A7N8X + FastTrack TX2000 RAID?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Thomas Andersson
  • Start date Start date
T

Thomas Andersson

Hi!

Hope someone can help me find the right drivers for this. I got the TX2000
RAID card without any CD or anything. I went to promise website and
downloaded the latest drivers for it, installed through device manager and
then reboot.
After reboot XP detects new hardware and adds a new device without any
driver to the device manager (Promise RAID console something), the drivers
from promise isn't detected by this device and I have no clue what I need...
So, wanyone out there with this card that can tell me what I need to get?

Best Wishes
Thomas
 
Tom - you might have better luck by saving the installation of the
[downloaded] drivers until LAST. i.e., screw the card into the tower - no
drives attached - and boot up. After XP finds the card and installs drivers
for it...UPDATE the drivers with the downloaded set. There may be 2 ways to
accomplish this:

*Launch the self-executing driver archive set that you downloaded (if it is
the type that actually installs the drivers for you, you're done. Reboot)

*Otherwise it may simply extract the drivers to a folder that you specify.
If so, then you would locate the card in DevMgr, select Update Drivers...and
direct it's attention to the aforementioned folder.

In either case, a reboot is prudent. Once the card is fully installed and
showing the current drivers...then shut down and connect the drives.

Please post a follow-up.
Ron
 
Ron said:
Tom - you might have better luck by saving the installation of the
[downloaded] drivers until LAST. i.e., screw the card into the tower
- no drives attached - and boot up. After XP finds the card and
Click to expand...

That's what I did, the card was attached all through XP install, but I never
supplied any drivers during install of after for it.
installs drivers for it...UPDATE the drivers with the downloaded set.
There may be 2 ways to accomplish this:
Click to expand...

XP finds the card, but does NOT install any drivers for it, it just places
it in other devices with a yellow exclamation mark for it.
*Launch the self-executing driver archive set that you downloaded (if
it is the type that actually installs the drivers for you, you're
done. Reboot)
Click to expand...

These drivers are zipped, you ahve to install through device manager.
*Otherwise it may simply extract the drivers to a folder that you
specify. If so, then you would locate the card in DevMgr, select
Update Drivers...and direct it's attention to the aforementioned
folder.
Click to expand...

That's what I did, that loads the driver for the RAID card, BUT after reboot
it creates a new device as well, this one without any drivers...
In either case, a reboot is prudent. Once the card is fully
installed and showing the current drivers...then shut down and
connect the drives.
Click to expand...

As you see I've pretty much done what you suggested already (haven't
connected anyd rives to it as I want to make sure it's working properly
before I do).

Best Wishes
Thomas
 
Hmm. Ok, so now you have two or more instances of the RAID card in DevMgr.
|-(

It's always a bit weird to remote-troubleshoot someone's comp. You observed
that the drivers are zipped. That is quite right. I'd suggest you create a
new folder, and name it "TX" or something easy like that, and unzip the
archive to this folder. Then, if it were ME, I would "uninstall" the
card(s) in DevMgr, then shut down and remove the card from the case. Reboot
and ensure there is no sign of the card in DevMgr, then shut down and pop
the card back in. Boot up, let XP find the card. Once it has placed the
"unknown device" in DevMgr with a yellow ex, select the device and choose to
'Update' the driver. Point Windows to the TX folder, where it will learn
that the "unknown device" is actually a Promise TX2000 RAID card...and copy
the drivers to make the yellow ex disappear!

Back to you.
Ron
 
Gary said:
I had a Promise SX4000 for awhile... not identical to your TX2000,
but I think close enough. My card also had two entries in device
Click to expand...

Should be basically the same, th difference beeing that yours was 4 channel
while mine is 2 channel.
manager, one labeled something like "Promise RAID controller", the
other labeled "Promise RAID console". The driver set also had two
Click to expand...

Exactly, after installing the drivers for the RAID controller I get the
console device, for which I ahve no drivers (I got my card second ahnd, no
floppy, no CD or anything with it).
seperate .INF's, one named fasttrak.inf (or something like that, I'm
doing this from memory), and the other named fastcon.inf.
Click to expand...

So the fastcon.inf with files is what I need now then, but those aren't
available from Promise from what I can see :/
I believe the second driver, the console driver, is what allows you
to run the GUI interface from windows, to add/change the array setup
Click to expand...

So you need that in addition to PAM?
without going into the BIOS setup at boot-time. Good luck getting
any help from Promise. I eventually returned the card to NewEgg (it
didn't like my Asus mobo), but while trying to get it to work, all my
emails to Promise were ignored.
Click to expand...

Damn, otherwise you might have had the drivers I needed :/

Best Wishes
Thomas
 
Thomas, you don't need a GUI for the card. (It's more of a sugary
convenience than a necessity). All the GUI does is duplicate the options
that are avail to you in the card's BIOS at boot-up. Delete all those
'console-related" files if you can. Then follow the steps in my previous
post.

The GUI is something that you MAY choose to install later...but the card
does not NEED it in order to function. Believe me, when you re-install the
card, and you set out to update the drivers, Windows will find/use the ones
it needs from the folder you created (and nothing more!)

Ron
 
I don't know if it helps, but I found the following, while searching
for info about my SX4000.

FastTrak SX4000 Windows Driver ... 1.02.0.6 Windows 2000/XP/2003
Description ...
- Adds Promise RAID Console which interacts with the OS to prevent
delayed writes and timeout conditions when arrays are added (created)
or removed (deleted or off-line state) from the system (see included
README file for instructions on installing the RAID Console INF file).

This is from the Promise web-site:

http://www.promise.com/support/download/download2_eng.asp?productId=94&category=All
 
Back
Top