Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!sarah!leah.albany.edu!brk102 From: brk102@leah.albany.edu (Brian King) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware Subject: Followup to "IDE hard drive pauses... sometimes." Message-ID: <1991Jun18.171111.4161@sarah.albany.edu> Date: 18 Jun 91 17:11:11 GMT References: <1991Jun14.124305.8021@uwasa.fi> <1991Jun18.062009.13307@uwasa.fi> Sender: news@sarah.albany.edu (News Administrator) Organization: State University of New York at Albany Lines: 43 In article <1991Jun18.062009.13307@uwasa.fi> hv@uwasa.fi (Harri Valkama) writes: >>>Perhaps you could give us some dates and version numbers out of these >>>AMI bioses you are writing about. I have AMI bios and 135 Mb AT/IDE >>>and I haven't noticed such problems. >> >>The problematic bios date was 4/30/89. Actually it appears it may >>not be the size of the disk (or at least not only that); the speed >>of the disk may be more important: it does look like it could be a >>timing problem. Anyway, our experience was that machines with the >>AMI bios had the problem, when it was changed (in one case to Phoenix, >>in another to newer AMI) it went away. > >Yes, that is what I wanted to know. Newer AMI is alright. Phew. > Well, the majority of replies that I received seemed to think that it might be the BIOS. So I called the original manufacturer of my computer (Tri-Star) and told them my problem. I told him that I felt that I needed a BIOS upgrade for various reasons. He told me that 4/89 was the latest BIOS AMI had for computers with a CACHE on the motherboard! 4/90 was the latest for other computers. (I have a 64k cache.) For his solution, he told me to optimize the disk. Needless to say, this was NOT exactly the answer I was looking for. Actually, now that I think about it, maybe I didn't tell him exactly how long the drive seems to pause. Maybe he just thought that I meant that it was pausing for more milliseconds than usual. I am sure I would really have noticed that! (Anyways, I was sure that wasn't it, because I routinely optimize it.) AS far as I am concerned, unless AMI has a later BIOS for motherboards with caches, then a low level format is my only hope. (Don't worry! I won't do it until I have the appropriate software!) BTW, can anyone verify that matter that I stated about AMI and cache motherboards? Is there really a special BIOS for cache MB's? IT doesn't make sense to me. I must just not be thinking at the moment. The cache on the motherboard is a RAM cache. It doesn't have anything to do with caching my drive (if I understand this correctly, that is. Please feel free to chastize if you feel the need. :-) Can anyone explain this? Thanks again for all the pointers... -Brian King (brk102@leah.albany.edu)