Caution with new VIA drivers

[Bornloser]

Running WinXP Pro and just yesterday I noticed that my burner wouldn't work properly. I kept getting ASPI errors with ECDC 5. Couldn't figure out what was wrong. It worked the day before. Since I was getting the ASPI errors, I installed the newest ASPI drivers. Still the same problem. I uninstalled ECDC and reinstalled. Same problem. After realizing that the most recent change I made to my system was to install the newest VIA drivers, I uninstalled them. Everything is now back to normal. But now I don't know which version of VIA I am using. I don't know if it rolled back to the previous version or the original drivers.

[dodecahedron]

in the Device Manager, doubel click IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers,
you should have 3 sbu-items: Primary IDE Channel, Secndary Channel and VIA Bus Master IDE Controller.
double-click the VIA Bus Master IDE Controller item. in the VIA Bus Master IDE Controller Properties page that opens, click the Driver tab.
if you're using MS drivers, the Driver Provider will be Microsoft.
if you're using VIA drivers, the Driver Provider will be VIA Technologies.

if you click the Driver Details button, you see a list of drivers.
using MS (i believe) i get: atapi.sys, pciidex.sys, viaide.sys.
when using VIA you would get: viaidexp.sys

i'm not 100% sure about the driver details.
this is at least what i get now, when (i believe) i'm using the MS drivers, and what i got in the past when i tried the VIA ones.

[Inertia]

If you go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Via4in1Driver in the registry it will show you the versions of the installed VIA drivers.

[dodecahedron]

yes, but i don't think it says if this 4in1 driver is the currently active driver, does it?
for me it says:
4in1Version: 4.48
Viamach: 1.80a
this is correct, the last 4in1 in installed was the 4.48 but i only installed the VIA INF 1.80a driver, didn't install the VIA PCI IDE Bus Driver (nor the AGP Driver).

strange, it says also
4in1AGPFile: 0
4in1DelFile: 0
4in1INFFile: 0
but i did install the INF file!

also, what does the 4in1DelFile key stand for?

[Inertia]

I have always used the VIA drivers which are custom designed for performance with VIA chipsets rather than the generic Microsoft drivers. I have never had a problem with the VIA drivers.

On my WinXP system I have:
4in1Version = 4.42
Viamach = 1.70

That's all.

On my Win98SE system I have:
4in1AGPFile = 1
4in1DelFile = 0
4in1INFFile = 0
4in1Version = 4.34
Viamach = 1.40a

VIA drivers are installed on both systems, so I wouldn't worry about your settings.

[dodecahedron]

Inertia:
going to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Via4in1Driver in regedit i get:
4in1AGPFile: 0
4in1DelFile: 0
4in1INFFile: 0
4in1Path: D:\........
4in1Version: 4.48
Viamach: 1.80a

when running the 4in1 installer (on my XP system), it lets you choose whether to install (or uninstall) the following components:
VIA PCI IDE Bus Driver
AGP Driver
VIA INF driver
(i think in Win98 there's another module/driver, something to do with IRQ routing?)

i always choose only the INF driver. but still it says "4in1INFFile: 0".
incidentally it also says "Viamach: 1.80a" and this is the version of the INF driver!
i don't install the AGP driver so "4in1AGPFile: 0" makes sense.
i don't see where in the registry there's any indication of the PCI IDE Bus driver.
in short, the info in the registry isn't very clear to me.

On my WinXP system I have:
4in1Version = 4.42
Viamach = 1.70

That's all.

On my Win98SE system I have:
4in1AGPFile = 1
4in1DelFile = 0
4in1INFFile = 0
4in1Version = 4.34
Viamach = 1.40a

i'm wondering about the differences.
are you sure you do have the VIA IDE Bus drivers installed? apparently it's not very clear in the registry.
in the WinXP box at least, can you verify which drivers you actually have installed, MS or VIA? by looking in the Device Manager like i explained in my first post in this topic. what drivers are listed for you in the Driver File Details page? is it consistent with my expalanation there?

out of curiousity, why aren't you using newer VIA 4in1s?

