Why is my HDD 133 mhz the speed of HDD 33 mhz? help

[space_ship_earth]

Hi,

My sys: a7v8x, 512 ddr 333; 80 gb 133 mhz maxtor 9 with 2 mb cache;
win2k sp4; dvd rw x4; asus 4in1 drivers v. 449.

Tested hdd speed with sandra = 21 MB/s
with HD tech= max 31 MB; minimum 21 MB/s ; average 24
MB/s

Those speeds are of a 33 mhz HDD.

I've just replaced old 33 mhz hdd cable with round 133 mhz. The speed
is still so low, in fact it appears to have dropped a notch.

I don't know what to do. Reinstalled driver 4in1. Checked cable
connections.

Help

 

[space_ship_earth]

HDD tech shows cpu utilization while testing hdd of =20% . This is
more than the average of 5%. Could this have something to do with this
low speed problem?

thanks

 

[space_ship_earth]

In bios hdd is set on auto.

After disabling SMART HDD monitoring the HD Tech speed picked up a bit
(max 31 MB/s; min 2.4 MB/s; average 27 MB/s) but not the full works of
51MB/s advertised.

Is having SMART enabled an advantage?

thanks

 

[kony]

In bios hdd is set on auto.

After disabling SMART HDD monitoring the HD Tech speed picked up a bit
(max 31 MB/s; min 2.4 MB/s; average 27 MB/s) but not the full works of
51MB/s advertised.

Is having SMART enabled an advantage?

thanks

Unless your board has issues with SMART (unless you find someone
reporting that it does) leave it enabled, it is not causing the
problem.

Check Device Manager, verify that DMA is enabled.

Ignore Sandra if you expect to see the number "51MB/s", Sandra will
not give you scores that high with any single 7K2 2MB cache drive, but
it is around what you should expect to see as a max in HDTach, if
that's what you meant by "HD Tech". What was the max burst speed in
HDTach? That can be very telling, as the burst speed is an easy way
to guesstimate the ATA mode, it'll register about 85-95% of the
ATA(nnn) mode, though HDTach's scale is too short to see if it's in
ATA100 or 133 mode.

If the DMA is enabled then run the maxtor diagnostics floppy,
available for download from their website. There is (somewhere in it)
an option to check operating mode, IIRC.

 

[space_ship_earth]

Check Device Manager, verify that DMA is enabled.

CHecked device manager which states that ultra DMA is enabled. Looked
in BIOS which states that ultra DMA mode 2 is enabled. The BIOS also
shows that there are up to 6 ultra DMA modes available. Should I just
change DMA mode manually to 6?

Ignore Sandra if you expect to see the number "51MB/s", Sandra will
not give you scores that high with any single 7K2 2MB cache drive, but
it is around what you should expect to see as a max in HDTach, if
that's what you meant by "HD Tech". What was the max burst speed in
HDTach?

Burst speed in only 32 MB/s. Why so LOW!

That can be very telling, as the burst speed is an easy way
to guesstimate the ATA mode, it'll register about 85-95% of the
ATA(nnn) mode, though HDTach's scale is too short to see if it's in
ATA100 or 133 mode.

If the DMA is enabled then run the maxtor diagnostics floppy,
available for download from their website. There is (somewhere in it)
an option to check operating mode, IIRC.

THe bios tells the operating mode so no need for this test.

thanks

 

[Mike Walsh]

DMA mode 2 is 33 MB/sec, you need to use DMA mode 4 or higher.

 

[kony]

CHecked device manager which states that ultra DMA is enabled. Looked
in BIOS which states that ultra DMA mode 2 is enabled. The BIOS also
shows that there are up to 6 ultra DMA modes available. Should I just
change DMA mode manually to 6?

No, you should set it to auto. Either a setting is misconfigured, or
you have some other device on same channel causing a problem, or the
board's bios is buggy and needs upgraded... if it's a bios problem
it's significant enough that if you don't see a new bios addressing
it, and if you're sure all bios settings are correctly set to "auto",
then you might inform Asus, I'm sure they'll want to know if they
don't already. I still think it's a BIOS setting though, you might
try updating the BIOS and clearing the CMOS, see if that helps.

THe bios tells the operating mode so no need for this test.

I would suggest you take advice and run all tests possible. There is
something obvious you're missing, other people have that board running
without this problem. Are you 100% sure you have an 80-conductor
cable?

This is very easy to do, setting up a drive...

4 steps:

1) Jumper drive properly as per instruction sheet with retail drive or
on Maxtor's website.

2) plug in power and 80-conductor cable (count conductors to be sure)

3) Set BIOS to auto, boot and fdisk/format it.

4) Verify Window's Device Manager is using DMA mode for THAT drive.

