My laptop computer has been really sluggish lately. I've done all the
recommended stuff like clear out the Starup list, get rid of
unnecessary services, checked for spyware a viruses, defragmented, and
nothing helps.

I suspected that the disk drive was the problem since every disk
operation seemed to take a gawdawful amount of time - booting up,
starting programs, opening documents etc. I ran a benchmark (Passmark
Performance Test) and that showed that everything was healty, but that
the disk drive was pretty low on the scale. Sequential 2.6 MB/sec,
sequential write 1.8 MB/sec. CHDKSK showed no bad sectors, and Dell's
disk diagnostic (which includes a surface scan) said the device is OK.


I poked around in the Windows Device Manager and saw that the drive
was operating in the PIO transfer mode although "DMA Mode if
available" was selected as the mode. I tried toggling the mode
selection to PIO and back (as suggested in a note on the Western
Digital web site) even rebooting in between, and that didn't change
the mode. However, running in PIO mode could definitely slow things
down.

Dell's lovely tech support is useless (I exchanged several e-mails
before I decided to try to talk to a live person). Does this sound
like a hardware failure with the drive? Is not running in DMA mode
when everything else appears to be OK a known failure mode of disk
drives? If I were to get a new drive and go through the agony
(=expense of buying software and hardware that I don't own) of cloning
the original drive to it, would this solve my problem?

I still don't wanna re-install Windows.




--
I'm really Mike Rivers )
However, until the spam goes away or Hell freezes over,
lots of IP addresses are blocked from this system. If
you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring
and reach me he double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo

"Mike Rivers" wrote in message
news:znr1115232669k@trad...

I poked around in the Windows Device Manager and saw that the drive
was operating in the PIO transfer mode although "DMA Mode if
available" was selected as the mode. I tried toggling the mode
selection to PIO and back (as suggested in a note on the Western
Digital web site) even rebooting in between, and that didn't change
the mode. However, running in PIO mode could definitely slow things
down.


Try this...
http://sniptools.com/vault/getting-b...windows-xp.htm

/Preben Friis

In article writes:

I poked around in the Windows Device Manager and saw that the drive
was operating in the PIO transfer mode although "DMA Mode if
available" was selected as the mode.

Try this...
http://sniptools.com/vault/getting-b...windows-xp.htm

Oh, ****! I'm not sure I'm smart enough to handle this. That describes
the procedure for "fixing" the CD drive, which is OK on this system. I
looked through the comments and saw that some people have fixed the
hard drive with the same problem. The easiest one was to force a CMOS
NVRAM reset and let it auto-detect the drive again, but that keystroke
combination didn't work on my computer.

There seems to be a fair amount of enthusiasm for the Intel
Application Accelerator, so I looked at that, and it's not really
clear what it is. It does appear to support my chipset (845MP/MZ as
identified by the Intel chipset identifier utility. It's kind of
scary, though. I'm afraid that if something goes wrong, I won't be
able to boot the computer at all. Since I'm going on a trip Friday, I
want the computer to work at least as well as it's working now.

On the other hand, I suspect that any "guru" I might be able to locate
to help me with it locally won't know any more about it than I do, and
when it doesn't boot, say "I re-formatted your disk and re-installed
Windows."

Gulp!

--
I'm really Mike Rivers )
However, until the spam goes away or Hell freezes over,
lots of IP addresses are blocked from this system. If
you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring
and reach me he double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo

In article znr1115248349k@trad (that's me) writes:

I poked around in the Windows Device Manager and saw that the drive
was operating in the PIO transfer mode although "DMA Mode if
available" was selected as the mode.

Apparently this is a fairly common problem, though I'm not surprised
that Dell Tech Support didn't know anything about it. Starting with
the link that Preben passed on to me, and doing some net searching
from there using some key words, I read about lots of scary solutions
involving such hari-kari as editing the registry, installing an Intel
substitute for the Microsoft IDE driver, and a few other things too
fierce to mention.

I threw caution to the wind, and decided to try the simplest and most
straightforward solution, which was to remove the driver for the IDE
port. I figured that the worst that could happen is that the computer
wouldn't boot because it didn't know what to do with the hard drive,
but (as the fix procedure said it would) Windows came through like a
champ telling me (at least twice) that it found new hardware - a disk
drive - and proceeded to install the driver for it. When I checked
after rebooting, sure enough, the drive was now running in Ultra DMA
Mode 5, and everything seems to work better, even the disk benchmark.
And I can record audio again.

Goes to show that a lot of people know enough about Windows to tell
you the most complicated ways to do things.



--
I'm really Mike Rivers )
However, until the spam goes away or Hell freezes over,
lots of IP addresses are blocked from this system. If
you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring
and reach me he double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo

In article znr1115232669k@trad, wrote:

I poked around in the Windows Device Manager and saw that the drive
was operating in the PIO transfer mode although "DMA Mode if
available" was selected as the mode. I tried toggling the mode
selection to PIO and back (as suggested in a note on the Western
Digital web site) even rebooting in between, and that didn't change
the mode. However, running in PIO mode could definitely slow things

Try booting into the bios at startup. There's usually a motherboard
setting for the hard drive mode.

