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Incorrect HDD recognition ECS K7S5A

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by patternflyer 1 view

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My board has release date of 12/15/2001S Ami BIOS.

62-1215-001131-00101111-040201-Sis735-K7S5A

ECS USA does not have matching release date.

About two weeks ago. I began to have SMART error "Primary master HDD SMART status BAD backup & Replace".

My Maxtor HDD model 5T060H6 which was a replacement under warranty during summer has this problem. I just got another replacement of exactly same model HDD.

Suddenly, the BIOS began to recognize the hard drive as 29437 Cyl, 16 Head, 255 sectors, 61493 MB, LBA is ON, 32Bit mode is ON, Block mode is 16 Sec, PIO is shown 4, ATA 100.

The correct hard drive recognition should be
119150 actual cyls, Max cycls 16383, 16 heads, 63 sector.

The number of sector is incorrectly recognized so is the number of cylinders.
However, HDD model number "5T060H6" is recognized correctly in the BIOS information shown during boot.
I tried to reset the CMOS setting with jumper and still get the same output.
This is the first time seeing this and the BIOS does not allow user to manually input the drive strings.
I use Norton Ghost to replace the HDD, will this affect the performance?
What should I do?

Thanks,

10 replies

by bohicam1

You can try updating (flashing) the bios from this page. This board has some issues with any processor other than the AMD XP 1800+
http://www.ecsusa.com/downloads/k7s5a.html
remove any spaces in the above URL.
Go to the bottom of the page and download the utility (aminf333.exe) and the bios upgrade
(021029.ROM), extract them to a floppy, boot from a bootable floppy, insert this one and at the command prompt type in
aminf333.exe 021029.rom and it should run.
Good luck!

Mike

by patternflyer

I tried updating the BIOS from the first one to the latest one and still the number of cylinders and sectors show incorrectly.

by patternflyer

my BIOS version was 011215 with is 12/15/01.
flashed to several of next BIOS updates. So far still the same thing.
Should I try the first version of the BIOS?

I downloaded every BIOS related updates for this board and am ready to try from the first BIOS.

I also tried another HDD just to make sure the BIOS is reading incorrectly.

Yes, it still read Quantum 40G driver with 255 Sectors.

by opatzg9

One other idea for you is get a pci ide card and let it handle the drive. I know it gets recommended all the time here by The Chas. I'm beginning to think onboard anything is wrong nowadays.

by patternflyer

I tried the PNY ATA 100 card which I have no use right now. It works fine, but does not show if the number of sector and cylinders are correct.
So, it is not an actual solution to the incorrect outputs.

by cg it

I want to ask a question. Does the BIOS see the drive a the Diamond Plus 60 GB? and does your O/S see the drive as a 60GB drive? I suspect that the drive is providing wrong info [heads cylinders, sector count etc to the BIOS. If the drive operates properly, is shown as a 60 GB drive both by the BIOS and O/S but it just bugs you that the data doesn't match up, send it back. The drive should properly report to the BIOS it's characteristics. May be a pain, but

by cg it

note: Chas loves IDE controller cards. Reminds me of the days of 486 machines that didn't have onboard IDE controllers. Takes up a PCI slot but then? I've not run across onboard IDE controller problems [floppy or hard drive] so I can't say yeah or nay on either one except that if I pay for a mainboard that has onboard IDE controllers [and I don't think there's a board made today that doesn't have em], I expect em to work. If not, the board gets sent back. Onboard sound and video is another matter. I don't think that an ATX form factor board has enough space to put everything on a Audigy sound card or a nVidia Geforce 4 Ti 4600 128 MB AGP card on it. The ATX board is dense enough and mutilayered enough that they just can't fit high quality video or sound on it [let alone 128 MB of memory for the vid card].

by cg it

The Chas is one of the best hardware guys I've seen on Techrepublic. Even I sometimes think, yeah, try out a PCI slot Controller card because he mentioned them numerous times to solve an error on hard drives or O/S or BIOS reporting HDD errors. My pat advice is, you paid for it to work. If it doesn't, send it back!

by patternflyer

Yes, both BIOS and the OS show same size hard drive. I had another drive with same capacity and model number (which I just returned after receiving the replacement drive). Another Quantum (now sold by Maxtor) 40G drive also shows the incorrect cylinder and sector. Thus, not the problems of drives. I believe it is the motherboard.
So far, the drive works just fine even with the wrong cylinder and sector, and I have not received any answer from ECS.
I think it is better to have themotherboard replaced or warranty serviced.

I personally don't like to add up unnecessary PCI cards. Since the drives are ATA 100, and the board came with ATA 100 controller on board. I am going to stick with the on board controller, and wait for the ECS' response. I just wish I had another ASUS board. My 4 years old P3V4X works just fine with PIII 833.
Thanks to all of you for the replies.

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