HD Problem - not running in DMA Mode

[dmk11]

I have 2 HDs:
Maxtor 120gb 7200rpm 8mb
Maxtor 250gb 7200rpm 8mb

if I put 120gb & 250gb both in the same IDE channel (Primary), then the 250gb would be running in PIO mode and the 120gb running DMA.

But if I put one in Primary and one in Secondary IDE channels (both as Masters), they'll both be running DMA.

Can someone tell me why I can't run both HDs on the same IDE channel in DMA?

All channels are set to "DMA when available", so I don't think it's a settings issues. I'm running WinXP SP1a.

 

[AtTheGates]

I had the same problem. Turned out one of the pins on the hd had been pushed in. Pulled it into position and everything worked fine.

 

[BadThad]

What mobo? If it's an Intel system, did you try the Intel Application Accelerator?

 

[johnjkr1]

Did you try it with another cable? Did you have the proper chipset drivers installed (depending upon your motherboard)

 

[dmk11]

Originally posted by: AtTheGates
I had the same problem. Turned out one of the pins on the hd had been pushed in. Pulled it into position and everything worked fine.

Hmm..! I will definitely check this.. I"ve been working under low light conditions & never paid attention to the pins.

BadThad, I don't think Intel Application Accelerator would help, the problem is more basic than that.

johnjkr1, I don't think it's the cable because if I connect just the 250gb HD (same cable), it works in DMA mode. And it's on a Dell and I checked with my friend's computer and the driver version is ok. It's intel based motherboard, so I don't think I need to install any special drivers.

Thanks for all the suggestions, keep em coming!

 

[dmk11]

okay.. update.

I've checked both HDs, no bent pins.

I swapped the HD cable, and still the same thing

i've force one HD to be master and the other as slave (instead of CS) and the master always in DMA mode 2 and slave always in PIO mode (no matter which HD, I swap between the 2).

( What else is there to try?

 

[DanTMWTMP]

chipset drivers, and keep everything in "CS" mode.

Also, install application accellerator

 

[Turkey22]

If you can afford to have them on separate channels that would be ideal as you would notice a big difference when transferring files even if it was detecting properly. If you dont have enough room you could always look at a RAID addin card for an upgrade. Not sure if you can just use the extra channels like you can with onboard raid though.

 

[johnjkr1]

Dell ships all drives cable select, so if you bought your drives with your computer, make sure you are not mixing cable select and master/slave drive settings.

 

[dmk11]

Hmm. I checked on Dell.com and they don't have new chipset drivers (I have a 400SC). I'll search around the web now.

I'll consider a PCI IDE card, but it *should* work with just the onboard IDE - I don't think there's any technical limitation of what I'm trying to do, is there?

I had both HDs set as CS I was playing around with master/slave jumpers just to see if it would make a difference (it didn't).

 

[LTC8K6]

Is the master the first drive and the slave the second drive on the cable? Is the correct end plugged into the mobo?

DMA mode 2? That should be 4 or 5. 2 is wrong. Maybe you don't have an Ultra DMA cable 80 wires? That would limit you to mode 2, I think.

 

[dmk11]

Originally posted by: LTC8K6
Is the master the first drive and the slave the second drive on the cable? Is the correct end plugged into the mobo?

DMA mode 2? That should be 4 or 5. 2 is wrong. Maybe you don't have an Ultra DMA cable 80 wires? That would limit you to mode 2, I think.

Yes, the master is the first drive (end of cable) slave is 2nd drive (middle connector). But since I set it in CS, it should know this automatically and swap the master/slave-ness if I swap the drive.


I am using 80wire cable. I know it's not the cable because if I just have 1 drive (same cable), it's DMA mode 5.

 

[LTC8K6]

I think the master should be in the middle, which I call the first drive, and the slave should be on the end.

 

[AtTheGates]

From my experience, cable select does not work well with WD drives. Try master/slave settings.

 

[LTC8K6]

They're Maxtors.

 

[AtTheGates]

Whoops. I've been looking at 3 hd threads in a row. There getting mixed up.

 

[dmk11]

Originally posted by: LTC8K6
I think the master should be in the middle, which I call the first drive, and the slave should be on the end.

that's weird.. because I always have my HD on CS and the one at the end of the cable is always the one that WinXP boot from (aka Master).

 

[LTC8K6]

Well, you've tried everything else.

 

[huesmann]

You HAVE set the BIOS settings for DMA, haven't you?

 

[dmk11]

Originally posted by: huesmann
You HAVE set the BIOS settings for DMA, haven't you?

Hmm.. I will check. But if I don't, why would the HD run in DMA when they're 'alone' in each IDE channel?

 

[dmk11]

I got excited when I found a "knowledge base article" from Microsoft that would explain why what I experience would happen.

Essentially, WinXP would log each errored event (CRC error) that happens on a HD. It would "downgrade" the speed of the HD when there are errors.. DMA mode 5, would go to 4 -> 3, etc down to PIO mode.

Supposedly the way to fix this is by removing the Primary & Secondary IDE driver off the device control. which would "reset" this error log and start everything at DMA mode 5 again.

But of course, when I tried it, it didn't fix the problem for me.
I'm posting this in case someone else have the problem above.

 

[LTC8K6]

I just checked all 3 of my computers to make sure. In all three of them all of the slave drives are on the end of the IDE cable. The masters are on the middle connector. The blue end of the IDE cable is plugged into the mobo.

Strange that Maxtor seems to say the opposite. Oh well. Maybe it has to do with 2 hard drives versus a hard drive and an optical drive. I dunno.

 

[dmk11]

For anyone that cares, I solved the problem.

It was the motherboard chipset drivers issue. Dell doesn't "support" WinXP on the 400SC machines, so they don't have the updated driver online. But when I download it directly from Intel and installed it, the next reboot all drives were detected as DMA Mode 5.


Thanks all for the suggestions.

 

[LTC8K6]

Glad you got it going. I hate it when people don't come back and explain how they solved the problem.