PIO, should be DMA!!!

[Benjamino]

I am working on a friends HP system. The other day when I was here I was getting a new scanner hooked up when I noticed that the system dogs a bit. Formerly, it was actually pretty fast. It's an XP1600, comparable to mine, so I took notice. I was watching all the processes and stuff... nothing there. Well, today I am back b/c I had an idea. I checked the device manager and Lo! It's using PIO for the HD :mad: (it does say "use DMA if available" there above), while the CD-RW and DVD are fine using multi-word DMA2. I checked the BIOS, it was set to PIO4/DMA2 but of course was falling back to PIO. I changed to User Define and found that it can't go higher on "that" list... but directly under that one appears a new list that shows DMA lvls. So... I chose 5 and I'm off. No good, still falling back to PIO once in Windows. So what now?
I have loaded the new VIA 4-in-1, same same. Any suggestions? I am at a loss... Thx

- Benjamin

[veggyhed]

So how old is the HDD and what brand is it ?
What OS ?
What position are the devices on your IDE cables ?
Have u tried to benchmark the system ?
What kind of cables are u using ?

From past experience if it wont stay it does not support it. I have never come across a bag of tricks that works for that.

[Benjamino]

Sorry, good questions. "Her" system is XP Home. It's a samsung HD, which I don't love. The hd went out of it months ago and had to be sent in and replaced. I would open the tower, but that would worry her. BUT! I know that it's not an ATA33 cable on there because the slowness is a new thing. It was fast when she got it back. The hd is the only thing in the primary channel, and cd-rw pri. dvd scnd. on the secondary channel. The only benchmarking that I have done was through EZ-CD Creator. I used the transfere rate testing... it "peaked" at 1200kb :sick:

[Benjamino]

O come on! "Someone" take a shot at this! :baa:

[zhotfire]

Could be caused by a lot of things... dodgy cable, bad drivers/patch needed, resource conflict/hardware conflict. If you can't open the case you'll have to start with the basics.... drivers/patches. Check the motherboard manufacturer site for drivers and FAQs. Check the same way for the other hardware as well. If you can't find any refs to the problem, it's time to pop the cover and start yanking!(the peripherals, you pervert) ;) :D

[veggyhed]

was it slow before the scanner install or after.
how about a defrag and scan
Is there a better bios for it ?

[Benjamino]

Well, like I said... it's an HP. You can't update the BIOS b/c of that first section that tells the HP it's an HP. Other than that. I updated the VIA 4-in-1. There is nothing else to update. No, "no" conflicts that I can find. Not even a shared IRQ. As for as was it slow before scanner and printer? Yes. I played for a few hours before installing them trying to speed the thing up. I had thought that it was a process hanging... but it wasn't.

[veggyhed]

Back to the tasks running. Try using task info2003. It allows u to flush the cache free mem, empty clip board and a good inventory of what is running. Seems to work well.
If u find nothing on that then u have lost me. If u can reformat and start from scratch but otherwise I am out of ideas.
Sorry

[Hans Arne Iversen]

Look at what kind of services that are running and disable the once that are suspicious.
Taskinfo is also a good idea. It shows how much of the cpu the programs are using.

[Benjamino]

I know it's not a process... I monitored them for almost 30 minutes. The hd transfereing @1900kb on a burst... now that looks like a problem.

[Benjamino]

I never was able to resolve this... I am waiting for something to lose it's magic smoke.

[veggyhed]

Originally posted by Benjamino
I never was able to resolve this... I am waiting for something to lose it's magic smoke.

:rofl:

[Chris Wolfe]

HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E 96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}\0000\EnableUDMA66

Should = 1

Create if not present

Not enabled by default in winXP

Get Xteq Xsetup from www.xteq.com . Excellent free tweaking tool.

[Benjamino]

Ty Chris. I could check/add that. :)
But... before I do it, what is it for? What ability are we adding here?

[Chris Wolfe]

ATA-66. Microsoft saw fit to include ATA100 and PIO enable by default in XP. Not ATA-66. It's a "feature" of the more stable operating system.