Planetarion Forums

Miserableman · 27 Jan 2003, 23:01

I recently bought a new motherboard, into which I plugged two hard disks - a 40GB IBM and a 40GB Western Digital. Everything works okay, except Windows insists on setting the transfer mode of the IBM disk to PIO, rather than UDMA100/133. This has the effect of pulverising my CPU whenever I try to load any programs, or play any mp3s, or do anything that involves sustained transfer from the IBM disk. BIOS is set to auto-detect everything, and reports the disk as ATA100. The WD drive works fine - it gets reported as ATA100 by the BIOS, and is set to UDMA5 in Windows. Nothing I do, however, seems to convert the IBM disk away from PIO. I tried the disk in another machine, and it was set to PIO there as well.

Now these IBM disks are prone to failures, although this one in particular has served me faultlessly for almost two years now. Could the refusal to work in UDMA mode be the first signs of Hard Disk senility?

Luckeh!!!! · 27 Jan 2003, 23:29

With respect to computers, anything is possible.

Have you tried contacting IBM? maybe this sort of thing has happened before.

Androme · 27 Jan 2003, 23:36

have you tried to change the IBM mode in Device Manager? there's an option I think under IDE section -> advanced properties -* well I know you can do this for CD drives but not sure for HDD's

perhaps you have a dodgy IDE cable?

pablissimo · 28 Jan 2003, 00:16

Quote:

Originally posted by Miserableman
I recently bought a new motherboard, into which I plugged two hard disks - a 40GB IBM and a 40GB Western Digital. Everything works okay, except Windows insists on setting the transfer mode of the IBM disk to PIO, rather than UDMA100/133. This has the effect of pulverising my CPU whenever I try to load any programs, or play any mp3s, or do anything that involves sustained transfer from the IBM disk. BIOS is set to auto-detect everything, and reports the disk as ATA100. The WD drive works fine - it gets reported as ATA100 by the BIOS, and is set to UDMA5 in Windows. Nothing I do, however, seems to convert the IBM disk away from PIO. I tried the disk in another machine, and it was set to PIO there as well.

Now these IBM disks are prone to failures, although this one in particular has served me faultlessly for almost two years now. Could the refusal to work in UDMA mode be the first signs of Hard Disk senility?

http://www.hgst.com/hdd/support/download.htm#DFT

Drive Fitness Test

Also scroll down to the Feature Tool, there's something to set UDMA modes.

Miserableman · 28 Jan 2003, 05:08

Drive Fitness Test reports that the drive is in good condition, and is capable of and running at UDMA 5. I tried resetting UDMA5 with the Feature Tool, again, no luck.

It can't be the drive, as the BIOS and every diagnostic tool I've tried reports the drive running at ATA100.
It can't be the cable, as I've tried it on different sockets and different cables.
It can't be the motherboard or something else on the PC, as it does the same on another PC.

So wtf is it >:O/ Could there be something set in the mbr or one of the partitions that gets on Windows' tits?

Miserableman · 28 Jan 2003, 11:58

Apparantly, Windows XP sets drives to PIO when it receives 6 CRC errors or timeouts from the drive. There is a noticeable 30 second delay while booting, where the computer just seems to hang - and a look in the system event log does indeed show that the drive is timing out 6 times in a row.

So if the drive is dying, why does it work in diagnostics >:O/

Luckeh!!!! · 28 Jan 2003, 12:11

Quote:

Originally posted by Miserableman
So if the drive is dying, why does it work in diagnostics >:O/

The coding and testing isn't good or extensive or detailed enough probably.

Miserableman · 28 Jan 2003, 13:16

Quote:

Originally posted by Luckeh!!!!
The coding and testing isn't good or extensive or detailed enough probably.

It spends half an hour scouring the disk surface for faults, when Windows can't even connect to the drive in UDMA mode. I'd like a new drive, even though I can't really afford one and I've just discovered that all the noise in my system was actually being produced by the Western Digital drive. I've finally attained my holy grail of a quiet PC and I have to chuck one of the quiet bits away :O/

Suckage.

pablissimo · 28 Jan 2003, 14:50

Quote:

Originally posted by Miserableman
Apparantly, Windows XP sets drives to PIO when it receives 6 CRC errors or timeouts from the drive. There is a noticeable 30 second delay while booting, where the computer just seems to hang - and a look in the system event log does indeed show that the drive is timing out 6 times in a row.

So if the drive is dying, why does it work in diagnostics >:O/

While the XP logo is on screen? I used to get that, it was caused by the drive being set as a Secondary Slave with no master. Check that your cables are connected to the right drives and that the jumpers are all set properly.

Took me ages to figure that one out when I had it.

meglamaniac · 28 Jan 2003, 15:17

Good point pab and one we all overlooked.
Do NOT, I repeat, do NOT allow the drive to chose for itself (that mode is often called CS (cable select) or AT (auto) on the jumper plate). That can cause numerous problems when drives conflict with each other etc.
Set it to MA or SL, whichever is correct. The sticker on the drive should tell you what jumper combinations you need to attain the mode - normally it's just a case of putting a jumper across MA or SL.

If you have 2 drives on the same cable set whichever is the fastest to be master.

Miserableman · 28 Jan 2003, 16:42

The problem IBM drive is set to master - the Western Digital on the same cable is set to slave. It doesn't matter where I plug the drive in, on this machine or any other - it gets detected as ATA100 in BIOS and set to PIO in Windows. I'm suspecting the drive, but as my friend who works in the HD department of IBM says, you can count the number of non-mechanical HD failures in your lifetime on the fingers of one hand that's been stuck in a blender.

pablissimo · 28 Jan 2003, 17:11

Quote:

Originally posted by Miserableman
The problem IBM drive is set to master - the Western Digital on the same cable is set to slave. It doesn't matter where I plug the drive in, on this machine or any other - it gets detected as ATA100 in BIOS and set to PIO in Windows. I'm suspecting the drive, but as my friend who works in the HD department of IBM says, you can count the number of non-mechanical HD failures in your lifetime on the fingers of one hand that's been stuck in a blender.

What happens if you entirely disconnect the WD drive, just making sure that the IBM drive is connected the the right part of the cable. Though I forget if it's the grey one or the blue one or the black one which goes where.

Miserableman · 28 Jan 2003, 19:58

Quote:

Originally posted by pablissimo
What happens if you entirely disconnect the WD drive, just making sure that the IBM drive is connected the the right part of the cable. Though I forget if it's the grey one or the blue one or the black one which goes where.

PI-PI-PIO! PIO! PIO!

pablissimo · 28 Jan 2003, 20:00

Quote:

Originally posted by Miserableman
PI-PI-PIO! PIO! PIO!

Hmmm

Right, I'm down to 3 suggestions:

1) Windows reinstall with both drives connected
2) Windows reinstall with only one drive connected, see if it works, add the other
3) RMA the bastarding thing and hope there's a firmware problem

Other than that, I be bollocksed =/

Androme · 28 Jan 2003, 20:48

forget what anyone else is saying then Mis - just go resell it on to someone who doesn't know that much about tech and get yourself a new hdd (transfering files across b4 hand) - you'll be fine \0/