Can't get good IDE performance only (ATA33)

BigWoop · #1 (**permalink**) 17-06-08, 12:37 PM

My drives are only running at ATA33, when I have installed the driver from:

VIA Arena - Display Drivers

I have not yet tried the retro driver (i have an older board, soltek SL-kt600-rl), but will do so.

Any other ideas in the mean time?

Mr. Chris · #2 (**permalink**) 17-06-08, 06:29 PM

Try rolling back to the 4.56 VIA 4 in 1's. Altho VIA "recommends" these newer drivers for basically all their boards, as you have found, older boards do not necessarily like the new stuff.

Also, make sure, in Device Manager, that the Transfer Rate for the IDE drive is set to UDMA 3 or 4. Chris.

BigWoop · #3 (**permalink**) 17-06-08, 09:52 PM

It only has 4in1 4.43 drivers. I tried them but it doesn't help, what about the "VIA IDE Falcon Storage Device driver" talked about here VIA Arena - Display Drivers would that be the driver in the sub directory SATAIDE of the Hyperion package?

In device manager it will only let me select DMA if available, and it says underneath that Multi-Word DMA mode 2.

Mr. Chris · #4 (**permalink**) 18-06-08, 04:44 PM

No, the Falcon driver will not help, actually may make things worse. What speed is the drive? Is this a new install of XP? Do you have SP2? What speed does BIOS detect the drive as? Chris.

BigWoop · #5 (**permalink**) 18-06-08, 05:10 PM

As for the install of XP it's the same as in my sound driver problem you are helping me out with, i.e. XP with no Service Pack.

As far as I can remember the BIOS reports the drive as PIO 4, but I will double check that. That's just one of my drives though, I have several all of which affected by bad speeds.

PC Wizard from cpuid.com reports my drives as:

UDMA Mode max. : 6 (ATA-133)
UDMA Mode Enabled : 0 (ATA-33)

UDMA Mode max. : 5 (ATA-100)
UDMA Mode Enabled : 0 (ATA-33)

There are two other drives that I use both of which are UDMA 5 and 6, also affected by the speed problem.

EDIT:

I tried re installing these drivers after a system restore to just after installing XP, and after installing SP2. Didn't seem to help.

My BIOS itself doesn't have any mention of DMA that I can find, but under IDE devices setup it says something about "Fast Programmed I/O Mode 4", the POST screen (what I think is the POST screen anyways), says "PIO Mode 4" and "UDMA mode N/A" next to each drive, does this mean my BIOS doesn't support DMA?
Though surely if it didn't there would be no mention of DMA at all.

In device manager when I have it set to DMA if available says "Multi-Word DMA mode 2", the only other option is to set it to PIO.

These drives were working at full ATA speeds (100 and 133) on a different motherboard, with the same cables so it's not the drives or cables.

Mr. Chris · #6 (**permalink**) 19-06-08, 05:26 PM

Oh, what kind of IDE cables are you using? They must be the 80 conductor ATA 100 stuff or the drives will not be in UDMA mode.

Also, in BIOS, under Standard CMOS Features, there should be a way to set the UDMA mode, I'm sure that board supports UDMA. Try to Auto Detect the drives again.

The reason you are having the performance issues is because these drives are in PIO mode. Chris.

BigWoop · #7 (**permalink**) 20-06-08, 01:51 PM

Well like I said the same cables were giving me full UDMA speeds on a different motherboard, so they must be and I'm sure they are 80 conductor cables, the only way I can identify them though is that they are thinner than other IDE cables.

I'm sure I didn't see any options to specify UDMA, but I will check again.

EDIT: I have looked through the BIOS again and everything I can see under Standard CMOS Features > IDE Devices Config > Primary IDE Master (an example, it's the same options for all my drives):

Type Auto (can be set from 01-46, user, auto, cd/dvd, armd)
Cylinders 39237
Heads 16
Write Precompensation
Sectors 255
Max Capacity 82.0 Gb
LBA Mode On
Block Mode On
Fast Programmed I/O Modes 4 (0-5 are options)
32 bit transfer Mode On

Thats's all there is, no mention of DMA or UDMA or anything. I'll double check my cables and see if that helps.

I double checked with another cable that definately supports ata133, and it didn't change anything.

The only other options in my BIOS that pertain to hard disks are the boot device priorities and SMART settings.

I'm beggining to think the board hasn't got DMA support, though I don't see why it would mention UDMA N/A at the POST screen in that case, also I thought that maybe an updated BIOS would help, but it's proving difficult to find one, most sites are just re-directing to Soltek.de, which is dead.

BigWoop · #8 (**permalink**) 23-06-08, 10:40 PM

I managed to find cached soltek.com.tw and soltek.de pages on webarchive.com, through which I got a BIOS update and some drivers, plus the manual for my board.

One of the BIOS driver updates mentioned that IDE didn't work correctly when SATA was disabled. So I enabled SATA, even though I don't have a SATA drive, and I'm now getting the full speed potential of my IDE drives, so the board is fine in that regard and it wasn't a driver problem either.

Now I just need to work on the sound and AGP...