Ultra DMA Mode 3.Why?

[Alon Brodski]

Hello!
Why would Windows XP show Ultra DMA Mode 3 in advanced setting of primary
IDE channel?
The drive is ATA-100 and BIOS seems to be supporting ATA-66 (on a Mo/Bo it's
written ATA-66 ready and in BIOS POST it says -LBA ATA 66 ).Obviously
80-wire cable present.
So the question is-why mode 3 and not 4? (3 is 44 MB/s,4-66 MB/s).

Thanks in advance!
Alon

 

[Robert Gault]

Hello!
Why would Windows XP show Ultra DMA Mode 3 in advanced setting of primary
IDE channel?
The drive is ATA-100 and BIOS seems to be supporting ATA-66 (on a Mo/Bo it's
written ATA-66 ready and in BIOS POST it says -LBA ATA 66 ).Obviously
80-wire cable present.
So the question is-why mode 3 and not 4? (3 is 44 MB/s,4-66 MB/s).

Thanks in advance!
Alon

Assuming the ATA-66 ready is not puffery, you may not have the needed
drivers installed. For example, my motherboard with VIA chips, needs the
VIA 4-in-one drivers installed as an interface between the BIOS and WinXP.

Have you checked that your ATAPI drivers are up to date?

 

[David Vair]

You may need to use the drive manufacture utilities to put drive at ATA-66, it could be trying to
push too much information and causing read errors and that's why windows has backed down UDMA 3.

 

[Alon Brodski]

Hey!

Thanks for quick reply!
I don't feel honestly I would feel any difference in a real life perfomance
whether it's 44 MB/s or 66,since it's just a theoretical figures,but
still...
I also have IDE HDD Block mode enabled in BIOS setup.
Also the drive is slow.It spins at 4500 rpm And the BIOS is old from the
year 2000.But still it says ATA 66 ready on a Mo-bo (chipset eve supports
ATA-100 .It's VIA Apollo Pro 133,actually.
I didn't quite understand what DRIVERS the other guy who had replied
reffered to.I have Win XP Pro SP2,so I would assume all the drivers for a
Mo/Bo and/or HDD are in it.Nor I heard that you need some extra drivers
between the BIOS and OS's.

Al

You may need to use the drive manufacture utilities to put drive at
ATA-66, it could be trying to push too much information and causing read
errors and that's why windows has backed down UDMA 3.

[/QUOTE]

 

[Jonny]

Your initial post indicated the drive was ATA100, then in your followup, you
indicated 4500 rpm. No way can such a drive move data in mode 4 speed as
throughput. Maybe buffered from the hard drive cache which seldom happens.
--
Jonny

Hey!

Thanks for quick reply!
I don't feel honestly I would feel any difference in a real life
perfomance whether it's 44 MB/s or 66,since it's just a theoretical
figures,but still...
I also have IDE HDD Block mode enabled in BIOS setup.
Also the drive is slow.It spins at 4500 rpm And the BIOS is old from
the year 2000.But still it says ATA 66 ready on a Mo-bo (chipset eve
supports ATA-100 .It's VIA Apollo Pro 133,actually.
I didn't quite understand what DRIVERS the other guy who had replied
reffered to.I have Win XP Pro SP2,so I would assume all the drivers for a
Mo/Bo and/or HDD are in it.Nor I heard that you need some extra drivers
between the BIOS and OS's.

Al

[/QUOTE]

 

[Alon Brodski]

Those are the drive's specifications
We talk about Quantum Fireball lct 20.So you can check them at maxtor.com
I was surprised myself to find out it turns so slowly,but it's quiet and
cool!
ATA-100 is what theoretically this drive is capable of.Buffer is
small,so...maybe mode 3 (44 MB/s) is even better that what one could expect
under the circumstances...
I don't complain.Just wondering.
Alon

 

[Guest]

These links may be relevant.... on your own risk, of course

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/817472/

"After the Windows IDE/ATAPI Port driver (Atapi.sys) receives a cumulative
total of six time-out or CRC errors, the driver reduces the communications
speed (the transfer mode) from the highest DMA mode to lower DMA modes in
steps. ..."

and

http://winhlp.com/WxDMA.htm

Regards,
--PA