Iwill DVD266u-RN Stability Fixes [UPDATED]

[Topcat]

Re: Iwill DVD266u-RN Stability Fixes [UPDATED]

Thanks.
Did you have any experience with the latest bios 0226? I want a larger hard drive 250+. Not sure if I should try topcats bios or should I use something like mrbios. any thoughts?

Also where can I get those hightpoint drivers if I upgrade the bios as they are no longer at the highpoint website. Is there a place I can download them?

The highpoint controller will support drives larger than 137gb (48 bit LBA implemented). The standard onboard controller has not been tested with 137GB+ drives. Download the highpoint drivers off their site....
www.highpoint-tech.com

[Rawhide]

Re: Iwill DVD266u-RN Stability Fixes [UPDATED]

I'm still looking for input as to the reason my DVD266u-RN won't post or show a video signal when I connect the AT power connector. It works OK if I unplug it but if this MB doesn't need to extra 3.3v & 5.0v feeds why was it designed this way? Has anyone out there run across this problem? Any ideas or suggestions is certainly welcome.

[Rainbow]

Re: Iwill DVD266u-RN Stability Fixes [UPDATED]

I'd trace al the pins of the AUX connector (is that this one? http://www.hardwarebook.net/connector/power/atxaux.html). They should be connected to the corresponding pins of the ATX connector.

[lageotakes]

Re: Iwill DVD266u-RN Stability Fixes [UPDATED]

The highpoint controller will support drives larger than 137gb (48 bit LBA implemented). The standard onboard controller has not been tested with 137GB+ drives. Download the highpoint drivers off their site....
www.highpoint-tech.com

Are you saying the onboard controller will support larger than 137gb+ without your bios or do I still need your mod bios?

I also beleive the drivers are gone from the website. I did not see them there. Is there an archive section?

Thanks

[AK0R]

Re: Iwill DVD266u-RN Stability Fixes [UPDATED]

Are you saying the onboard controller will support larger than 137gb+ without your bios or do I still need your mod bios?

I also beleive the drivers are gone from the website. I did not see them there. Is there an archive section?

Thanks

Sometimes, you have to be a little creative in your searching. I looked at the URL format for the other "BIOS + driver" under support, then substituted HPT370, and found:

http://www.highpoint-tech.com/USA/hpt370.htm

which led me to:

http://www.highpoint-tech.com/USA/bios_hpt370_370a.htm

[Rawhide]

Re: Iwill DVD266u-RN Stability Fixes [UPDATED]

Thanks Rainbow, for all your efforts to help figure this out. You're the only member of this site that took the time to answer my problem. Regarding this issue of auxiliary connectors: the one you found on that site is a connector originally offered that was not only designed to provide an extra power connection but be a means of checking and controlling the cooling fan, monitor the +3.3v power to the mb and provide grounding to IEE-1394 devices, but evidently the standards were never defined and Intel did away with it. Most PSUs provide the 4connector wire that provides two additional 12v connections and another, a thin flat 6 pin connector nearly identical to one of the earlier AT motherboard power connectors. This is the one I'm having a problem figuring out and it's purpose should be to supply 2-3.3v and 1-5v additional feeds that are meant to augment the other feeds from the larger 20 pin mainboard connector. The 12v four pin connector should carry the nomenclature: ATX12v power connector and the other should be called the ATX auxiliary power connector, but Iwill calls this one the AT power connector, maybe due to it's similarity to the earlier specifications.

At this point I guess it is all simply academic because I'm selling this board very soon. I was just curious why they included it when if you connect power the board simply refuses to function. I wonder if they rushed this board through development and left it in place from an earlier version but had problems of interference with outer components. Anyway I am not knowledgeable enough at this point to do more than guess.

Thanks again for all your efforts.

[Rainbow]

Re: Iwill DVD266u-RN Stability Fixes [UPDATED]

So it's the "AUX Power Connector" here http://www.hardware-bastelkiste.de/i...connector.html

[Rawhide]

Re: Iwill DVD266u-RN Stability Fixes [UPDATED]

I really can't say because the page you directed me to was in a language I couldn't read and there weren't any diagrams or graphics there, sorry. But this single connector is identical each of the older 2 power connectors that connected the PSU to the AT specification motherboards, except this one has a different set of wires leading into it, different voltages and a different keying tab location to prevent improper insertation. It is flat with the 6 terminals in a single row. The wires are: 3x black (grounds), 2x orange (3.3v), and 1x red (5v).

[AK0R]

Re: Iwill DVD266u-RN Stability Fixes [UPDATED]

I really can't say because the page you directed me to was in a language I couldn't read and there weren't any diagrams or graphics there, sorry. But this single connector is identical each of the older 2 power connectors that connected the PSU to the AT specification motherboards, except this one has a different set of wires leading into it, different voltages and a different keying tab location to prevent improper insertation. It is flat with the 6 terminals in a single row. The wires are: 3x black (grounds), 2x orange (3.3v), and 1x red (5v).

