Robin Hoods Playground

Hi. I have Abit IS7 series motherboard and manual says ""2 channels Serial ATA 150 via ICH5R south bridger".

Does this mean in practise that I can't flash BenQ drive using my motherboard SATA connection? So I have to get PCI SATA controller (VIA chipset)?

Thanks for your help!

Experience says that the majority of onboard sata controllers don't work. You can try reading the firmware out with your onboard sata controller for a more definitive answer. It's not going to hurt anything to try because if it worked, then you saved yourself some money, if it don't, then you know it's not compatible with your chipset.

Thanks for your reply! I tried but faced some problems right away..

iPrep SATA info says "The Device not supprted" and dropdown value is "Microsoft iSCSI Initiator". So there is no actual SATA chipset listed.

What can be the problem? SATA driver? SATA disabled?

I also tried to search for Vista compliant driver for Abit IS7 but I couldn't find... Any idead for this?

Thanks a lot for any help!

Before you go any further, don't bother with the onboard sata. they rarely work. Order this one it's only 12.00 usd and it will save you from wasting your time. here it is: http://tekgems.com/Products/la-pci22-vt6421a.htm

You will want to use the internal port on it. not the external.

You could use the external port if you know how to find the I/O address for it using msinfo32 and after you create your boot device with iprep, you would have to edit two files, dben.bat and fbin.net. You would look for the line that says:

Tools\doasflash w XXXX 1 a0 1 4 BACKUPS\%1\%2\Benq-CFW.bin 0 from fben.bat
and
Tools\doasflash r XXXX 1 a0 1 4 BACKUPS\%1\%2\Benq-CFW.bin 0 from dben.bat

The XXXX represents where the I/O address goes. For example, mine is B0000 so the line in my fben reads:
Tools\doasflash w B0000 1 a0 1 4 BACKUPS\%1\%2\Benq-CFW.bin 0 from fben.bat
But using msinfo32, I see that my external port is A0000, so I would edit rben.bat and change the line from
Tools\doasflash w B0000 1 a0 1 4 BACKUPS\%1\%2\Benq-CFW.bin 0
and change it to:
Tools\doasflash w A0000 1 a0 1 4 BACKUPS\%1\%2\Benq-CFW.bin 0
and then change my fben.bat line from:
Tools\doasflash w B0000 1 a0 1 4 BACKUPS\%1\%2\Benq-CFW.bin 0
to:
Tools\doasflash w A0000 1 a0 1 4 BACKUPS\%1\%2\Benq-CFW.bin 0

Your port addresses will be different if you want to try this and since on this card, this port is an esata port, you would have to get an esata/sata cable to be able to plug the esata end into the esata port and then the sata end into the dvd drives sata port. Most people don't even want to bother since it's just as quick to pop off the side cover and plug it into the first port. But I thought it would be interesting to talk about.

that card dont have a sata on the outside .the plug on the back is a e-sata plug

Yes. It is esata, but you can get an sata/esata cable for about 5 bucks and use it that way if you wanted to go through the trouble.

So basically your advice is to get PCI SATA card and stop playing with onboard SATA?

Did I understood correctly that the rest of the advices were about the usage of PCI SATA card? If I use PCI SATA card internal SATA connector I should be able to follow e.g. 360mods.net tutorial? If I want to use external connector then I have to get special SATA cable and modify configuration files?

Thanks for your help!

you can mess around with a on board sata for days and still not get it to work.
the best bet is to get a pci sat card.this one is known to work good.
http://tekgems.com/Products/la-pci22-vt6421a.htm
That of course is for the samsung and the BenQ dvd drive.
there are some guides here that go over what to do.
this is a video guide
http://www.robinhoodsplayground.com/for ... =110&t=277
this is a walk through
http://www.robinhoodsplayground.com/for ... =110&t=215