How to cause a harddrive to run at it's rated Ultra DMA

[Gustavus]

There must be a simple answer to my question. I have an old computer built on an ABIT TH7 II motherboard -- Intel chipsets 82850 + 82801BA (ICH2). The main harddrive is a Maxtor STM 3200820A 200GB which is capable of running at Ultra DMA 5 -- 100MHz. The chipset is also capable of this speed. SiSoft Sandra always flags that the drive is running at Ultra DMA 4 -- 66MHz -- instead of Ultra DMA5 as it could. Obviously I would like get the improved performance but try as I may, I can find no way to set the transfer rate to DMA 5. I have searched on net and find many postings having to do with getting into DMA from PIO, but that is not my problem. The BIOS only provides a setting to allow a drive to run in Ultra DMA -- or in PIO -- but apparently which Ultra DMA is chosen is done automatically. Both the manual for the drive and diagnostic software -- such as SiSoft Sandra -- confirm the drive is capable of running at Ultra DMA 5. And the TH7 II manual confirms the controller is also capable of this.

Anyone have any idea of how I can set the transfer to Ultra DMA 5?

Thanks for your help.

 

[AFurryReptile]

It would be a BIOS issue, I would think. Try flashing the BIOS with the newest one.

 

[Raincity]

Try downloading and installing the lastest Intel chipset drivers to make sure your up to date. Try replacing the IDE cable with another 80 wire IDE cable. Download the Maxtor drive utility and see if you change it there.

 

[Gustavus]

Thanks for the suggestions.

AFurryReptile
The motherboard has the last (latest) BIOS ABIT made -- version BW. They are out of business so no further BIOS updates will be made.

Raincity

I will check on Intel chipset driver updates. Driver Genous doesn't show any, but I will try on net for myself.

 

[RebateMonger]

If it was mine, I wouldn't worry about it. That disk isn't likely to have much higher throughput with Ultra DMA 5 even in benchmark tests. In typical use, I doubt you'd be able to tell any difference. Drives of that era are only going to put out 50 MB/sec.

 

[TomGriffinII]

Silly answer here; but in ATAPI devices (ATA-whatever) will only run as the slowest device in the chain. So if you have a slower device on the same channel it will only run at that specified speed. That is the inherent flaw using parallel ATA devices. I didn't see if you had any of that hooked up in your post. However, it could be the issue slowing everything down.

 

[Gustavus]

Tom,

I should have mentioned how the drive is connected. Two identical STM 3200820A 200GB Seagate harddrives are connected to the primary IDE slot on the motherboard. The C drive (the master) is the one that runs at Ultra DMA 4 (66 MHz). The slave drive runs at DMA 5 (100 MHz). I bought the drives at the same time when I built this machine.

Raincity

I do have the latest Intel chipset drivers installed. I was sure I did, but doublechecked after you suggested it.

 

[Gustavus]

I don't know how to post an image here -- or even if it is possible -- but here are links to HD Tach results for the two drives. Since they are both on the same cable, they are certainly on the same controller. As you can see the drive that should be running at Ultra DMA 5 but is stuck at DMA 4 is measuring an average of 63.2 MB/s while the other is measuring an average of 92.2 MB/s. That is an appreciable difference. Both drives are Maxtor STM 3200820A 200GB drives -- even though I said Seagate in my previous e-mail. Maxtor is now part of Seagate, but at the time these drives were purchased they were Maxtor.

http://h.imagehost.org/0936/C_drive.jpg

http://h.imagehost.org/0111/D_drive.jpg

 

[RebateMonger]

Well, the average for c: is 57 MB/sec and the average for d: is 65 MB/sec. That 92 MB/sec is burst speed, which isn't very useful.

It certainly does look like the HD Tach benchmark results are being limited by the 66 MB/sec maximum of UDMA 4 across the first half of the disk. Remember, though, that these are benchmarks are sequential read speeds, and don't include write speeds (slower) or any random read/writes (also slower).

A search shows reference to a utility for Maxtor drives called "66to100.exe" which could be used modify DMA settings. But it wouldn't explain why the BIOS or Windows is setting one disk to UDMA 4 and the other to UDMA 5. I assume you've tried new cabling and are using Drive Select settings on the Master/Slave jumpers?

 

[Gustavus]

RebateMonger

Thanks for the response.

Sorry for quoting burst speed instead of the average, just read off the bar at the bottom of the test display, but the two drives are performing quite differently when as far as I can see they should be nearly the same.

I have swapped the cable with no effect. I have the one drive jumpered to master and the other to slave. Your comment suggests they should be set to cable select. Should I make that change?

 

[Gustavus]

RebateMonger

I thought you had found a solution!

I downloaded "66to100.exe", extracted it to a floppy etc. as instructed and ran it. It found the two Maxtor drives, but inexplicably reported for each of them that the drive was incapable of DMA 5 and that it was setting the drive to DMA 4 by default. Oh s**t I thought, now I have screwed up the D drive that has always operated at DMA 5.

SiSoft Sandra however still shows C as DMA 4 and D as DMA 5 and HD tach gets the same performance as before.

So I am neither better nor worse off than I was before. Guess I will give up on getting the one drive to run at DMA 5. It's an old computer -- but the one I use for internet browsing.

Thanks again for the effort.

 

[corkyg]

Another thought. Go into BIOS and check the drive's parameters. Most default to AUTO. You may be able to manually enter parameters that would force UDMA 5.

http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/bios/biosSettings-c.html

 

[RebateMonger]

RebateMonger
I have swapped the cable with no effect. I have the one drive jumpered to master and the other to slave. Your comment suggests they should be set to cable select. Should I make that change?

I don't know that it'll have any effect. But the whole UDMA 66 /80-conductor cable /Cable Select thing kinda' came as one big package years ago and I figured it wouldn't hurt to try Cable Select.

 

[TJCS]

Go into device manager > right-click your hard drive > choose uninstall > reboot.

After you reboot, the drive's appropriate DMA mode will be determined by the OS.

 

[wgoldfarb]

I am just grasping at straws here, but, here are my $0.02, in case none of the other suggestions work. I would try those first, though, they probably make more sense than mine

If one drive works in UDMA5, both are identical drives, and both are connected to the same cable, I would guess this is not a driver issue -- it is probably a hardware or BIOS problem. I am assuming you checked the BIOS and both drives have identical settings. So, some things I would try just to rule out possible causes:

- have you tried switching the drives on the cable? i.e. put the "slow" drive on the cable connector now used by the "fast" drive, and viceversa. if the "fast" drive continues to work at UDMA5 on its new position in the cable, and the bad drive continues to work at UDMA4, it is almost certainly an issue with the bad drive itself. If the slow drive now becomes fast and the fast drive becomes slow, it is either a problem with the cable itself or, since you already swapped cables, perhaps a problem with the connector on the MoBo.

- Have you tried disconnecting the good drive, and see if anything changes on the bad one? Perhaps try the bad drive, by itself, on both of the cable's connectors.

- Try switching master/slave settings and see if anything changes?