329 MB installed in three hours!!

[John T]

I am trying to install an electronic edition of Britannica. Previously, it
took about 10 minutes, using 2 CDs on XP Pro

I did a major upgrade for but did not replace my DVD, CD, Power Supply, or
Floppy.

My board is an Intel DG33FB
My chip is an Intel Core 2 Dual (e4500)
I have 2 GB DDR 667
and one mal-partitioned SATA drive. The Vista portion has 167 GB

Today, it took aver three hours to copy merely 329 MB of data onto the other
partition using my HP 940i DVD writer. the program was not even half done,
BTW I got several gray-out screens in the process. I could not do any other
work because the darn machine hung.

I contacted HP and they blamed Microsoft, of course. They have no firmware
updated for the writer.

Any suggestions?

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

You need to use an 80-wire, 40-pin IDE cable with Vista. The 80-wire cables
reduce the crosstalk between the 40 active wires. The 40-wire cables were
only effective in the days of much slower systems. Such an older cable
would indeed give the effect you are describing.

 

[Bob Knowlden]

What version of Britannica are you trying to install?

I believe that Britannica 2008 is the first version that supports Vista. I
have no idea what the problem might be with the older versions, but it
wouldn't surprise me if the installer was broken. (I vaguely recall that the
installer didn't run all that smoothly under XP for B. 2007.)

One option would be to get the newer version. Britannica is having their
spring sale:

http://store.britannica.com/jump.jsp?itemID=686&itemType=CATEGORY&path=1,3,151

The Ultimate DVD 2008 version is approx. $25, + $5 S&H. Use the promotion
code SPRSE36. (I doubt that it would be personal to me.)

I have it installed on Vista Home Premium X64. It appears to mostly work,
although the multimedia stuff (QuickTime) doesn't launch quite as it should.

HTH.


Return address scrambled. Replace nkbob with bobkn.

 

[Bob Knowlden]

I see that I neglected to mention that the sale runs through 15 May, 2008.

 

[Dwarf]

Hi John,

It sounds as though you have other problems with your machine. I agree with
Colin in that if you do use PATA drives, you are better off using the
80-wire, 40-pin IDE cables as opposed to the 40-wire versions. It sounds as
though your initial installation of Vista was far from smooth. Reboot your
machine and check the settings in your BIOS (refer to the manual for details
on accessing this routine). In particular, check the data transfer mode for
your optical drive(s). It sounds as though this could be set to PIO mode,
which is an extremely slow mode that can hog system resources. This should be
set to its highest available setting, typically UDMA. I would advise that you
reinstalled Vista (make sure that you have the correct storage adapter driver
available) and that you have just 1 partition on your hard drive. You can
still use multiple partitions on hard drives if you so wish, but modern
filing systems are able to use larger disks more effectively so this isn't
really necessary on modern systems. Older filing systems could, up to certain
limitations, access large disks. However, the larger the disk, the larger the
sector block size. Each sector is typically 512 bytes long, and multiple
sectors make up a block. Each file occupies at least 1 block, whether that
file be a few bytes in size or a few kilobytes or more. In order to reduce
wasted space, older systems typically used partitioned hard drives.
Dwarf

 

[John T]

YOU GUYS NAILED IT!!

Thanks for the advise; I used the 40 wire cable. When i connected a 80 wire
ribbon, the problem disappeared.

Now I have to get a longer ribbon so that I can have both the CD ROM and the
DVD writer working as they did on the other board.

I do have the latest version to Britannica, the 2008 version. thanks for the
offer, but because I already had another version of Britannica that would not
work on Vista, they gave me a very good deal on a new copy

 

[Dwarf]

Hi John,

Pleased to see that you have solved your problem. However, be aware that the
maximum length (according to the official standard) for 80-conductor PATA
cables is 18 inches (45 cm) from end to end. There are cables which exceed
this length available, but they may or may not work as intended. My advice,
therefore, is to stick with cables of the recommended specification. If you
wish, you can also use rounded cables. These cables generally employ the
'twisted pair' technique, where a data line is paired up, and twisted
together with, one of the grounding wires. Although these cables are the same
length as the conventional flat ones, they are easier to install and can, in
some cases, be used in systems where the conventional flat type doesn't
appear to be long enough.
Dwarf

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

They also allow better airflow and assist in cooling the system.

 

[Dwarf]

Thanks Colin. I forgot to mention that.
Dwarf