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UPDATED: Help with slow computer (hard drive?) Now with HD Tach scores !!!

L

limsandy

Golden Member
Okay, so I installed Windows 2000, installed SP2, VIA 4-in-1, Detonator 23.11 and a bunch of other stuffs....... Note that I am using NTFS as the file format. Windows somehow wont let me format my Maxtor D740X 80 GB in FAT32. So, okay...... NTFS here I come. Then I just realised how slow my computer is....... It took like..... 20 minutes to install half-life, 15 minutes to update half-life and another 20 minutes to install cs. I was like...... WTF ??? My rig is AMD XP 1800+, 512MB Crucial PC2100, Epox 8KHA+, etc....... For details plz check my sig.

I suspect the problem is with my IDE. Something is wrong with my VIA Southbridge. What can I do?




[edit] I have run HD tach and I have the following results:
Maxtor D740X 80GB
Random Access Time: 14.9 ms
Read Burst Speed: 75.3 mb/s
Read speed: max = 43456 kb/s, min = 5433.0 kb/s, average = 32648.9 kb/s
CPU utilization = 13.6%

Seagate Barracuda 20GB
Random Access Time: 12.4 ms
Read Burst Speed: 36.2 mb/s
Read speed: max = 28339 kb/s, min = 18240.0 kb/s, average = 24258.0 kb/s
CPU utilization = 9.0%


I personaly think that the access time is a bit too high. I thought Maxtor D740X is supposed to have <8.9 ms access time ? Anyway, is this score normal or is it too slow?[/edit]

 


<< Okay, so I installed Windows 2000, installed SP2, VIA 4-in-1, Detonator 23.11 and a bunch of other stuffs....... Note that I am using NTFS as the file format. Windows somehow wont let me format my Maxtor D740X 80 GB in FAT32. So, okay...... NTFS here I come. Then I just realised how slow my computer is....... It took like..... 20 minutes to install half-life, 15 minutes to update half-life and another 20 minutes to install cs. I was like...... WTF ??? My rig is AMD XP 1800+, 512MB Crucial PC2100, Epox 8KHA+, etc....... For details plz check my sig.

I suspect the problem is with my IDE. Something is wrong with my VIA Southbridge. What can I do? >>



I believe that NTFS has an encoding system, which may cause your system to take longer in writing and reading. The benefit from this is that the file system is protected and secure.

-DocSmarts
 


<< Have you checked your cdrom settings for dma. Might be slow cdrom performance. >>



It's Pioneer 16/40 DVD-ROM...... for faster performance, do I turn on UDMA or do I turn it off?
 
YOu definitely want dma checked...

To see if this is a harddrive issue run some test like hdtach 2.61 of sissoft sandra harddrive benches...NTFS should not have any significant performance hit like you have mentioned...
 
Access time for the Maxtor drive seems a bit high, it should be around 13 ms (the 9 ms seek time + 4.2 ms rotationel latency), perhaps it is running with some sort of aquistic management on ?
The mininum read speed looks low as well, is the graph smooth or jagged ?

This still doesn't suggest the speed problem, I would consider the DVD-drive more likely, if DMA is off that will definetely kill performance.

NTFS does come with a small performance hit, but it's nothing you'll notice in day to day use.
 
I think he meant acoustic management and like I mentioned in the pm...run maxtors daignostic and powertools programs on the disk that came with the drive...

And find out if that is a 5400rpm drive cause that makes a difference...
 
NOt to be an arse john...I thought most of the via zealots said this latency issue had nothing to do with ide...only raid and pci controller cards...

I could be wrong but which is it?? even the average joe harddrive performance???
 


<< NOt to be an arse john...I thought most of the via zealots said this latency issue had nothing to do with ide...only raid and pci controller cards...

I could be wrong but which is it?? even the average joe harddrive performance??? >>




An arse you are 😀. The latency patch improved my IDE performance. I'm not running RAID but am using two IDE devices on the Promise IDE channel.


*editted cause someone got pissed. 🙂
 
Just do the maxblast startup software and have a Win ME start-up disk handy. When it asks you for a disk, pop in the
WinME disk and reformat under FAT32. Then install WinXP on top of it.
 


<< Listen moron...I was asking a sincere question hence the apology at the beginning...

What I have read in past articles was claims by many this was not a problem most joes would face in an onbaord ide way...

Diamond member...LOL >>



I forgot to put the smiley. 😀

Sorry 🙂
 


Thank you very much for the inputs, guys...... but all that still has not solved the problem.

CHHASmatroxuser: The graph on the HD tach is jagged, very inconsistent, somehow. I have UDMA set to auto and enabled in the control panel.
I have also installed the latest VIA latency patch and IDE tool.

If someone has experienced this before, please help me out. Again, the problem lies when I try to open a AVI file, for example, the LED light indicator of my HDD will light up solid for like 20 seconds before WMP opens up and play the movie. Same thing happens when I try to browse my folders in C: drive.

 
I checked it is definitely a 7200rpm at that model...


Here is the page to get the acoustic management program...make sure the drive's acoustioc management is off and it will be set to normal levels and give best performance...good to try...

http://www.maxtor.com/Maxtorhome.htm


I can not think of other things unless the cable is bad, ide controller has issues...

Have you tried it on a different channel??? Try it on the master and seperate it from other drives especially the other harddrive...
 
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