 

[ChrisJ9876]

From: kony (e-mail address removed)

Date: 12/23/2003 8:49 AM Eastern Standard Time
Message-id: <[email protected]>



No, you should set it to auto. Either a setting is misconfigured, or
you have some other device on same channel causing a problem, or the
board's bios is buggy and needs upgraded... if it's a bios problem
it's significant enough that if you don't see a new bios addressing
it, and if you're sure all bios settings are correctly set to "auto",
then you might inform Asus, I'm sure they'll want to know if they
don't already. I still think it's a BIOS setting though, you might
try updating the BIOS and clearing the CMOS, see if that helps.




I would suggest you take advice and run all tests possible. There is
something obvious you're missing, other people have that board running
without this problem. Are you 100% sure you have an 80-conductor
cable?

This is very easy to do, setting up a drive...

4 steps:

1) Jumper drive properly as per instruction sheet with retail drive or
on Maxtor's website.

2) plug in power and 80-conductor cable (count conductors to be sure)

3) Set BIOS to auto, boot and fdisk/format it.

4) Verify Window's Device Manager is using DMA mode for THAT drive.

And when you verify that you have an 80 conductor cable, make sure you have the
end with the blue connector plugged into the motherboard. The reason for this
is: there is one pin that is connected to ground in the blue connector, and the
corresponding wire in the cable is cut before it gets to the other connectors.
That pin being grounded is what tells the BIOS what speed to run. If the cable
is reversed end for end, the BIOS will not see the ground.

 

[Shep©]

Hi,

My sys: a7v8x, 512 ddr 333; 80 gb 133 mhz maxtor 9 with 2 mb cache;
win2k sp4; dvd rw x4; asus 4in1 drivers v. 449.

Tested hdd speed with sandra = 21 MB/s
with HD tech= max 31 MB; minimum 21 MB/s ; average 24
MB/s

Those speeds are of a 33 mhz HDD.

I've just replaced old 33 mhz hdd cable with round 133 mhz. The speed
is still so low, in fact it appears to have dropped a notch.

I don't know what to do. Reinstalled driver 4in1. Checked cable
connections.

Help

This any good?
http://www.2e.org/dma.htm


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[space_ship_earth]

what blue end. my ata/133 cable has 3 ends. the first 2 short ones
(shortest distance between endings) have black (1st) and gray (2nd).
The long end connector (3rd) is red?

 

[Shep©]

what blue end. my ata/133 cable has 3 ends. the first 2 short ones
(shortest distance between endings) have black (1st) and gray (2nd).
The long end connector (3rd) is red?

Usually the Red to the mother board.
click here,
http://www.geocities.com/sheppola/hard.html
HTH





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[space_ship_earth]

checked rechecked, dubbed checked settings/drivers/wiring. Googled
more and apparently with some hdd's cs setting is necessary for auto
recognition with a7v8x ata/133. Did just that and its works. So glad.
Thanks, everyone for helpfully tips. Especially kony, you're the man
who's 'in depth' benchmarks (previous post) encouraged me to go on and
be active about this issue. As oppose to sitting around and blaming
problem on self. Everything is a challenge!

You claim to achieve with sandra 36 MB/s ;
With my new ultra dma mode 6 (on auto) sandra years: 35 MB/s

Could having partitioned my 80 gb in half had something to do with the
slight decrease in speed here? Or its Sandra's inaccuracy, which you
don't trust!!!

your HD TECH average 51 MB/s ; max 63MB/s.

my HD TECH average 49.3 MB/s ; max 63.9 MB/s.

and burst: 90.5 MB/s - AMAZING
--------
Another issue was the wiring of my pretty round ata/133 cable.

The first set up i did was:

having the two short ends connect. But this only made bios recognize
ultra dma 2. So connected from one end of the cable to the other (
stretching it, so to speak). This made the bios recognize ultra dma
mode 6 auto and produce such nice HD TECH bench results!

This is meritorious for me why cables connected in one way work
differently than connecting another way (both ways work but one is
significantly faster).

 

[ChrisJ9876]

Date: 12/23/2003 4:14 PM Eastern Standard Time
Message-id: <[email protected]>

what blue end. my ata/133 cable has 3 ends. the first 2 short ones
(shortest distance between endings) have black (1st) and gray (2nd).
The long end connector (3rd) is red?

Well, all the ones I've seen have a blue connector where you have a red one.
Black is for the master & grey for the slave. Maybe they put red ones on the
round cables. But reading your later post it appears that you had the cable
reversed.

 

[ChrisJ9876]

Date: 12/23/2003 5:09 PM Eastern Standard Time
Message-id: <[email protected]>

checked rechecked, dubbed checked settings/drivers/wiring. Googled
more and apparently with some hdd's cs setting is necessary for auto
recognition with a7v8x ata/133. Did just that and its works. So glad.
Thanks, everyone for helpfully tips. Especially kony, you're the man
who's 'in depth' benchmarks (previous post) encouraged me to go on and
be active about this issue. As oppose to sitting around and blaming
problem on self. Everything is a challenge!

