V Slow Hard Drives

[Stuart Gibson]

I just checked the speed of my 2 x Maxtor 200Gb 7,200rpm DiamondMax Plus 9
drives in XP Pro and it is reported as UDMA-2 !! These drives are supposed
to be UDMA-5 capable aren't they ?

In the bios, all the drive settings were on auto, but the manual selections
only go up to UDMA-2.

WTF is going on here ? My 2 year old Abit ST6 mobo goes up to UDMA-5, so why
can't I set it on my new P4C800-Ed ?

There is no mention in the bios updates of providing faster udma settings (I
haven't flashed the latest one yet).

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Stu.

 

[Ben Pope]

I just checked the speed of my 2 x Maxtor 200Gb 7,200rpm DiamondMax Plus 9
drives in XP Pro and it is reported as UDMA-2 !! These drives are
supposed to be UDMA-5 capable aren't they ?

In the bios, all the drive settings were on auto, but the manual
selections only go up to UDMA-2.

WTF is going on here ? My 2 year old Abit ST6 mobo goes up to UDMA-5, so
why can't I set it on my new P4C800-Ed ?

I'm assuming you are using 80connector cables?

Latest chipset drivers?

Ben

 

[Stuart Gibson]

I've got 80core cables on every drive in the box.

Isn't the usual place for these settings in the bios, which even on 'auto'
should enable UDMA-5 ?

Which chipset drivers do you mean ?

Stu.

 

[Ben Pope]

I've got 80core cables on every drive in the box.

Isn't the usual place for these settings in the bios, which even on 'auto'
should enable UDMA-5 ?

Usually the BIOS would enable the highest possible mode.

Which chipset drivers do you mean ?

Well, you have an Intel chipset, maybe you don't need to download drivers
for the IDE, but I'd grab this to check:

ftp://aiedownload.intel.com/df-support/6934/eng/infinst_enu.exe

Also, if they are hanging off of another ATA controller, grab those drivers.

Ben

 

[We Live For The One We Die For The One]

Did you run HDTACH 3.0 to confirm they are running at UDMA 2 ?

 

[Paul]

I just checked the speed of my 2 x Maxtor 200Gb 7,200rpm DiamondMax Plus 9
drives in XP Pro and it is reported as UDMA-2 !! These drives are supposed
to be UDMA-5 capable aren't they ?

In the bios, all the drive settings were on auto, but the manual selections
only go up to UDMA-2.

WTF is going on here ? My 2 year old Abit ST6 mobo goes up to UDMA-5, so why
can't I set it on my new P4C800-Ed ?

There is no mention in the bios updates of providing faster udma settings (I
haven't flashed the latest one yet).

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Stu.

BIOS settings:

"Onboard IDE Operate Mode" [Enhanced]
"IDE Port Settings" [S-ATA]

For WinXP, give that a try. There is info on this
in the manual. The manual recommends sticking with
those settings for WinXP.

HTH,
Paul

 

[Stuart Gibson]

HDTACH tells me that I'm getting ATA100 speed (97.5mbps burst) which is
UDMA-4.

One thing that I have tried is switching off the acoustic management as I
know that will have a performance hit, but the maxtor software can't find my
drives!!!

 

[Stuart Gibson]

Tried that. It makes no difference.

I've just flashed the bios to 1016, and now there are no manual dma settings
at all in the menus, so I can't even force any dma settings.

I just checked the speed of my 2 x Maxtor 200Gb 7,200rpm DiamondMax Plus 9
drives in XP Pro and it is reported as UDMA-2 !! These drives are supposed
to be UDMA-5 capable aren't they ?

In the bios, all the drive settings were on auto, but the manual selections
only go up to UDMA-2.

WTF is going on here ? My 2 year old Abit ST6 mobo goes up to UDMA-5, so why
can't I set it on my new P4C800-Ed ?

There is no mention in the bios updates of providing faster udma settings (I
haven't flashed the latest one yet).