Mike Rivers wrote:

starting programs, opening documents etc. I ran a benchmark (Passmark
Performance Test) and that showed that everything was healty, but that
the disk drive was pretty low on the scale. Sequential 2.6 MB/sec,
sequential write 1.8 MB/sec. CHDKSK showed no bad sectors, and Dell's
disk diagnostic (which includes a surface scan) said the device is OK.

selection to PIO and back (as suggested in a note on the Western
Digital web site) even rebooting in between, and that didn't change

I see from later comments you seem to have solved your problem but I
thought I'd pass along a bit of info.....if the hard drive is indeed a
Western Digital, you can download a small program from the Western
Digital web site that will low-level test Western Digital drives;
definitely worth the time download and make the image floppy for future
testing purposes in those "Arrrgghhhh......I think my hard drives
crashing!!!" situations. :-)

Usually just making sure you have the latest drivers will solve these
kinds of problems.

Al

On 4 May 2005 23:30:46 -0400, (Mike Rivers) wrote:


In article znr1115248349k@trad (that's me) writes:

I poked around in the Windows Device Manager and saw that the drive
was operating in the PIO transfer mode although "DMA Mode if
available" was selected as the mode.

Apparently this is a fairly common problem, though I'm not surprised
that Dell Tech Support didn't know anything about it. Starting with
the link that Preben passed on to me, and doing some net searching
from there using some key words, I read about lots of scary solutions
involving such hari-kari as editing the registry, installing an Intel
substitute for the Microsoft IDE driver, and a few other things too
fierce to mention.

I threw caution to the wind, and decided to try the simplest and most
straightforward solution, which was to remove the driver for the IDE
port. I figured that the worst that could happen is that the computer
wouldn't boot because it didn't know what to do with the hard drive,
but (as the fix procedure said it would) Windows came through like a
champ telling me (at least twice) that it found new hardware - a disk
drive - and proceeded to install the driver for it. When I checked
after rebooting, sure enough, the drive was now running in Ultra DMA
Mode 5, and everything seems to work better, even the disk benchmark.
And I can record audio again.

Goes to show that a lot of people know enough about Windows to tell
you the most complicated ways to do things.

In article writes:

Try booting into the bios at startup. There's usually a motherboard
setting for the hard drive mode.

You've obviously never booted the BIOS setup on a Dell laptop. Just
one page. The only thing you can do with the hard drive from there is
select whether it's the first boot device to look for.


--
I'm really Mike Rivers )
However, until the spam goes away or Hell freezes over,
lots of IP addresses are blocked from this system. If
you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring
and reach me he double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo

In article o1iee.1224307$6l.823253@pd7tw2no writes:

I see from later comments you seem to have solved your problem but I
thought I'd pass along a bit of info.....if the hard drive is indeed a
Western Digital, you can download a small program from the Western
Digital web site that will low-level test Western Digital drives;

It's actually a Hitachi/IBM drive. I don't know why the Dell tech
referred me to the Dell web page other than that was one where he ran
across a procedure to "unstick" the PIO mode. I'll give him credit for
looking, but no credit for understanding the actual problem.

Once I knew what to look for on the Web, it discovered that it's a
pretty common problem. Strangely, the simplest solution (the one I
tried) which should always work unless the drive is really hosed,
wasn't the most common one proposed. I guess computer people just like
to be geeks. But let me tell you - I needed a good stiff drink of
bourbon before uninstalling the IDE driver. I couldn't help but think
that without a driver the disk wouldn't be able work well enough to
find what it needs on itself. But for some reason, it worked just like
they said it would.


--
I'm really Mike Rivers )
However, until the spam goes away or Hell freezes over,
lots of IP addresses are blocked from this system. If
you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring
and reach me he double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo

In article writes:

Usually just making sure you have the latest drivers will solve these
kinds of problems.

Yeah, that's the solution from someone who has never tried to solve
the problem.

I tried "update driver" (actually thinking that perhaps it was
corrupt, not just not-the-latest since the computer has been working
fine for a few years) and all Windows would tell me was that I already
had the newest version installed and that it wasn't going to change
it. I also ran SFC to see if it would determine that the installed
driver was corrupt and replace it with a good version, but to no
avail.

So I first went to the Dell web site to see if there was a newer IDE
driver and they didn't even list the old one in the Downloads area. I
guess it's because it's Microsoft's product and not Dell's. So I went
to the Microsoft web site to try to download the WinXP IDE driver, and
I couldn't find it. I guess they figure that if you have a legitimate
Windows disk, you have the driver, and if you don't then you don't
need it. Assholes!

