 
EIDE2300plus  Installation Tips 
[DOC#2100]  
  
FOR DRIVES >528MB USING LBA DRIVE TRANSLATION 
1)      Please backup existing data before installing the controller. 
2)      Enable LBA translation on EIDE2300plus  - Set JP1 to 2-3 position  
	Note: The card is shipped with JP1 set to 1-2. 
3)      Install the EIDE2300plus 
4)      In CMOS, set manufacturer drive parameters; do not enable CMOS  
	drive translation. 
5)      Boot to DOS floppy; Run FDISK   
	Delete former partitions 
	Recreate partitions 
6)      Reboot to floppy; Format with DOS Format command 
 
Disk Manager, EZDrive and other software to support >528 capacity 
should be removed from the drive since the partitions and disk drivers will 
conflict with the EIDE2300plus disk drivers.   
Follow the above steps and remove the drivers. 
 
CANNOT COMPLETELY REMOVE DISK MANAGER FROM BOOT 
PARTITION 
Sometimes FDISK cannot delete Disk Manager information from the boot 
sector.  Follow these steps to remove Disk Manager drivers from the 
partition and boot sector: 
1)      Boot to DOS Bootable disk in the A: Drive 
2)      Insert Disk Manager floppy; Type "DM<ENT>" to start Disk Manager 
3)      At the Menu, Press "<ALT>-T" 
4)      Select "Disk Subsystem Overview" 
5)      Press <CTRL><F10>.  Answer Yes to Zero the Drive and Remove 
Disk Manager 
An alternative is to run "FDISK /MBR" (Master Boot Record) which restores 
the boot sector information but not the partition table.  
Note that this will be destructive to the Ontrack created partitions but not 
standard FDISK partitions. 
 
FOR SOUND BLASTER COMPATIBLE DMA CH1 CONFLICT 
Set the EIDE2300plus ECP DMA ch to 3 instead of default 1: 
Set JP10 col 1&2 to 2-3 position 
 
PROBLEMS BOOTING WHEN USING "T" URBO SELECTION 
There is a built in driver in our Controller external BIOS.  It is enabled by 
default but may cause problems booting.  Disable the BIOS Driver if 
causing booting problems since our CONFIG.SYS driver EIDE2300.sys will 
load and program the speed for the VL-IDE drives. 
To disable BIOS driver - Set JP4 col 1&2 to 1-2 pos3ition. 
 
USING EIDE2300PLUS INSTALLATION UTILITY 
Before running, you must do a clean boot without a CONFIG.SYS OR 
AUTOEXEC.BAT loading; for DOS6 or above, press <F5> to do a clean boot 
or boot from a bootable floppy.   
NOTE: This configuration utility tests the speeds of IDE drives on the VL-
IDE connector ONLY.  There are no performance settings for the ISA-IDE 
connector. 
 
MANUALLY SETTING EIDE2300.SYS SPEED PARAMETERS 
Only ONE speed setting mode(PIO or DMA) can be enabled per device. 
On the Device line uses EITHER /D (PIO) or /M  (DMA)- NOT both.  You 
may however set one IDE device with PIO and the other with DMA like 
/D0:_ /M1:_. 
 
WHAT ARE PIO/IOCHDRY AND DMA MODES? 
PIO, or Programmed Input/Output, transfers data in fixed time lengths 
called cycle times.  The shorter the cycle time, the higher the transfer 
rates.  Our PIO speed of 8 is approximately 180ns cycle time which gives 
an "ideal" transfer rate of 11MB/s when there is no overhead. 
IOCHRDY (PIO), or I/O Channel Ready, is a using PIO with a handshaking 
method to throttle data transfer with drives IOCHRDY signal for optimal 
performance.  This the /D_:A (automatic) setting. 
DMA, or Multi-word Direct Memory Access, transfers data with a REQ/ACK 
handshaking method. DMA speed 8 is approximately 120ns cycle time 
which gives an "ideal" transfer rate of 16MB/s when there is no overhead.  
Note:  There is NO DMA channel used for this drive/ controller operation.   
  
Both PIO and DMA transfers are between the controller and the drive.  
There are no mainboard DMA channels used during DMA transfer modes 
since this transfer is NOT through the VLB bus but through the IDE cable. 
 
WHAT IS 32-BIT BLOCK MODE(MULTIPLE SECTORED RD/WR)? 
32-bit Block Mode is used to decrease system overhead during data 
transfers through the VESA Bus.  Several transfers 2 sectors at a time can 
be transferred on one interrupt.   
 
