Lu.Pi. said:
Il 13/01/2010 9.31, Paul ha scritto:
I am sorry but I did not understand this part of your answer, the words
PIO, DMA and what is the solution.
Thank you again for your help.
regards
Luca
The gentleman was using HDTune to benchmark the disk drive inside
his laptop.
http://img245.imageshack.us/img245/5991/hdtunenn0.jpg
You can get HDTune here.
http://www.hdtune.com/files/hdtune_255.exe
When you run it, the result should be a curve with a high transfer rate.
http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/710m_hdtune.JPG
The difference between PIO and DMA is
1) PIO stands for "polled transfer". Your processor moves each byte,
by reading the disk interface, and then placing the result into memory.
By doing so, perhaps 4MB/sec is the rate that the disk transfers take
place, which is relatively slow. It might take a long time for programs
to start, if PIO was being used.
2) DMA transfer is "direct memory access". In that case, the disk interface
pushed the read data into memory itself. The processor just watches
what is going on, and doesn't have to do the transfers itself. It means
the processor can be more responsive to other activities on the computer.
On IDE disks (the kind with the ribbon cable), DMA modes can operate
at up to 133MB/sec. The disk drive itself, can only achieve 60-90MB/sec,
due to the limitations of the platter. If you're using DMA, the hard
drive may be operating 15 times faster than PIO mode.
You can also check for DMA versus PIO mode, by looking at the entries in
Device Manager.
If your disk is in PIO mode (4-5MB/sec), there is a section here that describes how
to fix it. As long as there isn't a hardware limitation (BIOS setting or
hardware issue), this "workaround" procedure should work.
"IDE ATA and ATAPI disks use PIO mode after multiple time-out or CRC errors occur"
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/817472
"To re-enable the typical, or faster, transfer mode for an affected device:
1. Double-click Administrative Tools, and then click Computer Management.
2. Click System Tools, and then click Device Manager.
3. Expand the IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers node.
4. Double-click the controller for which you want to restore the typical DMA transfer mode.
5. Click the Driver tab.
6. Click Uninstall.
7. When the process completes, restart your computer. When Windows restarts,
the hard disk controller is re-enumerated and the transfer mode is reset
to the default value for each device that is connected to the controller."
That procedure assumes the setting of "DMA, if available" is being used. After
doing that, and rebooting the computer, run HDTune again and check the results.
HTH,
Paul