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Stu.

BIOS settings:

"Onboard IDE Operate Mode" [Enhanced]
"IDE Port Settings" [S-ATA]

For WinXP, give that a try. There is info on this
in the manual. The manual recommends sticking with
those settings for WinXP.

HTH,
Paul

 

[Robert Hancock]

The BIOS settings in all likelihood won't affect Windows at all anyway. Are
you sure you're using 80-conductor cables?

 

[Stuart Gibson]

Robert,

They are definitely 80core cables. They are the ASUS ones that came with the
mobo.

I read somewhere that if both drives are running on the same data cable,
they should both have their jumpers set to 'cable select' in order for them
to work properly. I've checked them both and they are jumpered for 'cable
select'.

I've been thinking of getting a couple of those Serial ATA adapters. From
what I've heard, they should let me get the max out the drives.

Stu.

 

[bill]

Have you tried using a dma change utility form Maxtor to change
the udma on the drives?

< http://www.maxtor.com/portal/site/m...channelpath=/en_us/Support/Software Downloads >

Mind the wrap.

Bill

 

[Dr Teeth]

One thing that I have tried is switching off the acoustic management as I
know that will have a performance hit, but the maxtor software can't find my
drives!!!

That will not change the UDMA settings. You can use IBM/Hitachi
software to turn off the acoustic management of non-IBM/Hitachi
drives...give it a go.

Cheers,

Guy

** I may not be perfect, but I'm
** English, and that's the next best thing!

 

[Dr Teeth]

I read somewhere that if both drives are running on the same data cable,
they should both have their jumpers set to 'cable select' in order for them
to work properly. I've checked them both and they are jumpered for 'cable
select'.

No. IIRC, you need a special cable for cable select. I could be
mistaken. Set the master for master and the slave as slave...that's
the way to do it.

Cheers,

Guy

** I may not be perfect, but I'm
** English, and that's the next best thing!

 

[Paul]

Tried that. It makes no difference.

I've just flashed the bios to 1016, and now there are no manual dma settings
at all in the menus, so I can't even force any dma settings.

Something else you might want to consider, is WinXP can "dial back"
the transfer rate, if it encounters errors in communicating with the
drive. I didn't remember any of the details, but found a thread here:

http://www.videohelp.com/forum/archive/t160637.html

"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E96A-E32
5-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
The Default Value should be "IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers"
Go to "0001" key if your device is on Primary IDE Chanel or "0002"
if your device is on Secondary IDE channel and change the
MasterDeviceTimingModeAllowed or SlaveDeviceTimingModeAllowed
to 0xffffffff depending if your device is master or slave
close registry editor. Go to device manager select
"IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers" and the corresponding IDE chanel
go to "Advanced Settings" Tab and Set Transfer Mode to PIO and
then to DMA if available again. That's should do it."

HTH,
Paul

 

[Dr Teeth]

They are definitely 80core cables. They are the ASUS ones that came with the
mobo.

If they are round IDE cables, that couple be the problem. Round cables
are not part of the IDE spec and cause reduced performance due to
interference.

Cheers,

Guy

** I may not be perfect, but I'm
** English, and that's the next best thing!

 

[Stuart Gibson]

Nope. These are normal -flat- ribbon cable type cables.

 

[RD]

Hi Guy,

No. IIRC, you need a special cable for cable select. I could be
mistaken. Set the master for master and the slave as slave...that's
the way to do it.

Nope standard 80way eide cable supports cable select Just
the drives need to be jumpered for it. Some udma 133 raid cards
will only work with cs jumpered on the drives.

Cheers,
RD

 

[Stuart Gibson]

I got hold of the Hitachi drive management software and disabled the
Acoustic Management on both drives.

Sisoft Sandra now says they are running on UDMA-5 and so does XP Device
Manager.

I guess that solves the problem. (and the drives aren't any louder than they
were before!!)


Many thanks for all your suggestions.

Stu.