The closest thing I found to a "new driver" was the Intel Applications
Accelerator which apparently replaces the Windows driver. It appeared
that this was indeed compatible with my chipset and I was going to
install it, but I was hesitant. I need this computer to work, so I
didn't want to bugger it up too badly. I was afraid that if I replaced
the original driver, I might not be clever enough to put it back.



--
I'm really Mike Rivers )
However, until the spam goes away or Hell freezes over,
lots of IP addresses are blocked from this system. If
you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring
and reach me he double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo

On 5 May 2005 11:33:29 -0400, (Mike Rivers) wrote:

But let me tell you - I needed a good stiff drink of
bourbon before uninstalling the IDE driver. I couldn't help but think
that without a driver the disk wouldn't be able work well enough to
find what it needs on itself. But for some reason, it worked just like
they said it would.

Well, the hard drive has to work on boot-up, so hardware
contains enough stuff to run the thing, and software drivers
just add more stuff. Kinda like VGA video and video drivers.

But riddle me this, Batman: why can't I set the XP computer
at the day job to VGA? Other than the obvious answer (dummy).

Chris Hornbeck
"Clean, edgy, gutless, and lifeless." -Dan Kennedy

On Wed, 4 May 2005 23:15:46 +0200, "Preben Friis"
wrote:


"Mike Rivers" wrote in message
news:znr1115232669k@trad...

I poked around in the Windows Device Manager and saw that the drive
was operating in the PIO transfer mode although "DMA Mode if
available" was selected as the mode. I tried toggling the mode
selection to PIO and back (as suggested in a note on the Western
Digital web site) even rebooting in between, and that didn't change
the mode. However, running in PIO mode could definitely slow things
down.


Try this...
http://sniptools.com/vault/getting-b...windows-xp.htm

/Preben Friis

I think this was a problem my friend had recently. Windows XP switched
to PIO mode and wouldn't allow switching back to DMA mode.

It seems when the data flow on the bus is distorted (mainly due to
some poorly read CD or DVD), XP switches to PIO irreversively.

After deleting ie. uninstalling all the hard drives and optical drives
in the Device Manager and allowing the XP to reinstal theml,
everything should be fine again.

Edi Zubovic, Crikvenica, Croatia

On Thu, 05 May 2005 02:27:32 -0700, playon
wrote:

Usually just making sure you have the latest drivers will solve these
kinds of problems.

No it won't.

The mode knock-down occurs when Windows detects a certain number of
read errors from the drive. This MAY be because the drive (or its
drivers) isn't up to the job. More likely it's because something
else got in the way of the read. This is particularly likely when
using clever media-manipulation programs (as we do). Sometimes they
don't play strictly by the Windows rules in an attempt to optimise
data transfer.

It happens. Removing the IDE devices and allowing Windows to
reinstall them usually is the easiest way of fixing things.

In article znr1115232669k@trad, Mike Rivers wrote:

My laptop computer has been really sluggish lately. I've done all the
recommended stuff like clear out the Starup list, get rid of
unnecessary services, checked for spyware a viruses, defragmented, and
nothing helps.

I suspected that the disk drive was the problem since every disk
operation seemed to take a gawdawful amount of time - booting up,
starting programs, opening documents etc. I ran a benchmark (Passmark
Performance Test) and that showed that everything was healty, but that
the disk drive was pretty low on the scale. Sequential 2.6 MB/sec,
sequential write 1.8 MB/sec. CHDKSK showed no bad sectors, and Dell's
disk diagnostic (which includes a surface scan) said the device is OK.


I poked around in the Windows Device Manager and saw that the drive
was operating in the PIO transfer mode although "DMA Mode if
available" was selected as the mode. I tried toggling the mode
selection to PIO and back (as suggested in a note on the Western
Digital web site) even rebooting in between, and that didn't change
the mode. However, running in PIO mode could definitely slow things
down.

Sort of like walking through molasses on a cold day. I've had that
problem before.

Dell's lovely tech support is useless (I exchanged several e-mails
before I decided to try to talk to a live person). Does this sound
like a hardware failure with the drive? Is not running in DMA mode
when everything else appears to be OK a known failure mode of disk
drives? If I were to get a new drive and go through the agony
(=expense of buying software and hardware that I don't own) of cloning
the original drive to it, would this solve my problem?

I still don't wanna re-install Windows.

You don't need a new drive and you don't need to re-install
windows.

Go to the System Properties, Device Manager, and find the IDE
adaptor you are using. You'll notice that there is an 'uninstall'
tab.

Click it, it will ask if you want to uninstall, and go ahead.

Reboot, the system will find the hardware on boot saying it found
new hardware, and you will be back in DMA mode.

This is the only way I know of, as when it gets set to PIO it will
stay there.

How it gets there can be a temporary read problem, so the system
retries and goes to DMA.

I've seen and fixed this in Windows systems. In Unix systems you
have to reboot, but the drivers probe the HW at that point so you
don't have to do a thing there.

Removing the IDE controller is completely non-intuitive.

Bill
--
Bill Vermillion - bv @ wjv . com