I ask this out of ignorance.
Please.
I am trying to install a new system including an add-on PCI IDE card
to use with hard drives. As I said in an earlier post, I am having
trouble.
However, I noticed that during boot, a message flashes on the screen
saying 'Ultra BIOS not installed'.
My question is - Does this mean that (1) there is a BIOS resident on
the card (which I have read there is), and (2) it cannot be installed
moved) into the desktop BIOS? I never realized the BIOS on the card
was transferred to the desktop BIOS, What can I do to enable the
install?
Or am I off-base here?
Duke
The BIOS code on an IDE card has a fixed function. It contains
instructions on how to use the card while booting. The code may also
support a setup page, where the user interacts with the card (such
as for setting up a RAID array).
On your card, the code would be INT 0x13 or extended INT 0x13 code.
It is not "loaded" into the motherboard BIOS. Nothing happens to your
motherboard chip - the code isn't stored permanently somewhere else,
when the card is plugged in. (Some enumeration info called DMI/ESCD is
stored, but that simply says PCI slot one has a Promise Ultra66 card
in it right now. That is inventory info that can be viewed with DMI Explorer
or similar.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/INT_13
If a card does not have a BIOS (say, the BIOS was erased or the
chip was pulled), the card can still work - but it cannot be used
for booting. Such a PCI storage card would be for "data only" disks.
In terms of the BIOS, a typical scenario would be -
1) Main BIOS starts scanning PCI bus.
2) The config space of a PCI card is detected.
3) The main BIOS determines the card is a storage controller.
4) The presence of a BIOS chip on the PCI card is detected.
5) The motherboard BIOS does something to execute the
PCI card BIOS. I understand there is a small (128KB) area
in the 640KB memory area, where the BIOS code may be stored. The
size limitation typically causes a problem if three storage
cards of different types are present and all want to do their
INT 0x13 thing. The video card may use 64K of that space for
the VESA BIOS. A portion of the code is removed, once initialization
is complete. If a card refuses to boot, a possible cause is a lack
of space in that storage area in RAM (even though the computer can
have gigabytes of other RAM to use).
6) The PCI Card BIOS begins its scan of the IDE connectors, looking
for drives. If no drive is connected, then the PCI card BIOS
can be safely ignored/unloaded.
No drive = "Ultra BIOS not installed"
7) If a drive is present, then the drive may occupy a position
in the boot order, as part of the add-in BIOS function is to
"register" the drive with the main BIOS.
There used to be PCI storage cards, which would somehow
"steal" IRQ14/IRQ15 and effectively disable motherboard IDE
ports. I guess this was a feature rather than a bug, and
perhaps was intended to provide a driver free installation
of an older OS to a disk on the card. It's been a while since
I've seen an account of that kind of behavior. That might
have been associated with some version of CMD 0680 based
card.
The fact you got "Ultra BIOS not installed" would normally
mean that no disk was detected during the scan. Thus the
BIOS module could be safely unloaded, and the card ignored
during the subsequent final boot choice.
In the case where a drive was detected, it looks like the
next step in the main BIOS sequence is failing.
Your PCI storage card is very old, and perhaps you should be
Googling for more information about that particular version.
On a Promise card purchased in the last few years, I wouldn't
be too worried, as you'd probably be getting the most
recent BIOS code. On older cards, it pays to load a BIOS
known to function correctly, as well as a matching OS driver.
There seems to be a correspondence between the two, so mixing
different generations of drivers and BIOS is not recommended.
I'm not aware of what the technical issue is there, just that
I've heard that warning before from Promise card owners. I haven't
had a bit of trouble with my Untra100 and Ultra133 TX2 cards -
I may have even used the drivers from the floppy included in
the box the card came in. I've also managed to boot from the
cards. I have no experience with your Ultra66 card.
There are still cards on the market if you want to buy a new
one. Check the reviews for the cards on Newegg, to get some
idea how much trouble they are.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductReview.aspx?Item=N82E16816102007
This card is cheaper (uses an ITE 8212), but notice that
ATAPI optical support isn't really there. This may be the
fault of Masscool, for not insisting on a fully functional
add-in BIOS design from ITE. There are other cheap cards
that may work better than this, but they may only have one
IDE port on them.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductReview.aspx?Item=N82E16815280002
Paul