WINDOWS MOUSE IS ERRATIC 
Due to the single threaded DOS operations, Windows may have problems 
dealing with extended BLOCKs from our controller and maintaining mouse 
operation. 
Disable these Block mode transfers by adding this line in the System.ini 
In the [386 enh] section: 
DisksAccessMode=FAST 
 
WINDOWS MODEM DOWNLOADS 
Due to the single threaded DOS operations, Windows may have problems 
dealing with extended BLOCKs from our controller and maintaining mouse 
operation.  Disable these Block mode transfers by adding this line in the 
System.ini [386 enh] section: 
	DisksAccessMode=FAST 
These are other Windows settings to improve high speed modem transfers: 
In the System.ini [386 Enh] section, experiment with these settings: 
	COMxProtocol=XOFF      ;Enable Xon/Xoff Flow control 
		COMxBuffer=1024                 ;128 default 
 
Adding Smartdrv with the write cache enabled may also improve 
downloads. 
Use the "Smartdrv /?" for correct parameters. 
 
USING NON-EIDE DRIVES 
There is no problem using non EIDE drives on the same connector as on 
the VL-IDE connector.  Drives that are not considered by drive 
manufacturers as Enhanced IDE or Fast ATA can still be installed on the 
VL-IDE OR the ISA-IDE connector.  Promise has designed drivers which 
independently assign speed settings for each drive.    
 
SETTING UP IDE DRIVE ON ISA CONNECTOR 
If only one drive is installed on the Second connector, it should be 
jumpered as Master(Single) drive - This is important. 
If drive contains no data, you may partition this drive with our EIFDISK.EXE 
utility and then reboot, format the next available drive letter. 
EIFDISK will see only DOS FAT partitions. 
 
SETTING VL-IDE AS SECONDARY AND ISA-IDE AS PRIMARY 
Although there are jumper settings that can configure the VL-IDE 
connector as Secondary and the ISA-IDE connector as Primary, the 
Promise Bios and Drivers will NOT recognize this configuration.  Do NOT 
set the controller with this configuration! 
If for some reason it is necessary to use ISA-IDE controller as Primary, 
disable the EIDE2300plus BIOS and do NOT load the included driver.   
It is possible to run the EIDE2300plus in an ISA slot just using the ISA-IDE 
connector as Primary and the VL-IDE connector disabled.  This is at your 
own risk since the ISA slot cannot seat a VLB card correctly. 
 
DISABLE ISA-IDE "SECONDARY" CONTROLLER DRIVER SUPPORT 
For External Bios v2.50, v2.60, v3.1 and above: 
A "/X2" switch has been added to driver 2.50 and 2.60.  The addition of the 
/X2 switch prevents the PROMISE DOS device driver in the CONFIG.SYS 
from initializing the third and fourth IDE drives.  
If you DO NOT have drives on the "ISA-IDE" connector, add the /X2 to 
troubleshoot driver lockup problems and get rid of the "WAITING..." 
message. 
To add the switch, edit the CONFIG.SYS and place the switch on the device 
driver line like such: 
	DEVICE=C:\EIDE2300\EIDE2300.SYS /X2 
For driver disk v2.70: 
By default, the EIDE2300.SYS driver will NOT load support for Secondary 
controller the third and fourth IDE hard disks.  Add the "/S" to enable 
the Secondary controller support. 
To add the switch, edit the CONFIG.SYS and place the switch on the device 
driver line like such: 
	DEVICE=C:\EIDE2300\EIDE2300.SYS /S 
       
IDE CDROM AND OTHER IDE DEVICES 
Other devices such as IDE CDROM and TAPE MUST support IDE ATAPI 
interface. The drive manufacturer provides software drivers to attach these 
drives.   
Be sure to configure the proper master/slave drive settings.  On BOTH 
PRIMARY and SECONDARY connectors, there is one master and one slave 
on EACH connector. 
On either PRIMARY or SECONDARY connector, the other IDE device relies 
on their supplied drivers.  The EIDE2300.SYS driver does not load support 
for IDE devices besides IDE hard disks. 
When installed on the PRIMARY connector, set in the Mainboard Bios drive 
type to "not installed" for the other IDE device and when necessary, 
indicate the parameters IRQ14 PORT 1F0 for the driver installation.  
NOTE: If you install the CDROM on the PRIMARY connector, Microsoft 
Windows 32-bit Disk Access will fail when accessing the CDROM drive.  
This problem is exhibited on standard IDE controllers as well. 
When installed on the SECONDARY connector, indicate IRQ15 and PORT 
170 for the driver installation if necessary.  Most CDROM software will 
autodetect the CDROM when installed on the SECONDARY connector. 
 