You said that with this connector *NOT* connected, the machine functions as expected. With the connector disconnected and the machine powered up, have you tried measuring the voltage on the three power leads coming out, and confirming that the three "ground" leads are, in fact, grounded? How about the same on the six pins where you think it should connect? While the connector size and shape may be correct, the order and/or usage of the pins may be different between the PSU connector and the motherboard, causing a VRM to shut down (output shorted to ground).

[Rawhide]

Re: Iwill DVD266u-RN Stability Fixes [UPDATED]

You said that with this connector *NOT* connected, the machine functions as expected. With the connector disconnected and the machine powered up, have you tried measuring the voltage on the three power leads coming out, and confirming that the three "ground" leads are, in fact, grounded? How about the same on the six pins where you think it should connect? While the connector size and shape may be correct, the order and/or usage of the pins may be different between the PSU connector and the motherboard, causing a VRM to shut down (output shorted to ground).

Well you certainly were on the right track. I'd measured the pins on the PSU connector before and found them to be correct as well as the wire positions as installed on the connector. I never thought the MB may have it's pins in a different order and as it turned out they are OK also. What I failed to do was measure the voltage with the connector installed to the MB and when I did that last night I found in this configuration the 3.3v supply drops to 3.1v, and in fact so do all the other 3.3v feeds (which makes sense). Once I removed the Auxiliary connector and fired it up again they are still at 3.1v but then after shutting down and firing everything up again, with the connector still removed, the 3.3v level is restored and the MB functions OK. A new PSU cured the problem and it all works OK with the auxiliary feed connected and now has 3.3v supplied. I thought about switching the PSU early on in this procedure but since all the voltages checked OK (but this was with the connector removed from the mb) I dismissed it. Thanks AKOR for pointing me in the correct direction. I worked for over 30 years on automatic transmissions and it was pretty much the same kind of hard won progress in problem solving: although many small battles may be won the war is never over.

[AK0R]

Re: Iwill DVD266u-RN Stability Fixes [UPDATED]

Glad to hear it worked out for you.

[arneson]

Re: Iwill DVD266u-RN Stability Fixes [UPDATED]

Thanx for the JB weld tip.
Very usefull.

[jimbowlie]

Re: Iwill DVD266u-RN Stability Fixes [UPDATED]

If you do decide to sell this board, please let me know... I damaged mine and I have taken pictures to show the gurus, but you can't see the damage.... I am not sure how much it would cost to repair, but when you can buy a new one for 168 clams.... I wouldn't shell out more than 100 bones to repair it... So please do let me know if you have a timeframe in mind with regard to the sale of yours!!!

[fldave850]

Re: Iwill DVD266u-RN Stability Fixes [UPDATED]

I have a major issue. I am running dual 1.4 Tualatins, 1 gig of ram, and a msi mx440-vtp dual monitor video card. I have xp pro sp2 and keep getting the blue screen of death with the stop code of 0x0000008E. Everything I read says either ram or video issues. I know its not the ram since I can boot up in safe mode with no problems, so I have it narrowed down to an issue I read about Nvidia driver problems. I've uninstalled and reinstalled the latest from MSI and the latest from Microsoft. I still keep getting it. Any ideas?

[Topcat]

Re: Iwill DVD266u-RN Stability Fixes [UPDATED]

It's the graphics card, I guarantee it. This board is plagued with AGP problems. What BIOS is on it?

[fldave850]

Re: Iwill DVD266u-RN Stability Fixes [UPDATED]

I've got the latest mod from kabalsrealm.com (0226_234.bin). I've tried the latest drivers from msi, nvidia, and microsoft. None of the drivers allows me to boot up. Windows gets booted right before the taskbar/start button pops up and then its gives me the bsod everytime. I can boot it up with safe mode with no issues. VGA Mode crashes as well.

The exact error message is:

stop: 0x0000008e (0xc0000005, 0x80576f73, 0xf751699c, 0x00000000)

Nothing follows, no driver or other info.

[Rainbow]

Re: Iwill DVD266u-RN Stability Fixes [UPDATED]

Have you actually tested the RAM, if it's really OK?

[DJ_MIX]

Re: Iwill DVD266u-RN Stability Fixes [UPDATED]

link to the bios on the 1st page does not work please fix your link TOPCAT

[Topcat]

Re: Iwill DVD266u-RN Stability Fixes [UPDATED]

link to the bios on the 1st page does not work please fix your link TOPCAT

The site was changed around a little. Here's all the BIOS's

http://root.kabalsrealm.com/index.ph...ds;catd=1;ss=0

[aread22]

Re: Iwill DVD266u-RN Stability Fixes [UPDATED]

Has anybody been successful in updating the highpoint hpt370a controller on this board to bios version 2.351?

Everytime I try to update the bios with the load tool from highpoint (load.exe) I get the message "No loadable Eprom found". The exact command I am entering in DOS (windows 98 boot disk) is load 3XXV2351.p4e

Thanks