hi,

On 26 Aug 2000, at 13:47, Jam wrote:
> On the other hand, I'm using 300W power supply.  I'm using
> one Celeron 333, 128MB SDRAM, AHA2940UW, two ether cards,
> and 3 hard drives (SCSI drive is external).  I believe 300W
> covers all enoughly because I was using these plus display
> card, CDROM, and DVDROM when I was using this for Windows
> 98.  If I experience the same trouble without Max40, I'll
> try to get 400W power supply.
> 
Probably the type and quality of the PS is more important. I have 2 
500MHz celerons with 512MB Ram and three SCSI Harddrives 
without problems on the standard PS of the Macase (250-300W, 
have not checked).

> If anybody have a suggestion 

Found the following articles on FICs homepage (sorry for posting 
the whole text, but the URL does not lead to the page) these referr to 
the 686A southbridge from VIA, but I had reports from BX chipsets 
and e.g. Promise that were samiliar. Look at 
"http://www.dailyradar.com/qanda/index_pc_2000-04-20.html", the 
third question from the bottom reports a maxtor drive that could not 
coexist with a WD drive on the same IDE channel. I know these are 
no exact reproductions of your problem but should be a good 
reason to contact Maxtor, maybe they have a firmware update or 
something:

Q:When I connect the Hard Disk with UDMA33 cable, it works 
properly. But when I'm using UDMA66 cable, and check Using DMA 
checkbox, the system is unstable and causes a lot of disk problems. 
(When I uncheck the DMA checkbox, the system works properly). 
With Windows 98, 98SE, ME, 2000 the same problem occurs when 
I attempt to use the DMA option (and I have installed and uninstalled 
almost all of the VIA patchs...). What's the Problem? My HD is a 
Maxtor 51536U3. (2000/7/4) 

A:SD11 has hardware limitation working with Maxtor ATA/66 HDs in 
UDMA66 using DMA transfer mode. FIC has a beta BIOS, the 
NC6060 to auto drop the DMA transfer mode to UDMA33 and 
prevent system corruption while files are copied between IDE 
devices. The new BIOS also updates CPU ID for the AMD Athlon 
700 (.18 TBird). HDs sized over 33GB report size error if set at 
auto. 
----------------------------
Q: I have Maxtor 91536U6 15.3 GB U-ATA 66 (3) HD (or Fujitsu 
ATA/66 HD) connected on board, cables are right for it but system 
still fail to report it as ATA/66 (UDMA 4) while system POST? 
(10/4/99) 

A: There are three factors that let system bios determine ATA/66 
HD, cable, chipset, bios. They will be checked from both end (HD 
chipset & south bridge on board). Both VIA 686A & Maxtor & Fujitsu 
ATA/66 fail to report correctly on this. While IBM, WD, Segate, 
Quantum can support ATA/66 reading and can provide information 
for bios, so that combination with 686A implies no problem. Maxtor 
will update their firmware to provide reading and post for bios while 
booting to settle this issue; but it would be on their next generation 
product. So currently I suggest the user tries to avoid these two 
brands of ATA/66 HD. What happens to VIA 686A with Fujitsu 
ATA66 is that, if both Fujitsu ATA/66 are connected as master and 
slave in second IDE channel, SD11 will fail to report them correctly 
too. But either channel with stand along or combination with other 
brands IDE devices are OK. It Looks like a VIA chipset power 
drivering issue, and there are hardly any solutions for this.
-----------------------------
HTH 

mike