Promise ATA/100 TX2 and Win2k

[newdude]

Hello,

I'm new to these forums but saw some great information being posted so here's my situation.

My problem machine:
Win2k
Athlon 700
256mb RAM
MSI K7 Pro (Via chipset, only has ATA/66 onboard)
WD 200gb 8mb cache (the Special Edition)
Promise ATA/100 TX2 controller (came bundled with WD)
Onboard sound (no 3rd party sound card)
Diamond Stealth S540 Savage4 32mb (running at APG 4x)

I'm using the Promise TX2 on a PCI slot to take advantage of the ATA/100 capabilities of the 200gb Western Digital.

Problems:
1. Sound interference (ie playing music) + Mouse slowdown with hard disk activity.

2. Transferring 700mb file from CDROM -> HD takes 15+ minutes. I write 15+ because I see the estimated time fluctuate wildly, from 11 minutes to 55 minutes to 23 minutes.

3. Lopsided Transfer across my home network (100mbps). Sample: Using my win98SE machine, I RETRIEVE a 700mb from my Win2k machine (the problem machine I'm discussing right now), takes 3-4 minutes. Using my Win2k machine, I try to SEND the same file TO the Win98SE machine, takes 12 minutes!

Things I've noted/tried:
1. I'm aware of the Via PCI latency issues. I've tried patching with the Via 4in1 drivers and the Via PCI latency patch from George to no avail.

2. I thought there might be an issue with ACPI management forcing the sharing of IRQ 11 between the Promise driver and the Diamond Stealth sound card. Switching to standard PC HAL only helped a *little* bit with the video card performance. The disk transfer problems remained.

3. I've switched NIC cards and connected a 3rd computer (laptop) to test my network settings. Only this Win2k machine appears to have the lopsided transfer problems. The laptop (running WinXP) transfer with the Win98SE machine fine.

At this point I'm quite fed up with the motherboard/Via chipset which I think is the source of the problems. I'm tempted to just connect the WD to the onboard ATA/66 and just avoid all the damn PCI issues with the TX2 controller.

I'm tempted to just buy a newer motherboard that has onboard ATA/100 support but the cash situation is a little tight at the moment.

Any comments/opinions/suggestions?

Thanks

Edit:
I switched the HD to the onboard ATA/66 controller but there was no effect. Is my motherboard just a piece of crap?

[ussenterprise]

What is the transfer rates of all the NIC's?

If all are set to auto, try hard setting to 10 and testing. Then to 100 and testing.

(working the easiest problem first)

[T-2]

Hi!

I'm pleased I found someone with my identical problem (mouse and sound stutter during hard drive access) - just wish someone had the solution.

I have:
Dell Dimension 8250 - P4, I850 chipset
WinXP Pro
Soundblaster Live
ATI All-In-Wonder
Promise card from Western Digital w/ 2nd hard drive attached

I believe it is small writes to the 2nd hard drive that are to blame. Reads from the drive do not stutter the system and Explorer writes of large files don't seem too bad either). I suspect the card's driver/BIOS but Western Digital doesn't have a newer versions of these - Promise however, does but they warn folks not to try to use theirs unless you bought a Promise card outright (i.e. Western Digital users are out in the cold). I'm about ready to try it anyway, but I'd have to backup a ton of stuff to do it, so I'm a bit wary. Would you like to be the guinea pig?

[Dudster]

I had stuttering mouse and sound with my Promise Ultra133 TX2 PCI (in Windows XP) when I had my 2 hard drives connected to the card, with my 2 optical drives connected to the motherboard's controllers. I fixed it by connecting my hard drives to the motherboard and connecting my optical drives to the Promise card. Dont' know if there was any other way of fixing it. The only problem is if I need to boot from a CD, I have to disconnect my primary optical drive from the Promise card and plug it into the motherboard (not something I've needed to do as yet, apart from when installing Windows).

Edit: this wasn't with a VIA chipset, it was the intel 845PE.