[dodecahedron]

I have always used the VIA drivers which are custom designed for performance with VIA chipsets rather than the generic Microsoft drivers. I have never had a problem with the VIA drivers.

VIA's VIA IDE Driver Guide page: http://www.viaarena.com/?PageID=66

in an older version of this page (from maybe a year or so ago):

Special Rom Drives (re-writers etc):
Probably not recommended that you install the VIA IDE miniport Driver as the default Microsoft driver provides better support for such devices, in general. This is because ATA/ATAPI devices are controlled by complex commands and their drivers are written to comply with the Microsoft default IDE driver. But at the same time, in most instances the VIA IDE Filter driver would be beneficial for ROM drive stability.

i've no idea if this is outdated or still correct.
but i decided against using the VIA PCI IDE Bus driver.
in any case, i did a little benchmarking at the time and the performance difference with MS/VIA drivers was negligible.

[Inertia]

Inertia:
going to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Via4in1Driver in regedit i get:
4in1AGPFile: 0
4in1DelFile: 0
4in1INFFile: 0
4in1Path: D:\........
4in1Version: 4.48
Viamach: 1.80a

when running the 4in1 installer (on my XP system), it lets you choose whether to install (or uninstall) the following components:
VIA PCI IDE Bus Driver
AGP Driver
VIA INF driver
(i think in Win98 there's another module/driver, something to do with IRQ routing?)

i always choose only the INF driver. but still it says "4in1INFFile: 0".
incidentally it also says "Viamach: 1.80a" and this is the version of the INF driver!
i don't install the AGP driver so "4in1AGPFile: 0" makes sense.
i don't see where in the registry there's any indication of the PCI IDE Bus driver.
in short, the info in the registry isn't very clear to me.

On my WinXP system I have:
4in1Version = 4.42
Viamach = 1.70

That's all.

On my Win98SE system I have:
4in1AGPFile = 1
4in1DelFile = 0
4in1INFFile = 0
4in1Version = 4.34
Viamach = 1.40a

i'm wondering about the differences.
are you sure you do have the VIA IDE Bus drivers installed? apparently it's not very clear in the registry.
in the WinXP box at least, can you verify which drivers you actually have installed, MS or VIA? by looking in the Device Manager like i explained in my first post in this topic. what drivers are listed for you in the Driver File Details page? is it consistent with my expalanation there?

When the VIA drivers are installed in WinXP with the "Quick Installation" which installs all drivers without a choice, the registry entries are brief as indicated in my WinXP list above. When the "Normal Installation" is chosen, the registry entries are expanded.

I just installed v4.47 both ways, and with the "Normal Installation" I chose all three drivers. In the registry the 4in1Version changed to "4.47" as expected. Sorry, but my AGPFile, DelFile, and INFFile entries are all "0", just like yours. Don't ask me to explain, but I will give you a guess. Since I had already installed the drivers first with the "Quick" installation, when the "Normal" installation was done nothing was changed or replaced. Hence the "0". This explanation may be totally wrong, but it is sufficient for the weak-minded. (Before anyone thinks I am calling them weak-minded, I was referring to the guesser, not the reader.)

My drivers in device manager were, and remain exactly the same as yours.

out of curiousity, why aren't you using newer VIA 4in1s?

In the case of WinXP, I had all of the updates up to v4.47, but didn't bother to install them. I wasn't experiencing any problems and wasn't motivated to update until this post.

In the case of Win98SE, the following message is on VIA's update page at VIA Hyperion 4in1:

**Note: Win95/98/98SE are now relatively old operating systems, and drivers are no longer optimized for those operating systems. Many users of VIA chipsets who run Win95/98/98SE report that using an older version, such as VIA 4in1 version 4.35, they experience a more responsive system.

I had already downloaded v4.35, but hadn't bothered to install it in Win98SE. I will do so now, before someone asks me, "Why are you using v4.34?"

[dodecahedron]

My drivers in device manager were, and remain exactly the same as yours.

strange...and you say you did install the IDE Filter drivers...