IDE controller 1 / HDD stuck in PIO mode

[Conrow]

I have 2 IDE controllers in Device Manager, one defaults to UDMA 2 mode, the other PIO. The one that's at UDMA2 lets me right click + disable, whereas the PIO mode one will not (no option). PIO mode causes ridiculous CPU usage (takes up the whole virtual thread on a HT processor when I try moving files), and it makes the PC laggy overall.

I've tried several fixes:

1.) Registry - Under HKLM/Devicemap/Scsi/Scsi Port X (where X = 0-3):

Dword DMAEnabled = 1

This keeps resetting for 2 keys - SCSI port 1 and 2.

2.) Registry - Under HKLM/System/CurrentControlSet/Services/ATAPI/Parameters/DeviceX (where X = 0-2)

Reg_SZ DMADetectionLevel = 0x2

This is left alone but does not force DMA as the number 2 should do.

3.) Registry - Under HKLM/System/CurrentControlSet/Control/Class/{4D36E96A...}/X (where X = 0000 - 0005)

Deleted: MasterIDDataCheckSum & SlaveIDDataCheckSum
Set: ResetErrorCountersOnSuccess to 1

4.) Program DMACheck.exe - This shows that there are "No IDE/ATAPI Devices detected" for Channel 0 (PIO mode) and Channel 1 is already in UDMA mode.

5.) Program PushDMA2.exe from Dell - Didn't do anything either, no useful info.


Any ideas? I get 100% CPU usage on one virtual core because of "Hardware Interrupts" due to this controller. This lags the PC like a joke and the mouse sprite will freeze in place for a few seconds making it pretty annoying to even run. When I uninstalled this driver and let it automatically reinstall, it fixed the problem halfway - Before, the system would never idle and one core would ALWAYS be at 100%, now this only happens when transferring data at full speeds (i.e. moving a 1gb file across partitions as opposed to downloading a 1gb file). It takes 13 minutes to copy a 600MB ISO file, whereas previously this was 2 minutes at most. I also reinstalled SP2, did nothing.



http://www.seagate.com/support/disc/specs/sata/st3160023as.html

This is the only hard drive using the PIO mode controller. The motherboard is a Dell DM051 (came with a 5150C), with an Intel 945G chipset. Sata controller is ICH7 (82801G I think), and it won't let me install the Matrix storage manager either, for some reason. I'd really like to know why, it tells me my system does not meet the requirements when clearly it does.

I removed the PATA drives (DVDRW and CDRW) and disabled them in the BIOS, and it left the one IDE controller in PIO mode, so I know that it's the HDD/Sata cable/Sata controller for sure. Does anyone know how to disable that stupid 6 error fallback to PIO from DMA mode? I heard there was a registry key on it but I can't find one.

Another thing, there is a 10-15 second black screen after the BIOS loads and before the WinXP splash screen comes up. This is in between the F8 menu and the splash screen. It did not happen on my XP Home edition installation, but it does now, and I think knowing what's going on here might help trace the error.

I've tried changing the power socket/cable for the SATA drive, and changing the SATA slot the HDD links to, yet it still goes to PIO mode.

Any ideas? Please help, it makes the PC almost unusable at times, and very inconvenient at all other times. Thanks in advance.

 

[John]

device manager > right clicking the controller in question > uninstall > reboot

It will rebuild and DMA should return. I'd also recommend reinstalling the latest chipset drivers.

 

[Conrow]

Hi, thanks for the reply.

In the rush to explaining some of the more complex stuff, I keep forgetting to say that I did indeed uninstall the driver, several times. It did not work.

In fact, I just tried a repair installation of Windows, this didn't work either (unsurprisingly).


As for the chipset drivers, I think this is where the problem lies. It will NOT let me install the Matrix Storage manager, giving me a "Your system does not meet the requirements" error and aborts. The readme CLEARLY states that the 945G chipset is supported. The drivers for the IDE controller and SATA controller seem to be generic although the SATA controller supposedly is using 82801G drivers.

I think this is a problem with my XP SP2 cd. When I switch user, and the switched user logs off, it will hang, which is typical of Pre-SP2 installations. Maybe it was a botched slipstreaming process or something. Does the SP2 upgrade file (266MB) contain ALL the system files that are used for an XP repair/reinstall? I could try a new ISO image of the CD with the proper SP2 files slipstreamed in, if this is the case.

Also, there are 2 extra possible fixes that I can also think of. One is flushing the NVRAM, which I don't really want to do because it's very very long. The other is changing the SATA detection properties to RAID instead of Automatic, but my BIOS warns me that this could render my OS unusable and require a reinstall.

What to do? Thanks in advance.