Re: Question

On Mon, 05 Dec 2005 03:04:03 GMT, "nobody@xxxxxxxxxxx"
<mygarbage2000@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>On Sun, 04 Dec 2005 21:34:46 -0500, Tony Hill
><hilla_nospam_20@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>>On Mon, 05 Dec 2005 01:30:24 GMT, "nobody@xxxxxxxxxxx"
>><mygarbage2000@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>
>>>Something strange observed with one of my old boxes after WinXP
>>>reinstalled (clean install - partition deleted and recreated).
>>>Harddisk activities (files copied from drive to drive, or over the
>>>network) causes CPU load up to 100% sustained for the duration of
>>>activity(as per task mgr). Most of the load shows as kernel(red
>>>graph). Otherwise the system looks just fine. It's FIC VA-503+ with
>>>K6-2+ 500, 256MB of generic pc133, 2 IDE HDD 10 gig each, 3com NIC.
>>>It has the latest BIOS flashed and reset to defaults. Did I screw up
>>>something?
>>
>>It sounds to like the system is using PIO mode for disk I/O access
>>instead of DMA mode like it should be. First make sure that DMA is
>>enabled in the BIOS (it should already be if it was working before).
>>Next make sure that it is enabled in Windows:
>>
>>Device Manager -> IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers -> Primary IDE channel ->
>>Properties -> Advanced Settings
>>
>>On that screen you should see what mode the drive is set to (usually
>>either "PIO Mode" or "DMA if available", you want the latter) and what
>>the drive is actually set to.
>>
>>
>>If this option is somehow not available in the settings that it may be
>>that the drivers for your motherboard chipset are somehow not
>>installed properly. Your motherboard shouldn't need any special
>>drivers other than what is built into WinXP, but with Windows drivers
>>anything can happen.
>>
>>-------------
>>Tony Hill
>>hilla <underscore> 20 <at> yahoo <dot> ca
>
>That's what baffles me - it is set to "DMA if available" and shows
>current mode UDMA2 (this is probably the best the board can do). What
>else could be wrong?
>But thanks anyway.

What other drives do you have in the system and on what IDE channels? If
you try the VIA 4-in-1 drivers be careful to get the correct ones - some of
the latest are not recommended with older chipsets... but you *do* want to
make sure that you have the VIA GART driver installed; the "ATAPI filter
driver" is one I'd only try in dire circumstances.

So it continues to show UDMA2 as active even after a reboot? Have you
checked cables?... cheap enough to try a different one.:-) What is the HDD
mfr and its max UDMA/ATA mode? Have you tried uninstalling the IDE
controller -- probably better to do that from Safe Mode -- and letting
WinXP rediscover it?

Have you checked BIOS settings for anything that might limit things?

Have you tried running HDTACH to see what it makes of it?

There *was* a problem with some VIA South Bridges and associated BIOS way
back, where they could not arbitrate the UDMA mode down to their level with
a drive which was capable of a higher level. The solution was to get the
HDD mfr's diag/feature software and force the drive to work at the best
level the VIA chip could support, i.e. UDMA2 in this case. While you're at
it, run the HDD diags to see if anything is out of whack.

Also, get a copy of Speedfan, look at the S.M.A.R.T. data for the drive and
check for a "Value" or "Worst" which is equal to or lower than "Warn".

There's been a lot of discussion about this kind of thing in various
Forums: the MSI one has a lot of subscribers so a search there... and the
HDTACH one might have something more specific. ISTR there's a registry
setting which forces WinXP to stay in UDMA mode but IIRC the IDE Channel
properties would show as running in PIO mode when it's been degraded... not
100% sure there. Of course there's also the www.viatech.com forum.

--
Rgds, George Macdonald
.

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