everything went well up to when I did the Transfer Rate Test on my NEC ND-3500AG. I know that an issue like this was discussed somewhere in the forum but I cannot seem to locate that thread, so if anyone baring any knowledge on this issue I would greatly appreciate some help. :bigsmile:

Here's the Transfer Rate Test

[Dee]

I never had any luck getting NEC drives to work on this controller. The LG and Liteon drives work perfectly though.

My board also came configured for RAID, you can get a IDE only BIOS and drivers from Silicon Images website This seems to work better than the RAID BIOS for optical drives.

NOTE. I never tried the NEC drive on the controller after updating the boards BIOS. It might be worth a try

[XND1n01h]

Well here's what I've done so far... correct me if I am wrong :iagree:

I used UpdBios.exe to set the Controller to IDE only function by doing this,

Run-> Command -> C:\>updbios b3210.bin r3210 b

is this the correct way of updating the BIOS?

Thanks, eltranquil, and Dee :bigsmile:

[engine]

Well here's what I've done so far... correct me if I am wrong :iagree:

I used UpdBios.exe to set the Controller to IDE only function by doing this,

Run-> Command -> C:\>updbios b3210.bin r3210 b

is this the correct way of updating the BIOS?

Thanks, eltranquil, and Dee :bigsmile:

No it isn´t!

Do it in real DOS mode.

updflash b3210.bin

Not updbios! updbios is not for flashing. You must have an updflash.exe file.

And please let us know if it works.

Regards!

[Dee]

I done mine from a boot floppy in real DOS

[XND1n01h]

Well here's my update...

I made a DOS floppy and copied the files 'UpdFlash.exe' & 'b3210.bin'
I booted up on DOS and entered the command,

Syntax updflash b3210.bin -a -d -v -ID680

All I got were the SI controller chips list installed on the system...
I guess it's not reading the card

[Dee]

As i remember it. i just typed updflash b2310.bin
It's now seen in Windows as below

[chas0039]

Does anyone here have any recommendations for an IDE card that actually works with optical drives? Or is it just a problem with all these cards? Any info on the VIA VT6421L chipset?

Thanks

[eltranquil]

Take a look at Ide Controllers (the definitive thread).

Regards,

ET

Does anyone here have any recommendations for an IDE card that actually works with optical drives? Or is it just a problem with all these cards? Any info on the VIA VT6421L chipset?

[HenryNettles]

Does anyone here have any recommendations for an IDE card that actually works with optical drives? Or is it just a problem with all these cards? Any info on the VIA VT6421L chipset?

Thanks

I am using an add-in card with the Silicon Image chipset. In device manager, it looks exactly like what Dee posted above. I have a Nec 2500 connected to, working perfectly in Ultra DMA mode 2.

[chas0039]

Thanks, I may risk the $20 and give it a try. As a last resort I can always use it for HDs and if there is a problem with NEC I have plenty of other drives I can try.

[eltranquil]

An update: just for fun (since I actually don't need it), I updated one of my two SiI 680 cards to the IDE bios and tried it on an old computer that I have for tests... unfortunately, both my ND-2500A and by ND-3500A are still seen in MDMA2 mode. I haven't tried the 3540 yet, since I am currently using it on my main PC...

However, the BIOS update procedure was smooth, exactly as described above by Dee-27 and engine. From what reported on the website, the controller should have gained a bit in compatibility with optical devices in this way, so it is good. :iagree:

Regards,

ET

As a last resort I can always use it for HDs and if there is a problem with NEC I have plenty of other drives I can try.

[HenryNettles]

A further update. I had reported earlier that my Nec 2500 worked fine on the SiI 680 controller, but I just decided a short while ago to swap out the 2500 for my new Benq 1640 (have to play with the new toy, don't you know?). The Benq 1640 does NOT play well with the SiI 680, so I searched for this thread and reread the comments, especially where Dee said that Liteon and LG drives worked well with the SiI 680. With that in mind, I swapped drives around and connected the Liteon 1693 to the SiI 680, and SUCESS!

Previously, when I stated that my Nec 2500 worked well with the SiI 680, I might have been misleading others unintentionally. The Nec 2500 only writes at 8x max, and I never used it to read, so I don't know whether it would read at greater than 8x when attached to the SiI 680 card. The limitation I found when trying to run the Benq 1640 on the SiI 680 was that it would neither read nor write at faster than 10x (looked like the transfer rate test posted further up in this test. So it is quite possible that the Nec 2500 was limited when connected to the SiI 680, and I just flat wasn't aware of it.

My apologies if I mislead anyone.