Msi K7T Pro2A problem resolved, but what about ATA100?!

[Bane25]

Hi all,

Thanks to the responses to my last post about crashing problems with my harddrive
on DMA mode with MSI K7T Pro2A mobo, I was able to resolve the issue. What happened
was that the 4-in-1 VIA chipset drivers that came on the motherboard CD were old and
apparently buggy. After installing a newer version of the IDE DMA driver by itself,
the Windows stopped crashing on heavy harddisk useage. Also, in Device Manager, it
finally recognized my HD, instead of just "Generic Harddisk Mode47".
By the way, the version of IDE DMA driver I installed was off of Soltek's webpage,
here's the link for people who have this problem:
http://www.soltek.com.tw/English/download/drivers.htm

Okay, so now that my harddisk and windows is running stable, I decided to test the speed
on my drive. I downloaded HD Tach and ran the benchmark.
The benchmark yielded a 12.5MS seek time with only a 66.1 burst read.
According to other posts on this board, I'm supposed to get about 77 burst read speed
if I'm truly running at ATA100.

So now I'm wondering how I can make sure the drive is running ATA100? NOTE: when booting,
it shows my drive as LBA, ATA100 mode. But the benchmark is only 66.1, so it seems to
be running ATA66 in windows?

P.S., the new IDE DMA driver also installed a IDE Tool from VIA. When I load up the
tool, it doesn't seem to find any of my drives though. It lists 0 drives for Primary
and Secondary. Is this another bug? Does this happen to anyone else?

-Bane25

 

[toph99]

i have the same problem with mine. my Maxtor is supposed to have a seek time of 9ms(i have a slower version of the drive, ATA66 in another machine and it gets 9ms) but on here i get 13. some people have speculated that there is a bug in the new South Bridge which is causing this, but thats all that i know

 

[Bane25]

toph99: I'm not talking about the seek time. I read another post and they said that
a seek time of about 12.5 is right. But notice the burst read time...it's only 66.1,
which means ATA66. It's supposed to be higher than 66 if it's running ATA100, at least
that's what I gathered. Others have used HD Tach and got about 75 to 77 burst read time.

-Bane25

 

[toph99]

sorry, i had misread your post i'm getting a burst time of about 67 or so, so i'm as confused are you are

 

[Vinny N]

The seek time is accurate.

No drive comes up with the seek time it's specified for, because that seek time spec is usually for a certain type of seek.

HDTach however, measured random access time, so you have to account for rotational latency as well as inaccuracy of the spec of the drive.

Also, the spec time will be very different if advanced sized check is not enabled when running HDTach.

As for the burst speed, what drive is this? Other people are showing bursts of 75+ with the EXACT same drive? Then I might be concerned. I wouldn't be concerned if it's labeled as ATA100, simply because it works with the interface and is for the most part just an ATA66 drive.

 

[Guilty]

It looks like you installed as Miniport. In my experience, installing the VIA IDE drivers as VxD improves performance.

 

[Bane25]

Vinny_N: I understand about the seek rate inaccuracy. I'm not concerned about that, I'm more
concerned about the burst rate speed. And yes, others with my same IBM 75GXP ATA100 drive
have gotten about 77 burst rate speed.

Guilty: Your right, I installed Miniport, because I was told that it is more stable than the
VxD. I was told that if I installed VxD, I would still have the intense harddisk useage lockup
problems. Are you running VxD and are you experiencing problems? Also, what version did you
install? I'm curious, I'd like to try reinstalling with VxD, but I fear further problems!

-Bane25

 

[Guilty]

I have a Pro2A, IBM 75GXP, ATA100 mode. Whatever version of the VIA IDE drivers come in the 4-in-1 b4.28. VxD has always been fine for me, I tried miniport, but despite the IDETool showing DMA enabled, I was getting 20% cpu utilization for HD Tach, so I went back to VxD. I have yet to experience the supposed ATA100 problems... except the "green line" on the top of the screen sometimes when Half Life refuses to close properly.

