VIA PCI SATA controller ...

[ino_100]

Due to the fact that my motherboard only has 2 SATA ports and that I needed more working space (office PC) for large imagery I work with, I bought a GXT brand PCI SATA disk controller.

No problems installing the hardware and the HDD. Went to format it, everything worked. Suprise! When I installed the drivers, not GXT drivers but VIA drivers. Here is a link to the product:

Future Shop: Computer Add-Ons: Computer Upgrades: GTX Serial ATA PCI Adapter

I took a quick look on the VIA website for the latest drivers and installed them. Worked fine and was pleasantly satisfield with the overall installation process. That is until I start to transfer my files on the HDD...

Everything is fine at the beginning of the transfer; the transfer time is normal. But after 5 seconds, the system starts to lag (I'm listenning to a internet radio and it starts to skip now and then; my software starts to hang) and the transfer time dosen't show up anymore. This thing is sooooo slow! I think it is due to the fact that I can't activate the write caching on the disk, but I don't know, I didn't find any clear answers on the net.

I work with Windows XP Professional SP3, an IBM MS9151 motherboard, 4GB of RAM and Intel(R) Xeon(TM) CPU 3.20GHz.

Normally after a couple of hours of searching in forums I find an answer for my question, but not this time. Starting to think that there's a link between the issues with this hardware and the fact it's not labelled "VIA".

So can you help me or not?

[ino_100]

Somebody to help me?

[ino_100]

Can somebody say something?

I would appreciate to have ANY answer.

[fs_jim]

Hmm, don't know the card but looking at the picture it appears it's based on ALI chip, not VIA? Did you try to use drivers provided with the product? Or maybe Windows recognizes your new controller automatically?

[ino_100]

Originally Posted by fs_jim

Hmm, don't know the card but looking at the picture it appears it's based on ALI chip, not VIA? Did you try to use drivers provided with the product? Or maybe Windows recognizes your new controller automatically?

First, I want to thank you for the reply.

I did make the same observation when I saw the image onhe futurshop site. But after checking twice, it's defenitly a VIA chip. I've installed the cd provided drivers and the same problem occurs. I know that windows detected the card when I started it after mounting the card in the motherboard. Could you be more specific,I'm not sure to understand last question...


Thank you Jim!

Max

[fs_jim]

Originally Posted by ino_100

Could you be more specific,I'm not sure to understand last question...

Sorry, I'm not native English speaker. I meant that lots of hardware is detected automatically by Windows and you don't need to install external drivers to be able to use it. Of course most users (me included) want their systems to be as up to date as possible, so we install latest drivers from manufacturers websites. But sometimes this can actually worsen the situation (you know, they fix some bugs here introducing several new ones there). That's why I asked whether Win supported your new controller automatically with some kind of built-in default driver (as they call it: "plug and play") or you had to insert CD provided with the board to be able to use it in the first place?

And the last question: what type of harddisk drive are you trying to work with? I, for example, had no luck with 1 TB Samsung drive (HD103UJ) and VIA 8237R southbridge but similar 1TB Maxtor (actually Seagate) STM31000340AS works perfectly ok with that chipset.

[ino_100]

Ok, I understand, i'm not a native english speaker either, I speak french. I haven't tried using the controller whitout the drivers installed. I know that it was detected by the plug and play, but was it working that I haven't tried. I think I've installed the controller first, whitout mounting the hard-drive at that point, only installing it after the drivers are installed.
I could try to uninstall the drivers and see if it works.

The hard drive is a WD Caviar SE 160gb:
click here for more info

And for the fun I've checked the model number on the VIA chip and it is written: VT6421A

Thank you again...

[fs_jim]

Originally Posted by ino_100

I could try to uninstall the drivers and see if it works.

You can try it as a last resort. But first...

The hard drive is a WD Caviar SE 160gb

...try to limit speed to 1.5Gbps and, if that fails, also enable SSC. Documentation

[ino_100]

First I put the 1.5gb jumper in, restart machine... no change!

Second I put the SSC jumper in, restart machine... nothing changed...

Now I have both jumper in, I might try SSC jumper only config...
So.. thx for the support but it sadly didn't work.

Any more ideas?

Thanks again for the support John!

Max

[ino_100]

I have this new very pleasant error message :

" a device driver installed on your computer caused the Windows operating system to stop unexpectedly. This type of error is referred to as a "stop error." A stop error requires you to restart your computer."

I got this error 3 times since I've installed the PCI SATA controller....