What is wrong with my SATA drive?

[bab53c]

Hello all,

I recently replaced my system's IDE hard drive with a new Western
Digital SATA 3.0 g/b drive from newegg. I then did a clean install of
XP Pro.

Everything is working fine, however this SATA drive is MUCH slower then
my previous IDE (7200 rpm) drive which makes me think something is
either wrong with it or my motherboard's SATA controller.

The Windows loading screen used to take about 10 seconds with my IDE
drive - with the SATA drive it takes around 40. Large games that used
to take five minutes or so to install are now taking 20 - 30 minutes.

I've also checked using the Windows Task Manager that whenever one of
these heavy hard disk usage things is going on the CPU usage goes to
100%. No abormal processes running, Windows says it is System Idle that
is using it.

Any ideas what would cause this? Is it most likely the drive or the
controller? Other then the crappy speeds my system is working great.

I also should point out that my motherboard does not support SATA 3.0
g/b drives and I had to put a jumper on the drive to bump it down to
1.5 g/bs so the BIOS would recognize it.

My system:

-Windows XP Professional w/ SP2 & all updates
-AMD 64 3400+
-1.5 GB DDR-3200 RAM (1.0 GB & 512MB)
-Radeon X800 Pro 256MB AGP Video
-MSI MS-6741 (K8MV Series) Motherboard w/ latest BIOS

thanks,
Ed

 

[Larry Roberts]

Hello all,

I recently replaced my system's IDE hard drive with a new Western
Digital SATA 3.0 g/b drive from newegg. I then did a clean install of
XP Pro.

Everything is working fine, however this SATA drive is MUCH slower then
my previous IDE (7200 rpm) drive which makes me think something is
either wrong with it or my motherboard's SATA controller.

The Windows loading screen used to take about 10 seconds with my IDE
drive - with the SATA drive it takes around 40. Large games that used
to take five minutes or so to install are now taking 20 - 30 minutes.

I've also checked using the Windows Task Manager that whenever one of
these heavy hard disk usage things is going on the CPU usage goes to
100%. No abormal processes running, Windows says it is System Idle that
is using it.

Any ideas what would cause this? Is it most likely the drive or the
controller? Other then the crappy speeds my system is working great.

I also should point out that my motherboard does not support SATA 3.0
g/b drives and I had to put a jumper on the drive to bump it down to
1.5 g/bs so the BIOS would recognize it.

My system:

-Windows XP Professional w/ SP2 & all updates
-AMD 64 3400+
-1.5 GB DDR-3200 RAM (1.0 GB & 512MB)
-Radeon X800 Pro 256MB AGP Video
-MSI MS-6741 (K8MV Series) Motherboard w/ latest BIOS

thanks,
Ed

Did you install your mainboard's chipset drivers?

 

[bab53c]

Yes, I ran MSI's live update to make sure I had the latest ones. Still
no luck.

 

[Kent_Diego]

Yes, I ran MSI's live update to make sure I had the latest ones. Still

no luck.

It has got to be a driver issue. Is there a jumper on hard driver or setting
in BIOS that will make it ATA 150? Try disabling IDE controller or plugging
drive in different port. Try deleting SATA controller in Hardware Manager
and letting the PnP load new driver. Write back if fixed.

 

[johns]

Check your BIOS and turn anything about RAID off.
Also, make sure you don't have a CD-rom drive on
the first ide port.

johns

 

[bab53c]

Tried removing all the devices. Then removed the IDE cable for my
DVD-drive and disabled everything related to IDE in the bios. Still no
luck.

The only option for RAID in my BIOS is if you want RAID or SATA - which
is set to SATA.

One interesting thing I noted is that when the system starts up it
reports the SATA drive an IDE Hard Disk. However, just bellow this
another line shows it as SATA.

 

[Michael Hawes]

Tried removing all the devices. Then removed the IDE cable for my
DVD-drive and disabled everything related to IDE in the bios. Still no
luck.

The only option for RAID in my BIOS is if you want RAID or SATA - which
is set to SATA.

One interesting thing I noted is that when the system starts up it
reports the SATA drive an IDE Hard Disk. However, just bellow this
another line shows it as SATA.

What are you trying to do? Have you tried booting from Windows CD and
installing?
Mike.

 

[-]

Hello all,

I recently replaced my system's IDE hard drive with a new Western
Digital SATA 3.0 g/b drive from newegg. I then did a clean install of
XP Pro.

Everything is working fine, however this SATA drive is MUCH slower then
my previous IDE (7200 rpm) drive which makes me think something is
either wrong with it or my motherboard's SATA controller.
...
-MSI MS-6741 (K8MV Series) Motherboard w/ latest BIOS

thanks,
Ed

I take it that's a via chipset motherboard ? I've read a lot of
complaints about SATA2 drives and VIA SATA1 controllers. I recall
seeing something on a website to just use SATA1 drives on those VIA
SATA1 motherboards.

If you contact MSI support I'll bet they'll tell you it won't work.

 

[bab53c]

Yes the chipset is VIA 8237.

-Edward

I take it that's a via chipset motherboard ? I've read a lot of
complaints about SATA2 drives and VIA SATA1 controllers. I recall
seeing something on a website to just use SATA1 drives on those VIA
SATA1 motherboards.

If you contact MSI support I'll bet they'll tell you it won't work.

 

[bab53c]

Well I've solved the problem. Seems to be have been an out of date or
missing driver for the SATA controller. I found it on Jetway's site for
the same chipset. Installed and now the drive is flying faster then my
old IDE.

http://www.jetway.com.tw/evisn/download/driver/index-1.htm if anyone
else has this problem in the future.

-Ed

 

[-]

Well I've solved the problem. Seems to be have been an out of date or
missing driver for the SATA controller. I found it on Jetway's site for
the same chipset. Installed and now the drive is flying faster then my
old IDE.

http://www.jetway.com.tw/evisn/download/driver/index-1.htm if anyone
else has this problem in the future.

-Ed

Good work.

Here's some info from Western Digital's idea of website support

I love the "if it STILL won't work..."

Their idea of backwards compatible leaves a lot to the imagination.


"Second Generation Serial ATA hard drives are not detected when
connected to a VIA or SIS Serial ATA controller. These First
Generation Serial ATA controllers include the following chipsets:
VT8237

VT8237R

VT6420

VT6421L


SIS760

SIS964

Cause:
Our Second Generation Serial ATA hard drives use autospeed
negotiation. This enables our Second Generation Serial ATA hard
drives to automatically detect the motherboard data transfer rate,
making it backward compatible with First Generation Serial ATA data
transfer rates. However, because this technology is so new, some
older First Generation Serial ATA controllers are unable to support
autospeed negotiation and cannot recognize the drive. This “drive
not detected” condition occurs when a chipset is incapable of
correctly negotiating the data transfer speed with a Second
Generation Serial ATA hard drive.

Resolution:
You can purchase and install a third party PCI or PCI-Express Second
Generation Serial ATA controller card for your Serial ATA hard
drive(s).


To lock the drive at 150 MB/s data transfer rate, install a jumper
shunt on pins OPT1, shown in the picture below.


If the OPT1 jumper setting does not resolve the issue, please
contact Western Digital Support for further troubleshooting."