Hard Drive Access Speeds

[AdenOne]

I recently revamped at computer for a friend by replacing all but the
hard drive and DVD-RW drive. It was a basic system as she does not use
much more than the internet and Word, so I chose a Celeron 420 1.6GHz
with 512MB DDR2-667 RAM and XP-Pro. Everything seemed fine until after
a week or so of using it, she told me it was very slow and laggy.

So I had a look, and the CPU was at barely 15% use during idle at the
desktop, with a fair amount of free RAM. So I ruled out the CPU or RAM
being the issue. I tested the hard drive speed on a hunch, and found
to my horror, no higher than 3,060KB\sec (3MB\sec) speed, best of 10
runs. I remember getting over 30MB\sec on my old ATA drives in the
past.

Now this is obviously the issue, the system can't get information fast
enough. The drive is a Seagate 40GB IDE PATA-100 compliant, with an 80-
wire IDE cable shared with the DVD-RW drive. The mobo has only one ATA
slot, so I had to put them both on one cable.

I have no idea why a perfectly good HDD suddenly drops to these low
speeds, any help guys?

I realize a SATA drive would solve the issue but would like to try and
fix it first.

 

[Paul]

I recently revamped at computer for a friend by replacing all but the
hard drive and DVD-RW drive. It was a basic system as she does not use
much more than the internet and Word, so I chose a Celeron 420 1.6GHz
with 512MB DDR2-667 RAM and XP-Pro. Everything seemed fine until after
a week or so of using it, she told me it was very slow and laggy.

So I had a look, and the CPU was at barely 15% use during idle at the
desktop, with a fair amount of free RAM. So I ruled out the CPU or RAM
being the issue. I tested the hard drive speed on a hunch, and found
to my horror, no higher than 3,060KB\sec (3MB\sec) speed, best of 10
runs. I remember getting over 30MB\sec on my old ATA drives in the
past.

Now this is obviously the issue, the system can't get information fast
enough. The drive is a Seagate 40GB IDE PATA-100 compliant, with an 80-
wire IDE cable shared with the DVD-RW drive. The mobo has only one ATA
slot, so I had to put them both on one cable.

I have no idea why a perfectly good HDD suddenly drops to these low
speeds, any help guys?

I realize a SATA drive would solve the issue but would like to try and
fix it first.

The transfer rate is consistent with PIO mode.

"IDE ATA and ATAPI disks use PIO mode after multiple time-out or CRC errors occur"
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;817472

See the "Workaround" section for a recipe, then test with HDTach or
HDTune.

Paul

 

[Andy]

I recently revamped at computer for a friend by replacing all but the
hard drive and DVD-RW drive. It was a basic system as she does not use
much more than the internet and Word, so I chose a Celeron 420 1.6GHz
with 512MB DDR2-667 RAM and XP-Pro. Everything seemed fine until after
a week or so of using it, she told me it was very slow and laggy.

So I had a look, and the CPU was at barely 15% use during idle at the
desktop, with a fair amount of free RAM. So I ruled out the CPU or RAM
being the issue. I tested the hard drive speed on a hunch, and found
to my horror, no higher than 3,060KB\sec (3MB\sec) speed, best of 10
runs. I remember getting over 30MB\sec on my old ATA drives in the
past.

Now this is obviously the issue, the system can't get information fast
enough. The drive is a Seagate 40GB IDE PATA-100 compliant, with an 80-
wire IDE cable shared with the DVD-RW drive. The mobo has only one ATA
slot, so I had to put them both on one cable.

I have no idea why a perfectly good HDD suddenly drops to these low
speeds, any help guys?

I realize a SATA drive would solve the issue but would like to try and
fix it first.

Check the transfer mode of the IDE interface in Device Manager.
Check Event Viewer for any errors.

 

[AdenOne]

Transfer mode is not PIO, its Ultra-DMA Mode 5, this was one of the
first things I checked but forgot to put in my original post.

 

[kony]

Transfer mode is not PIO, its Ultra-DMA Mode 5, this was one of the
first things I checked but forgot to put in my original post.

