Iwill DVD266u-RN Stability Fixes [UPDATED]

[visorgeneral]

Thanks for your respone, I resolved my issue, turns out Iwill had released a bios update that resolved this very issue I was having trying to flash my bios. http://www.iwill.net/supports/BIOSResult.asp?vID=32 Anyhow I flashed my motherboard with that new mod bios update, and now my HighPoint raid sees my new drive as a 250GB. But there still is a problem, now im finding trouble to set up an array on the HighPoint, I wanted to use just this new drive by itself on the RAID, but the controller wont allow it, so I had to add one of my smaller drives to it and use the JBOD array since RAID 0,1 shrunk my disc space size. After creating the Array, where am I to format the drive, the option is not even given in this RAID setup. I know there should be an option somewhere because I remember there being one from a Promise RAID controller that I had with a previous mobo. Windows XP still cannot see the RAID what so ever, not even the RAID administrator can see, which I suspect because these drives aren't formatted. But HighPoint don't provide a option to do so.

[visorgeneral]

8) Finally I resolved my issue, got those new HighPoint drivers 2.34 update original driver from Iwill CD and got the LBA 48-bit enabling support drivers from Maxtor, now Im all set. Thanks!

[Topcat]

If the drive awas part of a RAID before the BIOS update, the controller is still seeing the old array. You should be able to clear it off the drive in the RAID BIOS. If for some reason it's not, low level format the drive. There's plenty of free utilities for doing this.

JBoD is no prob for a single drive on the HTP372. If it's just one drive, there's no need to even go into the RAID BIOS. Just boot the OS, and partition the drive and format it. MAKE SURE that you have Highpoint drivers version 2.34 or higher, or you will have problems.

[visorgeneral]

im noticing ever since flash upgrading the BIOS certain options are missing in the DRAM Clock/Drive Control menu in the Advanced Chipset . Specifically the "DRAM Command Rate" What happened to the choices to tweak the Memory? "2T Normal, 2T, 1T Enhanced, 0T Enhanced???" These options are crucial and are not there anymore, so Im wondering who removed this option (VIA, Iwill, or mod guy?). Im noticing my PC is no longer syncing the audio with the video from my TV tuner card, and I suspect this to be because of the absent of the memory tweak feature. Also what happend to the option of yes or no to PNP OS, it too is missing in the PnP/PCI Configuration options.

[Topcat]

Iwill removed those settings. If you really need them, use the 0704 BIOS. I modded the BIOS's personally, and only added the latest highpoint firmware. I didn't change or hack any of the RAM features. This board is plagued with AGP problems, especially with an ATI card, which is what the 0226 BIOS is based on... This board is NOT a tweakers' board, it's a very fickle motherboard!! If you're overclocking or running things beyond their specs, don't expect reliability from it. Running the RAM at CL2 didn't make earth-shattering improvements versus CL3.

As for your audio, if you're using the onboard audio, DISABLE IT!! Buy an Audigy or the equivelant there of... The onboard audio has been flaky since day one, same with the NIC. The NIC I never could get the bugs out, it worked sporadically... The sound, I can't blame Iwill, it's a driver issue, as this problem occurs on many motherboard with this audio chip.

I fought with this board for almost 2 years, and sold my last one about 5 months ago... I was VERY happy to see it go! Although, I will say that once I found its sweet spot, it was a reliable board.

[Laserbait]

Hi Topcat!


I have one of the DVD266's, non -RN model. Would your BIOS (http://www.kabalsrealm.com/downloads/) be appropriate for the DVD266?


I had also tried the speedfan utility (http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php), and it is reporting that the Vcore volts for the 2 processors are different. One is at 1.8v (which I selected in the BIOS) and the other is reporting 1.5v. Unfortunatly, the BIOS PC Health section reports only Vcore (at 1.8v), but not a value for each processor. Any thoughts as to if the voltage being misreported, or has the DVD266 boards had a history of borking the processor voltage?



Thanks!

[Topcat]

The DVD266 is similar to the 266URN, but different enough for the BIOS's to not be compatible with eachother. The DVD266 doesn't support the Tualatin CPU's, but does have the VIA Pro266 chipset. The DVD266-R has a Promise RAID controller instead of the Highpoint.

