Maxtor DMA Problems

[Brett Simmers]

I have a new Maxtor 7Y250P0 (250gb, 7200rpm, 8mb cache) and I can't get DMA to
work with my IDE controller. My IDE controller is an ALi M5229 ATA 133, and
I've found multiple websites that say it supports LBA48 in DMA mode. However,
when I connect the drive to it, Windows (XP SP1) device manager says it's
running in PIO mode. It's also quite obvious from using the computer that it's
running in PIO mode; the mouse freezes during disk access, Winamp skips if I
access other files while it's playing. I have a 120gb Western Digital drive
that is running as slave in UDMA mode 5 on the same cable and channel, but the
Maxtor will only run in PIO mode. The Maxtor did come with a PCI IDE controller
card that works with it in UDMA mode, but I'd like to avoid using it. I have
the most recent BIOS and IDE controller drivers, anyone have any more ideas?

Brett Simmers
(e-mail address removed)

 

[Rod Speed]

I have a new Maxtor 7Y250P0 (250gb, 7200rpm, 8mb cache)
and I can't get DMA to work with my IDE controller. My IDE
controller is an ALi M5229 ATA 133, and I've found multiple
websites that say it supports LBA48 in DMA mode. However,
when I connect the drive to it, Windows (XP SP1) device
manager says it's running in PIO mode.

The NT/2K/XP family disable DMA if it sees too high an error rate.
That may not be with that particular drive, it may have been disabled
because of the higher than acceptible error rate seen with a different
drive or ribbon cable thats since been swapped out etc.

It's also quite obvious from using the computer that it's running
in PIO mode; the mouse freezes during disk access, Winamp
skips if I access other files while it's playing. I have a 120gb
Western Digital drive that is running as slave in UDMA mode 5
on the same cable and channel, but the Maxtor will only run in
PIO mode. The Maxtor did come with a PCI IDE controller
card that works with it in UDMA mode, but I'd like to avoid
using it. I have the most recent BIOS and IDE controller
drivers, anyone have any more ideas?

Try deleting the IDE controller in the device manager
and rebooting. That should reset the PIO flag.
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;817472&product=winxp

If its still run in PIO mode, check the logs and see
what it says about errors with that drive in DMA mode.

 

[Brett Simmers]

The NT/2K/XP family disable DMA if it sees too high an error rate.
That may not be with that particular drive, it may have been disabled
because of the higher than acceptible error rate seen with a different
drive or ribbon cable thats since been swapped out etc.




Try deleting the IDE controller in the device manager
and rebooting. That should reset the PIO flag.
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;817472&product=winxp

If its still run in PIO mode, check the logs and see
what it says about errors with that drive in DMA mode.

I tried the things you suggested but I couldn't get it working. The disk is too
slow in PIO mode, so I'm using the controller card that came with the disk for
now. This brings me to the next problem, which is why I was hoping to avoid
using the controller card. If I have Winamp playing some music and I click on a
folder in explorer, the music will skip. It also skips with any disk intensive
activity, which doesn't happen with my WD drive connected to my ALi controller
(more on that later). If I increase the buffer length it doesn't skip, but
that's not really fixing the problem, just masking it. The same thing happens if
I'm playing music from my secondary drive and browsing it. It's a Western
Digital 120gb, 7200rpm, 8mb cache, same as my Maxtor except for the size. If I
connect the WD to my ALi IDE controller and boot off of it (I have XP installed
on each drive) it doesn't skip, with the same buffer length and settings in the
same version of Winamp, so I'm positive it's the controller causing the problem.
I've tried enabling and disabling the two SCSI options (tagged queueing and
synchronous transfers) for each drive in device manager, but nothing helps.
Anyone have any ideas?

Brett Simmers
(e-mail address removed)

 

[Rod Speed]

Rod Speed wrote

I tried the things you suggested but I couldn't get it working.

Then you either didnt do it properly or there is a real
problem with the error rate being too high and thats why
DMA is disabled. What does the system log say about it ?

The disk is too slow in PIO mode, so I'm using the
controller card that came with the disk for now.

You should be working out why DMA is being disabled.

This brings me to the next problem, which is why I was hoping to avoid
using the controller card. If I have Winamp playing some music and I click on a
folder in explorer, the music will skip. It also skips with any disk intensive
activity, which doesn't happen with my WD drive connected to my ALi controller
(more on that later). If I increase the buffer length it doesn't skip, but
that's not really fixing the problem, just masking it. The same thing happens if
I'm playing music from my secondary drive and browsing it. It's a Western
Digital 120gb, 7200rpm, 8mb cache, same as my Maxtor except for the size. If I
connect the WD to my ALi IDE controller and boot off of it (I have XP installed
on each drive) it doesn't skip, with the same buffer length and settings in the
same version of Winamp, so I'm positive it's the controller causing the problem.
I've tried enabling and disabling the two SCSI options (tagged queueing and
synchronous transfers) for each drive in device manager, but nothing helps.
Anyone have any ideas?

Thats all kludging around the real problem.

Fix the real problem, DMA not being used.

 

[Rusty]

Thats all kludging around the real problem.

Fix the real problem, DMA not being used.

Go into the registry and search for the following settings (I can't remember
the path offhand):-

Master(or Slave as the case may be)Device TimingModeAllowed and change to
ffffffff (ie 8 x f)
Delete the key Master(or Slave)DeviceTimingMode

And then reboot

Make sure that you make the changes on the correct ide channel.

Jmho
Rusty

 

[Brett Simmers]

Go into the registry and search for the following settings (I can't remember
the path offhand):-

Master(or Slave as the case may be)Device TimingModeAllowed and change to
ffffffff (ie 8 x f)
Delete the key Master(or Slave)DeviceTimingMode

And then reboot

Make sure that you make the changes on the correct ide channel.

Jmho
Rusty

I tried that, but it still doesn't go into DMA. After rebooting, windows
changes the MasterDviceTimingModeAllowed value to 1f and it creates
MasterDeviceTimingMode with a value of 10. I looked in the system logs, and
there are 5 errors that say "The device, \Device\Ide\IdePort0, did not respond
within the timeout period." These are spaced 10 seconds apart, and right after
the last one, there's another error that says "The driver detected a controller
error on \Device\Ide\IdePort0." These errors show up every time I reboot,
independent of whether I modified those values. Any more ideas?

Brett

 

[Rusty]

I tried that, but it still doesn't go into DMA. After rebooting, windows
changes the MasterDviceTimingModeAllowed value to 1f and it creates
MasterDeviceTimingMode with a value of 10. I looked in the system logs, and
there are 5 errors that say "The device, \Device\Ide\IdePort0, did not respond
within the timeout period." These are spaced 10 seconds apart, and right after
the last one, there's another error that says "The driver detected a controller
error on \Device\Ide\IdePort0." These errors show up every time I reboot,
independent of whether I modified those values. Any more ideas?

Brett

Whew, sorry to hear you are having such hassles.

Try modifying the values:-

Set MasterDeviceTimingModeAllowed to ffffffff
Set MasterDeviceTimingMode to 2010 (UDMA Mode 2)

This is a slow DMA mode; see if it will accept that.

Rusty