Google for "HDTach" or use your present benchmark if it
shows CPU utilization and report back on that.

What evidence do you have it's in UDMA mode 5? IMO, more
often people would refer to this as ATA100. On your
benchmark test (or HDTach if needed) does it show a burst
rate approaching 100MB/s?

Does Event Viewer show any errors?
If you consistently get 3MB/s I agree with prior posters
that it seems to be in PIO mode. You might run the HDD
manufacturer's diagnostics to check drive fitness as a 40GB
HDD that's used may be near the end of it's practial
lifespan about now, even if it's not failing yet it is
something to consider replacing as well as the other parts.

Also check Device Manager to see if the optical drive is in
PIO or DMA/ATA33(?) mode, this setting may be under IDE
controller entry instead of optical drive entry.

If all else fails unplug the optical drive and retest, and
try a different drive cable.

 

[GT]

Transfer mode is not PIO, its Ultra-DMA Mode 5, this was one of the
first things I checked but forgot to put in my original post.

Just delete the drive and controller from the device manager and reboot.
They will be re-configured when you reboot. If this doesn't work, then get
the latest drivers for your controller and install the drivers, then repeat
this process.

 

[AdenOne]

I don't have access to the PC right now, I will wait until I visit her
again.
The rate varied between 400KB\sec and 3,060KB\sec during the tests,
and the drive says Ultra DMA Mode 5 in the device manager, with the
DVD-RW drive being Ultra DMA Mode 2.

It could very well be reaching its lifetime limit, as her old PC was a
really old HP Pentium 4 'Willamette' model, I did recommend replacing
the drive but she needed a new PC for cheap and using the old HDD
saved a fair bit. I will test using HD Tach when I am next there, I
tested my two home PC's today and got 79MB\sec on the SATA2 model and
51MB\sec on the ATA-100 model, so I am now quite sure the slow drive
is her issue.

Thanks for all the help.

 

[GT]

I don't have access to the PC right now, I will wait until I visit her
again.
The rate varied between 400KB\sec and 3,060KB\sec during the tests,
and the drive says Ultra DMA Mode 5 in the device manager, with the
DVD-RW drive being Ultra DMA Mode 2.

The drive might well say that, but double click on the primary (or
secondary) controller and check the information on one of the tabs there -
it lists the master and slave devices in a table and the mode is listed for
each.

 

[AdenOne]

The drive might well say that, but double click on the primary (or

secondary) controller and check the information on one of the tabs there -
it lists the master and slave devices in a table and the mode is listed for
each.

Sorry, thats what I meant, the tab for each drive does not list
speeds, its the Primary IDE controller tab I looked at. There is only
1 controller on this board and so it has both drives on it as master-
slave with the HDD being master.

 

[GT]

Sorry, thats what I meant, the tab for each drive does not list
speeds, its the Primary IDE controller tab I looked at. There is only
1 controller on this board and so it has both drives on it as master-
slave with the HDD being master.

You might get a slight speed improvement if you split the drives over the
two channels, but we're not talking much difference - maybe a few percent.
This is something to address once you have sorted out the real problem!

 

[AdenOne]

You might get a slight speed improvement if you split the drives over the
two channels, but we're not talking much difference - maybe a few percent.
This is something to address once you have sorted out the real problem!

There is no second channel - the board is a budget Asus P5SMX-SE with
2 or 3 SATA ports but only one IDE port. So unless I get a SATA HDD, I
have to have them both on the same channel.

 

[~misfit~]

Somewhere on teh intarweb "AdenOne" typed:

I recently revamped at computer for a friend by replacing all but the
hard drive and DVD-RW drive. It was a basic system as she does not use
much more than the internet and Word, so I chose a Celeron 420 1.6GHz
with 512MB DDR2-667 RAM and XP-Pro. Everything seemed fine until after
a week or so of using it, she told me it was very slow and laggy.

So I had a look, and the CPU was at barely 15% use during idle at the

I have a Celeron 420 and XP Pro. During idle it uses between 0 and 2% of
CPU. A Celeron 420 is more powerful than the old Athlon XP3200+, it
shouldn't be using 15% of CPU idling.