I never played around with the DVD266, only the 266URN. The BIOS on the URN was notorious for 'lying' about certain specs. For example, I would set the FSB speed to 133MHz, and SiSoft or any diagnostics/benchmark utilities would show the FSB was 135. It NEVER reported CPU and system temps properly, and always grossly distorted fan speeds. The VCORE would always display low. If I left the VCORE at default, it would report the voltage as 1.3x or so (the CPU's were 2x 1.4GHz Tualatin-S's, rated @ 1.45v). If I set it manually, I had to set it at 1.5, this would make it display and function correctly, showing 1.45 in SiSoft.

[Filrond]

Hello.. go to www.rom.by

To that they want to correct problems as the size of the hard disk for the serial It Ties normal and I recommend other mistakes to them that they go to: www.rom.by The BpPatch 4.51 is the last version. They are patches that they make miracles obtain as that PIII-S 1400 works in an Asus Dual Slot 1. They correct the mistake of the size of the hard disks, I believe that also the problems of the Cards Ati, etc.. The BpPatch patch the bios Award that we put, for example the last one of TopCat.

I recommend of course, that the person who does it should have the possibility of flash the bios with a programmer, (I have a programmer Willem for example), in case the patched of the bios is not satisfactory.

Finally to say to you that I am trying to buy an Iwill Dvd266U-Rn, since I have two PIII-S 1400 and think that this is the best motherboard socket 370 that I can find for these microprocessors. If someone wants to sell it, we negotiate.

I am Spanish and I live in Spain. I have no problem to paying motherboard and transport to my country.

A Greeting

[Kako]

Well, this threads been dead for a while, but maybe someone will still have some info to pass along. I recently purchased a IWILL DVD266-r from these forums and am also experiencing stability problems. I'm using an old voodoo, so I don't have any of the AIW problems, but when trying to put a full load on the cpus, running 2 super pi's, one of the super pi's crashes within seconds. Power supply is not a problem, I'm feeding the board from a Tagan 480. I haven't replaced the north bridge yet, because I would like to flash the bios before I go ahead with that. When I do try to flash bios, I get a "Unknown flash type" I don't really know what that means. Im using the awdflash from the iwill site, along with the dvdr0509.bin. Floppy formatted to boot. I haven't flashed from dos from a while, since most of my recent flashes have been with winflash. Can anyone think of anything off the top of their head that would probably be the fix to my problem? Thanks for the info so far in this post, I've realised that its not necessarily a faulty board but some issues.

[Kako]

Never mind guys, I think it was because I was running the super pi from the same directory, so I copied it to another and ran both like that, and everythings running good, no crashes. Just one more question, I know the temps on this board are horribly off, but would Motherboard Monitor give any reliable temps at all, or are those off as well?

Thanks

[Topcat]

Never mind guys, I think it was because I was running the super pi from the same directory, so I copied it to another and ran both like that, and everythings running good, no crashes. Just one more question, I know the temps on this board are horribly off, but would Motherboard Monitor give any reliable temps at all, or are those off as well?

Thanks

They will be out of whack as well. MBM gets its data stream from the same sensors the BIOS does. If you look at the CPU temps, system temp, and fan speed in the BIOS, you know how out of whack they are.

[Kako]

Re: Iwill DVD266u-RN Stability Fixes [UPDATED]

Any clues on what may have happened here guys. I had my dvd266-r in hibernation when I shut off the comp from the main power outlet. After that, it never came back up. Anyone know what to do? I'm pretty sure its a corrupted bios chip, but the reason why it happened is less important then how to get it back up and working. Would anyone have a bios chip from a dead dvd266-r that they would have? It's been out of service for a couple of months now, and I'm getting tired of using a 466 celeron. If anyone can help, please let me know.

