Need another PCI slot? 3

[charleshx]

To install a 160 GB Maxtor HD I need to install its ATA/133 PCI card. But my only PCI slot is used by the Soundblaster Live! soundcard. Any advise?
Dell Dimension 8200 1.7 Ghz 256 RAM Windows XP Home.

 

[GRMorris]

If you lack enough PCI slots there is unfortunately little you can do except change the motherboard.

You could however just connect the New hard drive to your existing IDE controller. The downside of course being that it would run at 66/100 (that which your Motherboard supports) rather than 133.

 

[paparazi]

charleshx,
Connecting an ATA133 Hard drive to a ATA100 IDE motherboard won't slow the hard drive down at all.
Maxtor DiamondMax Plus9 hard drives average read/write is under 60mb/sec with burst (max) less than 90mb/sec so well within the ATA100 (100mb/sec) interface of the motherboard.
If you just wanted extra PCI slots then as GRMorris says you may need a major upgrade.
Martin

Replying helps further our knowledge, without comment leaves us wondering.

 

[kiddpete]

You could move your sound to USB to free up your slot. Creative makes an external sound 'box' although it's probably on the pricey side.

 

[charleshx]

Thanks for such a prompt reply fellows;
The issue here is not speed but the 160 GB. The Dell's mobo based IDE supports only 133 GB (is it Windows XP limit?) so I could not use the Maxtor to it's full capacity.
Another question: Could I possibly replace the soundcard with a quality AGP slot card to free up the PCI slot? Any recommendation?
I am not to pleased with the Live! card anyhow, I wonder there are better cards with better soundtables. The MIDI replay while fair in piano, guitar, brass and some woodwind instruments, is very poor in strings The full orchestral sound is very limited. But this is another issue...

 

[GRMorris]

Your drive should work fine as long as you have service pack 1 installed, it would appear all of the 8200 support larger drives.

There is 1 Bios update available for download but that lists no changes regarding larger drive support. Personally I would connect it up to your IDE controller and see what the computer makes of it.

With regards to a Soundard for the AGP slot, APG stands for Accelerated Graphics Port and hence will only accept AGP class graphics card.

Hope that helped.
Russell.

 

[Freestone]

Greater than 137GB is determined by both BIOS and XP.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;303013

 

[charleshx]

Thanks fellows.
Installed ServicePack 1 and Maxtor excepted it and I was able to install the full 160 GB with it's Maxblast so I didn't need the Maxtor's 133ATA card. So the problem is solved and thank you again.

 

[bcastner]

Sooner rather than later:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;331958

 

[bcastner]

Freestone, Paparazi (Martin) others.

The link above does not get pushed through the Windows Update service.

Anyone running XP with 137 gig + drives should:

. apply Service Pack 1 as discussed above by Freestone
. apply the Hotfix:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;331958

I think it is important to get this Hotfix onto users machines, and any help you guys can provide in future posts would be appreciated.

Bill

 

[charleshx]

bcastner, thank you for the warning

 

[bcastner]

charleshx,

You are very welcome.

The only other oddity with 137+ drives you may see is this real head scracther:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;Q823774

 

[Freestone]

I appreciate the concern, Bill, and I will certainly advise others in the future to pay special attention to steps 1-5 of the link I provided.

 

[Freestone]

*Steps 1-5 of the MORE INFORMATION area...

Thinking about it some more, probably better to explicitly provide both links as you state, Bill.

 

[MDLU]

wondering... should the above issue be present with a 160GB USB HD?