Windows 2000 and Ultra DMA

[andyf]

Greetings...

I have an AMD Duron 1200 on an ABIT KT7-RAID motherboard. I'm running Windows 2000 Pro. I recently put in a new disk, a 120gb Maxtor UDMA-66 drive.

The problem I now have is Windows will, over some time (about 20 last time it happened), reset the Primary IDE channel FROM Ultra DMA mode TO PIO mode. This causes a pretty nasty hit in performance and CPU usage on disk - rebooting fixes it, and I can then enjoy another 20~ hours of the PC working fine.

Why is it resetting to PIO mode? I didn't think it was possible for it to change on the fly! I've installed Service Pack 3, the latest VIA 4-in-one drivers, but still no help..
I also checked the registry as advised by a friend for a key - EnableUDMA66 somewhere in there - put that in, still no effect.

Anyone know what is doing this? What's the fix!

 

[LiLithTecH]

You need to check what HAL your PC installed.
It requires ACPI mode to properly make use of UDMA.

First, in the BIOS, Enter Power Management. You will have several
choices of power management. Set the power management to "ACPI."
Do not set it to "None" or "ACPI/APM".

Second, in Device Manager, click the + sign next to "Computer" and you should see
"Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) PC." If it is set to "Standard PC"
your will need to do the following:

Re-install Win2k over itself to use its ACPI HAL. To do this you will need to use the
Win2k CD and use the UPGRADE option.
Note that the REPAIR option does NOT work in this particular case
(going from a "Standard PC" [non-ACPI] to an "ACPI Compliant PC".)

 

[andyf]

Originally posted by: LiLithTecH
You need to check what HAL your PC installed.
It requires ACPI mode to properly make use of UDMA.
First, in the BIOS, Enter Power Management. You will have several
choices of power management. Set the power management to "ACPI."
Do not set it to "None" or "ACPI/APM".

First question: why is ACPI needed for UDMA?

Ok in the BIOS under Power Management there is nothing immediately obvious pointing to ACPI or selection of it.
There is an option for ACPI Suspend Type which is set to S1(POS) - the other choice is S3(STR).
PM Control by APM is set to Yes
Under the power management subselections, Power Management is set to User Define. The other choices are min saving/max saving.
Below that are options for HDD Power Down (disable), Doze mode (disable), suspend mode (disable) - are these to be changed?

Second, in Device Manager, click the + sign next to "Computer" and you should see
"Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) PC." If it is set to "Standard PC"
your will need to do the following:

All I can see is the Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) PC - nothing under it, bringing up the properties didn't show anything (setting device manager to show hidden devices didn't change anything here).
I can't see anything else in there saying Standard PC, so I assume this part is ok.

Re-install Win2k over itself to use its ACPI HAL. To do this you will need to use the
Win2k CD and use the UPGRADE option.
Note that the REPAIR option does NOT work in this particular case
(going from a "Standard PC" [non-ACPI] to an "ACPI Compliant PC".)

I wonder if reinstalling anyway might sort this out.. it's a bit of a time-consuming option but I may have no other choice..

 

[LiLithTecH]

First question: why is ACPI needed for UDMA?

ACPI is needed to support PCI Bus IRQ Steering.
Windows dynamically assigns IRQs to PCI devices when enabled.

You may want to try Disabling APM in the BIOS and let Windows and let
Windows handle the Power Management.

To read more about ACPI & APM, try ANANDTECH wonderful FAQ's located here:
APM vs ACPI

 

[ScrapSilicon]

interesting bit on Win2k

 

[andyf]

Ugh can't believe I didn't notice this earlier ... too much time with Windows 98 I guess...

After fiddling about with Power Management for ever and still not getting it sorted, I loaded up the Event Viewer for an unrelated issue.

Then I noticed it.

Source: Disk
The Driver detected a controller error on \Device\Harddisk0\DR0

Source: atapi
A parity error was detected on \\Device\Ide\IdePort0

Gah! Is my Maxtor DMA66 disk having some issues then... time to look for a software update, maybe a newer bios Flash perhaps.

LiLithTech: thanks for the help on the power management - can't believe I overlooked event viewer.