Slow HDD makes slow computer - I can't figure out why!

[tcrosson]

Even after a format, my relatively new P4 3.2Ghz computer just seems slow. This morning I ran HDTach and I get avg seek times of 14m/s and avg reads of 11MB/sec.

This makes sense now that I think about it, my computer has always taken 2-3 minutes to boot, HL2 and Doom3 always stutter after loading a new room/level, firefox and thunderbird also take 30sec-1min to pop up. I just assummed it was Norton AntiVirus slowing the computer down, a service or something.

The computer was freshly formated about 2 weeks ago. I have tried Intel's chipset drivers and DFI's also (which one's should I be using?). Neither seem to improve anything. Under system properties, my HDD controller is listed as an IDE controller - should it say SATA? Is there a seperate driver for my SATA controller I don't know about?

My config is as follows:

P4 3.2Ghz
1 GB Corsair RAM
DFI LanParty 865PE RevB
DeskStar 250GB SATA
Gigabyte X800 Pro
Windows XP Pro

I'd appreciate any input, thanks.

 

[meltdown75]

Do you have a lot running in the background, or a lot of services/apps starting @ startup? Seems like a long boot time to me. Mine boots in about 30 seconds. Unfortunately I have no experience with SATA drives.

 

[Uncle Bob]

SATA controllers are listed in device manager under 'SCSI and RAID Controllers', also if you expand the disk drives section, your Deskstar should be listed as a 'SCSI Disk Device'

Those HDTach figures are v.poor, could be norton AV, try running the benchmark without it. Use MSConfig to temporarily disable the service on startup (might be an idea to temporarily disconnect your internet as well while you test things)

hth

 

[montag451]

One way or another, make sure that DMA is enabled in the hdd's properties in Control Panel

 

[tcrosson]

1) There doesn't seem to be an excessive amount of services on boot up. When compared to the other XP computer in the house (which is much quicker) there's only 2 more services.

2) The only thing booting for programs are NAV and the Sound icon. Even with NAV disabled I still get 11MB/sec or less

3) The Intel SATA controller isn't listed. System Properties looks just the same way an all IDE system would. Additionally, it says DMA mode 5 is enabled.

This really upsets me - There must be something I'm missing that will make a SATA drive operate so slowly. Thanks for your help so far, keep it coming!

 

[montag451]

can you try another cable?

Also, some/most SATA drives are IDE drives that have been bridged to a SATA connection. Check there is nothing loose on the back of the drive - take it out and have a looksee

 

[tcrosson]

I tried another cable with no improvement. I took the drive out and it appears fine. There are no jumpers or anything to change or wiggle (minus the cables).

Also, I stuck an old 20GB IDE drive in my PC and installed XP on it. It worked fine and did 26MB/Sec on HDTach which is respectable for its age. I suppose I'll have to take the other comupter apart tomorrow and stick my SATA drive in there, install windows and see how it performs on a different motherboard. Unless there are any other time saving suggestions?!?!

 

[mechBgon]

Try the Hitachi Drive Fitness Test diagnostics. Hopefully they'll work through your SATA controller since it's "native" to the chipset. If the diagnostics indicate the drive is faulty, then you can RMA it

 

[tcrosson]

Excellent! I didn't know they still had utilities like that! I'll download it now and try it!

Darn, the user's guide says it doesn't support Intel SATA controllers yet. The idea is good though, maybe someone else's will.

Thanks again.