 

[Bane25]

Guilty: What do you score on HD Tach now? What seek time, burst read, and CPU usage?

Using Miniport, I got 12.5 seek, 66.1 burst read, 21.2% CPU usage.
I just uninstalled and reinstalled VxD, now I get 12.7 seek, 66.9 burst read, 7.7% CPU usage.

So CPU usage definately went down a lot, but the burst speed is still about the same.
What's up with that? Also, can you check your VIA BUS MASTERING in Device Manager?
What's the date on the driver info? Also check your Harddisk under "Drives" in Device Manager...
Is it listed as "Generic Harddisk Mode47"?

For some reason, with Miniport, the VIA BUS MASTERING was updated, and it recognized my IBM
Drive. With VxD, it doesn't recognize the IBM and Via Bus Mastering is not updated. Thanks for
your help!

-Bane25

 

[Guilty]

Seek time is 8.5ms without ASC, 12-13ms with ASC. 78MB burst, 6.x% CPU utilization.
No date available on the VIA Bus Mastering device, you can get 4-in-1 v4.28b at http://www.athlonmb.com/files/general/4in1428b.zip though. Yes the drive gets listed as "Generic Disk Type 47", it's not a big deal, thats Windows9x not VIA.

 

[Bane25]

Guilty: You see, you're still getting higher burst read than me, and you have the same Harddisk
as me. The 4in1 version I have installed right now is v4.28v, instead of 4.28b.
I'm not sure if theres any difference between them, since they both have the same RELEASE.DOC
I'm still boggled at how you and others are able to achieve ~75-77 burst read, when I can only
get 66.9max, with a 7-9% CPU usage.

By the way, the DMASet tool and the IDE Tool that come with VIA 4-in-1 drivers don't work for me.
They don't detect *any* of my harddrives. Any idea what's up with that? I reinstalled several
times, still no dice.

-Bane25

 

[Guilty]

"v4.28b" just means they're beta. Are you sure you have a ATA100 cable? Is there a second device on the channel that is ATA66? That would force both to ATA66.

 

[rbV5]

The second device will not force it to ata66

 

[Guilty]

It was my understanding that IDE channels will default to the highest mode supported by _both_ devices if they cant both do the highest mode available. Has this changed with ATA100 or was it always not true?

 

[Bane25]

Guilty: No second harddisk on the cable. Yes it's ATA100 cable, got it with the motherboard.
By the way, I hope the VxD drivers didn't just cause this problem: I just unzipped a lot of files
to test if the harddrive would still crash or not. And it made a bunch of invalid files for
some reason. I can't delete them, or rename them, or even wipe them. "File System Error"
everytime, even though I scandisk, it doesn't find any problems. WTF.

-Bane25:|

 

[Guilty]

I dont see how the VxD could cause invalid files to be created... but anyway, the files it created, what do the names look like? Have you tried DOS, safemode, or a unix root disk?

 

[Bane25]

After a while, I tried to delete the files again and for some reason it worked this
time. Oh well, I dunno what it was. Anyway, I'm running 4.28 drivers now, except
IDE Bus Master...I'm using the 3.01 drivers off of Soltek's website for that.
Still 66.9 burst read, but at least everything *seems* to be stable now.
Thanks for all your help. Maybe in the future, someone will find an answer to
all this.

-Bane25

 

[MrGrim]

From what I've understood there are two ways of installing the latest Via drivers and specificaly the BusMaster Drivers. One is as a miniport driver and the other as VxD. Could you please explain to me the procedure? What do you do differently that installs the driver are VxD?

Thanx in advance

 

[oldfart]

An ASUS CUSL2 815e with a 75GXP for comparison: Read max: 38458, min: 17159, ave: 29227, burst: 80 (at the end of the graph), CPU: 4% seek: 12.5. Is there a version of HD Tach that goes past 80 for burst?