PIO vs UDMA

[crazyhandpuppet]

You may be thinking to yourself, "Hey, I remember these problems when XP first came out and MS fixed it with a SP or hotfix" or "Yeah, I've had to fix that in the past. All I've had to do is ...xyz". Well, this one is a bit more of a ah heck.

First, a little back story:
For those of you that don't know, MS had a (relatively) BIG problem when XP first came out with it reducing the performance of HDD's by switching it down from UDMA mode down to PIO mode in steps after 6 somewhat consecutive CRC errors. Originally there was a registry hack to fix it. Then the MS hotfix was, essentially, the registry hack people had been using all along. The most common fix for it now is to uninstall/reinstall the IDE Channel. That normally fixes it. It's worked for me in the past on many machines. But as is always the case, it didn't work on my own.

That's when I start to get serious...

First I check:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\HARDWARE\DEVICEMAP\Scsi\Scsi Port 0(1,2,etc...)\DMAEnabled
It should be set to 1 to enable DMA, but it is set to 0. So I manually set it to 1. This enables DMA on the drive. (Anyone know what 3 means? 0=off, 1=on, 3=?)

Then I go to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}\0001(2,3,etc...)\MasterDeviceTimingModeAllowed
I change it to "ffffffff" to set it up to Ultra DMA Mode 6. (I should have probably changed it to 5, but I dont know the Hex code for it. The drive can handle 6, but I think the board is limited to 5)

Next I go to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}\0001(2,3,etc...)\MasterDeviceTimingMode
I also change it to "ffffffff" to set it up to Ultra DMA Mode 6. (Again, I should have probably changed it to 5, but I dont know the Hex code for it)

Lastly I go to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}\0001(2,3,etc...)\ResetErrorCountersOnSucces
I set it to 1 so that it will reset the CRC counter after each successful Disk access.

Once it is all set Device Manager shows it as a UDMA-6 drive (Yeah!) but still slow (BOO!). So I think to myself, "Maybe it needs to reboot to actually load the drive into the correct mode." I reboot and what happens? All the settings are back where I started.

Last resort? RE-FORMAT!!! Since it's a new installation all I lose is a few hours time. Unfortunately, it didn't work. I then tried it on another laptop (the direct Compaq equivalent-literally the same insides) and it didn't work.

So, my brand new HDD is very slow and steals 100% of my CPU cycles when transferring files.

Can someone help? I'd like to be able to start using the machine again. I'm leaving on vacation

Thanks.

The laptop is a HP NX9010

 

[RebateMonger]

Make sure you are working on the correct IDE channel (the one with the hard drive attached). I'm not saying that you are on the wrong channel, but if you are changing the wrong channel....

 

[crazyhandpuppet]

There are only 2 drives, the HDD and the DVD. The DVD is showing UMDA-2 I think. The HDD is showing PIO. I've checked and I'm working on the correct drive.

 

[Denithor]

More stuff to try to fix your problem.

 

[n7]

Originally posted by: Denithor
More stuff to try to fix your problem.

I've successfully used that vbs one many times.

But i'd suggest running the HDD manufacturer's diagnostic tool on the drive...it might be failing.

 

[crazyhandpuppet]

Denithor,
I've tried everything on that page, including the script. The script says it made the changes and to reboot. It has no effect.

n7,
I ran the short test without any problems. The long test is saying it'll take another 10 hours. Nothing I can do but wait.

At this point all signs I see say HDD problems, but the full format found no issues and the short test found no issues. What if the extended 10 hour test finds no issues? Any other pieces of software? I know HD-Tune has a test built in. How do I read the SMART Status Codes it shows me?

 

[crazyhandpuppet]

Denithor,

Just to be clear: I'd tried everything on the page, but not in the replies. As I was scrolling through (envious of everyone who had found the miraculous solution to their problems) I noticed toward the end someone make mention of the ALI M5229 controller. I thought to myself "Hey, that sounds familiar!". So I looked and Behold!, so was mine. An update to the driver and things are on the up. HDTune is showing
Min - .1MB/s
Max - 45.8MB/s
Avg - 33.5MB/s
Access Time - 29.5 MB/s
Burst Rate - 27.8MB/s
CPU 16.5%

It drops off at 85% from 28MB/s to 4MB/s.

I'll keep looking into it...

Edit: Come to think of it, isn't 85% of 160GB about= 137GB - Isn't that a lmitation of HDDs? It shows 149GB in My Computer.

 

[Denithor]

As long as you're running XP SP2 the 137GB limit is not an issue (with bare or SP1 you are limited in hdd format size to 137GB). If you've got 149GB in Windows that means you're already past that problem.

Just to clarify, you are seeing PIO mode on a completely fresh install? And performing another clean install (with full wipe) didn't switch it to DMA mode? Sounds like a driver-level issue for sure (if Windows doesn't recognize the IDE controller it may clock it down to make sure things function correctly - slowly, but correctly).

 

[crazyhandpuppet]

It seems to be working better with the new ULI driver. Unfortunately, it drops severely at about 85% which is about 137GB. I figured it had to be more than coincidence. An updated driver didn't help. I noticed a vague reference on a Linux system with this chipset that information past 137GB is addressed in PIO mode while the rest of the drive is accessed in UDMA. That may seem to be the case I'm at currently. The drive is very quick until I hit that 137GB mark. Well, I'm assuming it is the 137GB mark. It doesn't actually say at what specific percentage or what specific block.

And yes. It is PIO mode on a completely fresh install. Even with the wipe. A full scan (15-hrs...shudder...) shows no problems. The drive seems mighty fine...except for that last bit of information. I do have another 75GB to go before I get there, though...

 

[Nothinman]

Did you check the eventlogs to see if there's anything saying why Windows dropped back to PIO?