Promise RAID driver and PB Problems

[DakotaDoc64]

I have searched the forums and found nothing on this subject.

Anyone using a Gigabyte GA-7VAXP Ultra with the PDC 20276 RAID controller active and in use. What driver versions are you using? Help!!!

I have a Promise PDC 20276 RAID controller that is built into my MoBo (above). This controller works great all other times 52MB/s but I have problems with the drivers and a couple games when it is using Punk Buster (reported to Even Balance) I get a blue screen crash just after spawn, sometimes during the game.

I did not have this crashing problem with BF2 until the client update Even Balance pushed on the 20th of July. Believe me I played every evening. In fact if I copy the original PB files into my BF2/PB folder I have almost no problems. But if I let the updated PB files stay when I start BF2 again the computer will immediately crash after spawn.

If I disable my RAID controller in Bios (moved game) I have no crashing problems. Simply re-enabling the RAID controller even if the game is not installed there causes an immediate crash at spawn with BF2 (Raven Shield W/pb also) Non-PB servers=no problems.

I am trying to find any newer drivers and or someone that is using this MoBo without problems (possible driver conflict). I know this is a PB problem, but they are unlikely to fix their hardware scanning code. (who are they selling this info to?)

HELP! MEDIC

[DakotaDoc64]

Re: Promise RAID driver and PB Problems

To all that my have this or a similar problem, I have found a fix. Thanks to SerbSniper.

Thread where I found the fix I needed.

http://www.totalbf2.com/forums/showthread.php?p=312979&posted=1#post312979

Basically my problem was caused by some bad IOMEGA Zip drivers that get installed with that hardware, Then end up assigned to all your HD's and RAID drives. The later was causing what appeared to be a memory problems but I didn't believe it was a memory problem. This is specifically what I did:
I did the second one and removed the drivers as I was no longer using the Zip drive. 1GB USB Memory pens are better anyway.

It's as simple as a memory pool leak. All created by IOMDISK.SYS, note you won't see it running in task manager. You either have
1. Iomegaware
2. Hotburn
3. Activedisk
4. Iomega Automatic Backup 2.0 or below.
that's creating the problem. Here's what Iomega sent me:

You have experienced a crash related to memory pool corruption. You have been referred to Iomega Corp. because you currently have the IOMDISK.SYS device driver from Iomega installed which was loaded in memory at the time the crash occurred and because previous versions of this driver have been known to cause this type of problem. Iomega Corp. is working closely with Microsoft to fix all of the memory pool corruption problems in IOMDISK.sys as quickly as possible but your help is needed to insure that all of the problems with this driver have been corrected and that the problem was not actually caused by a driver you have installed from another company.

Now here's the fix:
Download appservicespatch-w32-x86-2454.exe
If I could post it here I would. You can get it here:

http://iomega-na-en.custhelp.com/cg...p?p_faqid=16452

If you can't find that file you can uninstall the driver by:
Instructions to Uninstall Iomega App Services

1. Open up Windows Explorer
2. Go to the directory “Program Files\Iomega\System32\
3. Double Click the File names “Uninstall AppServices”
4. A popup window will appear to ask to confirm file deletion. Click on YES.
5. Once finished a popup window will come up saying Uninstall successfully completed. Click on OK.
6. Now reboot your system.