You claim to achieve with sandra 36 MB/s ;
With my new ultra dma mode 6 (on auto) sandra years: 35 MB/s

Could having partitioned my 80 gb in half had something to do with the
slight decrease in speed here? Or its Sandra's inaccuracy, which you
don't trust!!!

your HD TECH average 51 MB/s ; max 63MB/s.

my HD TECH average 49.3 MB/s ; max 63.9 MB/s.

and burst: 90.5 MB/s - AMAZING
--------
Another issue was the wiring of my pretty round ata/133 cable.

The first set up i did was:

having the two short ends connect. But this only made bios recognize
ultra dma 2. So connected from one end of the cable to the other (
stretching it, so to speak). This made the bios recognize ultra dma
mode 6 auto and produce such nice HD TECH bench results!

This is meritorious for me why cables connected in one way work
differently than connecting another way (both ways work but one is
significantly faster).

See my earlier post regarding the grounded pin in the motherboard end of the
cable. If the BIOS does not detect the ground, it assumes a 40 conductor cable
and will run at the slower speed.

 

[~misfit~]

Well, all the ones I've seen have a blue connector where you have a
red one. Black is for the master & grey for the slave. Maybe they put
red ones on the round cables. But reading your later post it appears
that you had the cable reversed.

I've seen both blue and red (and black) on flat ATA 66/100/133 cables as
well. The rule of thumb is the coloured one goes to the mobo (or the one
that is furthest from the middle connector), the black to the master and the
grey to the slave.

 

[JT]

CHecked device manager which states that ultra DMA is enabled. Looked
in BIOS which states that ultra DMA mode 2 is enabled. The BIOS also
shows that there are up to 6 ultra DMA modes available. Should I just
change DMA mode manually to 6?



Burst speed in only 32 MB/s. Why so LOW!


THe bios tells the operating mode so no need for this test.

thanks

You have a bad, or at least non-standard round cable that is not recognized
as ata133 capable. You did plug the blue end into the motherboard, and
drive is on the other end connector isn't it? If so, then get a different
cable that you can trust. The high cpu utilization, and the DMA 2 mode
point to a cable problem

JT

 

[kony]

Well, all the ones I've seen have a blue connector where you have a red one.
Black is for the master & grey for the slave. Maybe they put red ones on the
round cables. But reading your later post it appears that you had the cable
reversed.

It's not usually on round cables either. I suspect just a proprietary
coloring, perhaps matching their choice of color for the IDE port
connectors.


Dave

 

[space_ship_earth]

lastly,

hd tech shows cpu utilization under the new ata/133 mode to be 21.3 %.
This is much higher than kony's 5% in same ata/133 mode. Does this
mean more cpu resources are eaten up while hdd is accessed?

How to reduce this high figure?

thanks

 

[kony]

lastly,

hd tech shows cpu utilization under the new ata/133 mode to be 21.3 %.
This is much higher than kony's 5% in same ata/133 mode. Does this
mean more cpu resources are eaten up while hdd is accessed?

How to reduce this high figure?

thanks

21% does sound too high, but you can't necessarily expect to match my
scores, they may be better or worse... I tested a drive with 8MB
cache, on a different chipset motherboard, likely different drives,
maybe even different operating system. I can't very well go back and
check anything at this point anyway, because the system I used for
testing was a last-minute christmas gift, is now gone... still have
the drive though. From what I recall the board was using ATA100
mode... I seem to vaguely recall some website reviews that noted
ATA133 mode does significantly increase CPU utilization, but I'm
fairly sure the boards here that do support ATA133, run in that mode
way under 21%.

It's an A7V-something-or-other, maybe A7V8X motherboard, so a Via
chipset, right?
Many Via chipset boards here, all get around that 5% except as I noted
when that Via Latency Raid/PFD patch was applied.

Try a different Via 4in1 driver version.
At 21% I'd expect it's using DMA, but if you hadn't checked/enabled
that in Device Mgr., do so.


Dave

 

[Shep©]

21% does sound too high, but you can't necessarily expect to match my
scores, they may be better or worse... I tested a drive with 8MB
cache, on a different chipset motherboard, likely different drives,
maybe even different operating system. I can't very well go back and
check anything at this point anyway, because the system I used for
testing was a last-minute christmas gift, is now gone... still have
the drive though. From what I recall the board was using ATA100
mode... I seem to vaguely recall some website reviews that noted
ATA133 mode does significantly increase CPU utilization, but I'm
fairly sure the boards here that do support ATA133, run in that mode
way under 21%.

It's an A7V-something-or-other, maybe A7V8X motherboard, so a Via
chipset, right?
Many Via chipset boards here, all get around that 5% except as I noted
when that Via Latency Raid/PFD patch was applied.

Try a different Via 4in1 driver version.
At 21% I'd expect it's using DMA, but if you hadn't checked/enabled
that in Device Mgr., do so.


Dave

Can't speak for winXP but here's my ATA 133 in win98/SE,
http://www.sheppola.karoo.net/win98133.jpg



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