Just can't get DMA enabled :(

SantaHoe

Wrecking my head....
I got an IDE Quantum Fireball LM plus (30 gig) about a 18 months ago, and haven't been able to get it running in DMA-66 at all.
I've only really noticed it since installing win2k/xp since their PIO mode seems to be a lot slower than whatever Win98 does with non-DMA enabled drives.
The drive/mobo is fully capable of running at DMA-66, the POST screen even displays it as DMA-66 when booting, but when I boot into windows it's always using PIO mode (2k/xp) or the DMA checkbox stays un-checked (win9x).
Disk reads are crawling along at about ~2mb/sec, and the whole system locks up for a second when the disk is being accessed.

I had a read of the Via forums, and a lot of people are having problems enabling DMA in 2k/xp, I've tried most of the suggestions there, (new drivers, registry hacks etc) but to no avail.
Last night I installed the drive on another machine with an Ali chipset, and although the DMA checkbox stayed checked, the drive performance was still utter poo... so I'm still undecided wether it's the harddrive acting up or the chipset, or something completely different.

I've got the correct 40pin/80conductor IDE cable, using cable-select etc.etc...
Flashed to the latest BIOS, installed the most recent 4-in-1's ... I even tried Quantums drive util to drop the drive spec down to DMA-33 ... again, no joy.

Right about now, I'm considering buying a PCI card IDE controller or getting a new harddrive.
Any suggestions people?
[Me --> wits end]

---

Mobo: QDI Kinetiz 7b
CPU: Duron 800 (8x100/non-oc'ed)

Stephen

Have you tried setting up a normal master/slave configuration rather than using cable select?

I had a similar problem with a DVD drive recently, but not with a via board. (intel chipset here) - DVD playback was utterly sh1te in PIO mode, with the cpu use so high that my machine wasn't fast enough to decode the dvd video (P3 866 w/256mb ram)

I got some ata controller drivers from Intel for win2k, installed them, rebooted (twice) and now I have perfect DVD playback using udma.

SantaHoe

I've tried every HD jumper configuration under the sun, and Via's drivers either have no effect or cause my system to lock up while loading windows.
I'm never buying a Via chipset mobo again. :E

_CreeD_

I've used VIA based mobos for my last 3, and they've all been fine, it's not a generic problem.
If you've tried Sp2/Via 4in1 drivers, in a dif system, drive on it's own as master etc. Then maybe the drive itself is just buggered. Even in PIO mode you should get at least 10-16mb/s sustained. UDMA provides for greater bandwidth between the drive buffer and the system, and less CPU usage but it doesn't affect the basic speed of the spindles themselves.

po0k

I have a UDMA66 maxtor, a 33 maxtor and a Plextor 1610 drive.

When I first installed the plextor it was in slave mode to an AOpen 1640 DVD drive which fully supported UDMA33.

The Plextor came with a jumper, whcih, when placed over the relevant two pins on the back, enabled UDMA33 support.

The drive ran beautifully for a few weeks, though different firmwares (two about) and then in teh same week I installed Win2k (fresh - 1 partition), swapped the plextor to master on the cable with e DVD as slave and upgraded the firmware to 1.04

I have not been able to get UDMA working since. When I enable it (Under win2k it says 'DMA if available' - which one would think if it can't do DMA it'll use PIO - but no) it locks up after accessing a disc or constantly spins up and spins down and it's really wrecking my head now.

I'm using an AOpen AX6BC 440BX mobo, supports UDMA33 max.
I don't think there are any new drivers for it

Anyone have any similar probs?

po0k

I'm just after thinking, I did a mod on my cables to make them rounded, could that affect it?

the 80-pin IDEs are just like the 40-pins except they have 40 extra grounded wires to strop siganl cross-over.

SantaHoe

Originally posted by _CreeD_
I've used VIA based mobos for my last 3, and they've all been fine, it's not a generic problem.

There's a whole forum of people who'd disagree with ya there.
Anyway, I've just reinstalled win2k, and the dev manager says it's running in 'Ultra DMA mode' - yet I suspect it's still using PIO mode since CPU usage is still spiking with disk activity and disk transfers are a complete joke.
Hmm, perhaps it is the disk 0_o
:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

po0k

Just by chance I checked tonight after plugging my logi Dual optical mouse into th USB port. It seems my Pleccy has decided after all to work at DMA as opposed to PIO (It was only ever meant to work at DMA-2 (smae speed just much lower CPU usage during transfers)).
This is with the jumper-hack left off and firmware 1.04, drive set as slave to a true UDMA33.

So, SantaHoe, I'd suggest getting any firmware updates/BIOS utils and having a poke about your drives. Could be an incompatibility between the drive and the controller, stranger thingsare known to happen

SantaHoe

Originally posted by SyxPak
So, SantaHoe, I'd suggest getting any firmware updates/BIOS utils and having a poke about your drives. Could be an incompatibility between the drive and the controller, stranger thingsare known to happen

Yeah, I've flashed my BIOS to the latest rev... as I do every other month.
The sad thing about having a Quantum drive is that since Maxtor aquired their HD dept, nothing really gets updated in terms of Quantum utils or help docs
Of late, I've been poking around with various BIOS settings in the hope that something will magically happen... but noOOOooo!
Another thing I was thinking of, is that I brought the HD back with me from Canada... could have been damaged in transit or the drive electronics somehow got b0rked by the airport baggage scanners.
I've managed to completely fcuk up three seperate OS installs with dodgy experimental Via drivers in the past few days... and I'm just after finishing installing Win2k again. :rolleyes:
So I've just about given up on new IDE drivers and reg tweaks.

The truth is out there Mulder...