It sounds to me like she's got picked up an infection or two.

 

[~misfit~]

Somewhere on teh intarweb "AdenOne" typed:

There is no second channel - the board is a budget Asus P5SMX-SE with
2 or 3 SATA ports but only one IDE port. So unless I get a SATA HDD, I
have to have them both on the same channel.

You'll have to excuse GT, he doesn't read well, you mentioned in your
original post that there was only one P-ATA controller.

As I said, the system shouldn't be using 15% CPU at idle. Something hinkey
is going on and I don't think it's confined to the HDD.

 

[AdenOne]

As I said, the system shouldn't be using 15% CPU at idle. Something hinkey

is going on and I don't think it's confined to the HDD.

She is a fan of all these weird apps like skype, some weird email
program ive never heard of, silly little gadgets like cats that sit on
the taskbar, and a system tray full of crap. I put on Avira AntiVir
(www.avira.de) as its what ive always used and never got infections
while its been running, I did a scan and nothing.. I agree 10-15%
sounds high, but remember you and I , being enthusiasts, are more
likely to keep our systems running in top form, while she would be
less likely too, so I understand that maybe the usage is a bit more
than usual. Initially I had doubts about the Celeron 420, even after
reading good reports on it, but her task monitor shows only limited
usage, even with all her crap running as well as email, MSN,
googletalk, skype, anti virus, windows defender, etc.

Could A virus be limiting the hard drive performance?

Everything was brand new, the mobo, RAM, CPU, case, PSU, only the hard
drive and DVD drive were re-used, and I did do a full format with a
new NTFS partition before installing XP.

 

[kony]

She is a fan of all these weird apps like skype, some weird email
program ive never heard of, silly little gadgets like cats that sit on
the taskbar, and a system tray full of crap. I put on Avira AntiVir
(www.avira.de) as its what ive always used and never got infections
while its been running, I did a scan and nothing.. I agree 10-15%
sounds high, but remember you and I , being enthusiasts, are more
likely to keep our systems running in top form, while she would be
less likely too, so I understand that maybe the usage is a bit more
than usual. Initially I had doubts about the Celeron 420, even after
reading good reports on it, but her task monitor shows only limited
usage, even with all her crap running as well as email, MSN,
googletalk, skype, anti virus, windows defender, etc.

The Celeron isn't the problem, though if the drive is
actually running in PIO mode instead of DMA, you would then
have peaks far above 10-15%. You ought to benchmark HDD
again and this time look at the CPU % reported, or if it
doesn't report this look in Task Manager for the figure. If
DMA is working the CPU % won't go up much but in PIO mode it
would.

Could A virus be limiting the hard drive performance?

Very unlikely. If the virus was concurrently accessing the
drive you would notice the thrashing before, during, and
after the benchmark had ended. If there were a virus
consuming all the processor's time that could be a problem
but at 15% utilization you have spare CPU time... but as
mentioned above a benchmark made while monitoring the change
in processor time used would be helpful.

Everything was brand new, the mobo, RAM, CPU, case, PSU, only the hard
drive and DVD drive were re-used, and I did do a full format with a
new NTFS partition before installing XP.

Did you try the things I'm mentioned in my last post?
Did you check the link Paul posted?

 

[AdenOne]

Did you try the things I'm mentioned in my last post?

Did you check the link Paul posted?

I haven't had a chance yet, the PC was a favor to her and work has
kept me busy. I have HDD Tach downloaded on my flash drive so next
time I am there I will check it over again. It could very well be
defaulting to PIO but not showing this in the device manager. I will
look when I am there next, and take a spare IDE drive just to test the
controller to make sure its not an issue on the board.

 

[GT]

Somewhere on teh intarweb "AdenOne" typed:

You'll have to excuse GT, he doesn't read well, you mentioned in your
original post that there was only one P-ATA controller.

As I said, the system shouldn't be using 15% CPU at idle. Something hinkey
is going on and I don't think it's confined to the HDD.

I can read just fine, but forget pretty much everything older than 5
minutes! And, what the hell is a 'hinkey'?