WINDOWS DOES NOT INTIALIZE  
Change driver speed of the PROMISE Windows driver to PIO and lower 
by one speed.  For Example, one IDE drive installed supports PIO6/DMA7 
In the [386 enh] section: 
DISKSACCESSMODE=/D0:5 
Try disabling Windows protected mode driver "32-bit Disk Access" Note:  
32-bit disk access does not affect 32 bit VLB data transfers.  It is used 
for non-DOS applications and swap file usage. 
In the [386 enh] section: 
	32BitDiskAccess=OFF 
 
WINDOWS STARTS BUT JUMPS TO BACK TO DOS PROMPT 
Try setting in MB Bios "Type47 RAM Area" from "300" to "1K" 
 
QEMM INT13 ROM HANDLER ERROR 
With QEMM 7.5+, there is a "Optimize /ST" option to add the proper 
exclusions.  Or on previous revisions of QEMM, you may manually add the 
"XSTI=13" parameter. 
 
ENABLING ENHANCED FLOPPY MODE 
To enable hardware support for 2.88MB floppy and 1Mb/s tape transfer 
rate, set JP9 col 1&2 to 2-3.  For additional jumper settings on TEAC 
2.88MB floppy drives, contact TEAC America, Inc.  Ph: (213) 726-0303 or 
by Fax: (213)727-7674.    
 
FLOPPY DRIVE SHOWS SAME DIRECTORY 
If the same directory appears after switching to a different disk, try using a 
shorter floppy cable and/or removing the tape drive Y-cable.  Special low 
resistance floppy cables from Colorado Memory Systems may eliminate 
this "Disk Shadowing" problem.  Colorado may be reached at: (800) 845-
7906 Fax: (303) 667-0997. 
 
FLOPPY TAPE DRIVE WILL NOT RESTORE 
DOS and Windows drivers to PIO transfer instead of the DMA method.  Also 
be sure to set Buffers=25 if the tape software requires. 
Sample: 
In config.sys 
	DEVICE=C:\EIDE2300\EIDE2300.SYS /D0:6 /D1:5 
	BUFFERS=25 
In System.ini [386 Enh], add this line: 
DisksAccessMode=/D0:6 /D1:5 
For specifically Conner Tape Backup: From the Configuration Menu of the 
Conner Software, Press Alt-Ctrl-<F10> to enter a hidden menu.  Uncheck 
the setting Burst DMA Mode. 
 
DR DOS 6.0 AND LOWER 
DR DOS partitioning is based on Microsoft DOS 3.3.  DR DOS 6.0 would be 
incompatible with the creation of LBA translated partitions.  During the 
setup, DR DOS complains of no accessible hard disks available.  The 
updated Novell DOS 7 will not have this problem. 
 
OS/2 WARP 
The current OS/2 2.1 EIDE2300.ADD driver will not work on the OS/2 3.0 
WARP release.  Continue using the IBM driver IBM1s506.ADD driver which 
normally installs with OS/2 WARP.  A new PROMISE driver is in 
development. 
 
OS/2 DOES NOT PRINT; DOS DOES 
The default printer address of the EIDE2300plus is Port:278 IRQ:7.  While 
DOS does not care what Port LPT1 uses, OS/2 requires a default or 
Port:378.  Set JP10 col. 1&2 to 2-3 for IRQ:7 Port:378. 
 
NETWARE VS LBA 
Disable LBA for all NetWare installations. NetWare does not work with LBA 
translated parameters and does not require translation since their drivers 
do not have a 1024 cylinder limit. 
NETWARE AND 4 IDE 
A second driver loaded with these parameters are necessary to install the 
ISA-IDE port drives. 
	LOAD EIDE31X.DSK PORT=1F0 INT=E 
	LOAD IDEDISK.DSK PORT=170 INT=F 
 
UNIX VS LBA 
The EIDE2300plus works with all versions of UNIX using standard ST506 
drivers.  Additional driver support works ONLY in these versions of UNIX: 
SCO 3.2.x and AT&T 4.0.  Do NOT attempt to load these drivers in any 
other versions.   
Disable LBA for UNIX and ZENIX installations.  Unix does not work with 
LBA translated parameters and does not require translation after booting 
from a startable UNIX partition under the 1024 cylinder limitation.  (i.e. 
Make the first partition less than 528MB, additional partitions can be 
greater) 

