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Thread: Slow uncached HD speed

  1. #1
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    Slow uncached HD speed

    I have a Western Digital 30 gig, ata 100 had on a msi k7t pro 2a motherboard. When I run pc pit stop test I get a slow uncached memory speed of 1.73mbs which is roughly 46% of what it should be. What do I need to check or do to speed it back up?? I used to run fine but then I formatted hard drive & reloaded everything.

    Mike

  2. #2
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    if you reinstalled windows, you may need to reenable DMA in the HDD settings within "Device mananger", under the "sytem" icon in Control Panel. Before you reformatted/reinstalled, did the drive perform better with PC Pitstop?

    dos7

  3. #3
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    Thanks. That fixed it & it's now running at 150% of what it's supposed to. I didn't know I had to enable the DMA. I didn't before.

    Mike

  4. #4
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    no worries mate seems it doesn't matter if one is running a PIO 4 17mbps or an ultra DMA 33/66/100,,Win98 will still disable the DMA access for any EIDE devices, any,,zip drives,cd roms. Did you receive that HDD with your computer new? or did you install it yourself using any setup prog from WD when you installed it the first time?

    dos7

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    Dos7
    My WD 30gig ATA 100 is running on the Promise Controller on my A7V mobo and most HD tests seem to show it is running at normal speed but there is no setting for DMA in Device Manager for it. My other 2 WD 6 and 8 gig drives do have the DMA ckeck box.
    Should my ATA 100 drive have a DMA check box or is this not needed on a Promise Controller
    If it is needed, why isn't the DMA box showing up and how do I enable it?
    Thanks.

  6. #6
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    I installed in in a new system. Didn't use the installation disk. My bios detected it correctly & right away.

  7. #7
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    im not sure lancelot, im not familiar with the promise controller,,i know that win98, in most cases that i have seen after a fresh install of it,,will leave the DMA box unchecked,, and later you must check this box and then reboot to use it. I suspect that if the option is not there that might have something to do with bios.the reason microsoft did this was because DMA could cause problems with hardware/software and they didn't want their brand new OS crashing on install or first boots, but that fact that you dont have the option seems to me it's ENABLED by default with your setup,,but i dont know im not really sure honestly, does your ata100 seem to perform slowly?

    dos7

  8. #8
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    i think it's because when you originally installed your HDD,,windows98 was already installed, and win98 allows access to DMA, but because you reformatted and reinstalled,,windows disabled the DMA access by default i suppose, sort of a safety feature in case something is screwy.

    only if win98 is already installed , will DMA be enabled by default upon installing any EIDE devices.

    dos7

  9. #9
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    Lancelot2 -most likely because Windows sees the Promise controler as a SCSI controler.

  10. #10
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    CMonster + Dos7
    Yes, Win98 does see the Promise controller as SCSI but I still wonder whether DMA can still be enabled somewhere, or is it Automatically enabled when seen as SCSI.
    And yes, my drive is working much faster than the other 2 but this could be mainly cause it is 7200RPM compared to 5400RPM.

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