Why is my hard drive so slow? Part 2. *** FIXED!!! Finally! ***

[BigToque]

In my Windows 2000 system, my Maxtor drive which is capable of UDMA 33, is seemingly stuck in PIO mode and is VERY VERY SLOW. I get Access Times of roughly 20ms, transfer speeds of roughly 3 mbits (4mb burst speed) and CPU Utilization of roughly 85%.

Just last night, I stuck the drive in my second machine which is running Windows 98. The drive was fast again. Access Times of roughly 12-15ms, transfer speeds of roughly 18 mbits (25mb burst speed) and CPU Utilization of roughly 5%.

From this, I know my drive is physically fine. Every option in my bios (I have an Abit BX6 R2) for devices on IDE 0 and IDE 1 are set to "Auto", so my bios options should be correct.

When I get into windows and check the DMA properties, the drive transfer mode is set to "DMA if available", and since my drive can use DMA, I would think that the drive would use DMA mode. Unfortunately, the drive is set as PIO mode and nothing I've done has been able to change it.

I've tried a bunch of new IDE cables (Some ATA-33 and some ATA-66) to no avail.

I'm totally at a loss. I've re-installed Windows 2000 a couple of times and this drive will just not get out of PIO mode.

There has to be something that someone here knows that could help me...

 

[Gunbuster]

Is something else using a dma such as a sound card?

 

[BigToque]

When looking at the devices using DMA in the System Information application, I see this:

Channel 2 -- Standard floppy disk controller -- OK
Channel 4 -- Direct memory access controller -- OK

and thats it. I had my printer on Channel 3, but I changed it from ECP mode to EPP and now Channel 3 is free, and my drive is still in PIO mode.

 

[BigToque]

come on, I know there are thousands of smart people here, somebody must have an answer.

 

[ArchAngel777]

Dude you really need to provide more info if you wan't help. Here are some thoughts

1. Windows2K does not have a correct drivers for your motherboard. Go download a better one.

2. Download SP2, that may contain a fix for it. It sounds like you are using a BX motherboard, but maybe its a different variation, so go to www.intel.com and get a driver from there. Also search Google too see if there is a fix. www.google.com that is by far the best search engine I have used.

 

[ArchAngel777]

A few other things include using a different IDE cable, or useing the secondary IDE controller, too see if your IDE controllers are bad. It is common for an IDE cable to go BAD.

 

[Pariah]

When you boot, does the BIOS chart that briefly pops up detect the drive as UDMA something, or PIO4? Check your IDE controller in device manager and make sure it says "Standard Dual Channel PCI Controller."

 

[BigToque]

ArchAngel777,

What other information would you like?

Hardware in my system:

Full Tower Case w/ 250w Power Supply
Abit BX6 Revision 2 Intel 440BX Motherboard
Intel Celeron 300A @ 337 MHz
160MB PC100 3-3-3 SDRAM
13.0 GB Maxtor 5400RPM UDMA-33 Hard Drive
Pioneer 104s 10x Slot Load DVD
4x/2x/8x Mitsumi CD-RW
Panasonic 1.44MB Floppy Drive
ATI Xpert @ Play 98 2x AGP
Creative Labs Voodoo² 8MB PCI
Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live! X-Gamer
3Com EtherLink XL 10/100 PCI TX NIC (3C905B-TX)
LANcity LCPET-3 Cable Modem

I've tried 6 different IDE cables (3 ATA-33 and 3 ATA-66). On the seconday channel, my DVD drive is running in Ultra DMA mode and my CDRW is running in PIO mode. (I set it to PIO mode cause cloneCD doesnt work if DMA is enabled).

I've tried looking for updated drivers. I even posted a thread looking for new drivers. I checked Intels site but didnt find anything. (I didnt look too long cause I went to bed - I'll check again now)

I dont feel like installing a beta service pack.

Pariah,

In both my systems, the drive is seen as an ATA-33 drive. In the device manager my ide controller is called this:

Intel(r) 82371AB/EB PCI Bus Master IDE Controller

I can install some new drivers found in the same .INF file called:

Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller

This driver is from Microsoft.

 

[ArchAngel777]

Clock your celly down to 300mhz, running that weird bus speed might be effecing the IDE controller

 

[BigToque]

ArchAngel777,

It is at 300, I just forgot to change it (made my own OEM.INI file ). I had it at 337 for like 1 day then decided I'd take a 37 mhz hit just so I wasnt on an odd bus speed.

 

[Pariah]

Yes Stefan, the MS one is the one you want to use.

 

[BigToque]

Alright, I changed to the Microsoft driver, and its still in PIO mode.

 

[Pariah]

do you have service pack 1 installed?

 

[BigToque]

yes i do.

 

[ArchAngel777]

Install SP2... like I said above... see if that works.

 

[gerbz]

Both devices on an ide cable must have dma enabled, or at least set to auto in the bios - (let Win2000 disable it.)
Go into your mobo bios,set all your drives to auto on your first page as well as in your ide page. Enable both drive's dma in win2000.
(I have no trouble running CloneCD on my dma enabled Mitsumi 4801TE.)

If that doesn't get it, try this:

enabling dma

good luck

 

[BigToque]

I finally got it fixed. I booted into safe mode, deleted the hard disk, the ide controller, the primary channel and the secondary channel.

I rebooted and let windows detect the devices again, and now everything is working again! I dont know why any of my multiple re-installs of windows did not fix it, but deleting them and re-detecting the devices seemed to work.

My OLD HD Tach Score

My NEW HD Tach Score

My NEW SiSoft Sandra 2001 Score

Thanks everyone who tried to help. Unfortunately it took a month and a desperate idea to get the answer.