MSI K7N420 Pro and 40GB WD drive

[Qacer]

Hey all,

I hope everyone had an ejoyable holiday. I have computer from our school organization that has the following: K7N420 Pro MSI motherboard (ver1.00) and a Western Digital 40GB hard drive (WD400BB).

According to MSI's website (http://www.msi.com.tw/program/...mbd_detail.php?UID=10), the motherboard has a built-in ATA100 controller. Also, the Western Digital drive is characterized as supporting the following modes:

Mode 5 Ultra ATA 100.0 MB/s
Mode 4 Ultra ATA 66.6 MB/s
Mode 2 Ultra ATA 33.3 MB/s
Mode 4 PIO 16.6 MB/s
Mode 2 multi-word DMA 16.6 MB/s

My problem is that the hard drive is currently running in PIO mode. SiSoft Sandra reports that it has a drive index of 3293 KB/s. This is considerably slow compared to the other drives on the list. I am using an ultra ATA cable. My system is a Win XP Pro (SP2) with 256mb. I am using the integrated video of the mainboard.

Right now, the connections are at its bare minimum. I took out the addition peripherals such as the zip drive.

How can I get the drive to work at its optimal potential?

I have already checked the BIOS and the settings have it all on AUTO detect for UDMA and PIO.

Any tips?

Thank you!

 

[LTC8K6]

Windows XP drops IDE controllers into PIO mode if it detects too many errors. To reset this, uninstall the controller from device manager, and let XP redetect it. If this keeps happening, you will have to look into finding the problem. Maybe a new cable?

 

[Qacer]

Thanks a lot for the tip, LTC8K6!! That really helped. Now Win XP reports it is operating in UDMA 5. Nice!

😀

 

[LTC8K6]

Good. Now keep an eye on it to see if it happens again.