Thanks

[Rawhide]

Re: Iwill DVD266u-RN Stability Fixes [UPDATED]

I have an IwillDVD266u-RN that came with two Tualatin 1.4ghz cpus and I have it laid out on the bench with the psu, optical drive, floppy drive, monitor, keyboard and mouse connected. For awhile I couldn't get this thing to post but after disconnecting the AT power connector, which I assumed was the auxiliary pwr connector, it did post OK. I can now go into the CMOS and presumably begin to load an OS but wonder about the pwr connector. Of course I've checked the manual but that is one of the poorest MB manuals I've seen to date and is of little help here. My 1st screen acknowledges the hdd I've connected OK as well as the single stick of 512mb RAM and informs me that I have a DVD266u-RN/34242A (May 13, 2003), Award Modular BIOS V6.00PG, Award Plug and Play BIOS Extension V1.0A. One other little tidbit is the cpu sitting in the 2nd socket has a missing pin, listed in my manual as a VCC at position AA/5. I assume this is to supply voltage to a section of this cpu but think with that pin missing this cpu wouldn't be functional in some area. But what area? I've tried switching the cpus and it will post with in all arrangements including with either one sitting alone in position #1. So if anyone would care to dig around in your dusty memory bin to come up with any information I'd really like to pursue this awhile and see what is going on. Thanks for any help offered, Rawhide

[Rainbow]

Re: Iwill DVD266u-RN Stability Fixes [UPDATED]

Missing VCC or GND pin is often not a problem. There is a lot of them and most of them are connected together so it will work without any problems.

[Rawhide]

Re: Iwill DVD266u-RN Stability Fixes [UPDATED]

Thanks for your input Rainbow! That helps relieve my concerns over this CPU. In addition I am wondering about my other problem as to just why this board will not function with the auxiliary power connected. Actually though I guess it may may be functioning since I haven't loaded an OS and therefore wouldn't hear a beep after post, for what I see is a black screen and nothing else. I guess what I may have here is loss of monitor signal with the auxiliary power connected and a monitor display that is OK with auxiliary disconnected. Seems if this board is designed for this feature wouldn't there be a problem, such as overloading the main power circuits w/o the extra connected power? Has anyone run into this and any guess what is occurring?

[Rainbow]

Re: Iwill DVD266u-RN Stability Fixes [UPDATED]

Check that the pinout of the connector on the board matches the connector on the PSU.

[Rawhide]

Re: Iwill DVD266u-RN Stability Fixes [UPDATED]

Using the information I have in a manual the wires are in the correct order and all pins line up correctly with the mb. In addition all voltages are correct on this connector. I did take time to install Windows 2000 with SP4 and it does boot into windows but never beeps. With the connector (aux) connected to the mb the monitor shows no video signal coming through. Pretty screwy, huh?

[lageotakes]

Re: Iwill DVD266u-RN Stability Fixes [UPDATED]

Would you please confirm that this is the latest bios for the dvd266u-rn motherboard. It is dated Feb 2003 but it is lower in the number sequence ie 0226. Also would I be missing anything that might be in the other bioses. I still use my dvd266u-rn motherboard and would like to have a bigger hard drive 250 at least. Also what is the largest hard drive your modified bios would take?


Thanks

Is this the latest bios even though it has an earlier number?
February 26, 2003 (0226) with ATI fixes and Highpoint hpt37x firmware v2.34 added

are these the older bioses?

July 04, 2002 (v0704) BIOS with Highpoint HPT37x RAID firmware v2.34 added.
May 13, 2002 (v0513) BIOS with Highpoint HPT37x RAID firmware v2.34 added

[AK0R]

Re: Iwill DVD266u-RN Stability Fixes [UPDATED]

Would you please confirm that this is the latest bios for the dvd266u-rn motherboard. It is dated Feb 2003 but it is lower in the number sequence ie 0226. Also would I be missing anything that might be in the other bioses. I still use my dvd266u-rn motherboard and would like to have a bigger hard drive 250 at least. Also what is the largest hard drive your modified bios would take?


Thanks

Is this the latest bios even though it has an earlier number?
February 26, 2003 (0226) with ATI fixes and Highpoint hpt37x firmware v2.34 added

are these the older bioses?

July 04, 2002 (v0704) BIOS with Highpoint HPT37x RAID firmware v2.34 added.
May 13, 2002 (v0513) BIOS with Highpoint HPT37x RAID firmware v2.34 added

The number isn't a number sequence; it's a date code.
BIOS Date
---- ----------------
0226 02/26 (February 26, 2003)
0704 07/04 (July 04, 2002)
0513 05/13 (May 13, 2002)

[lageotakes]

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?