Hello:

I have the following equipment:

- Windows XP SP3
- Intel Pentium Dual Core 2.2 Ghz processor
- 2 GB RAM
- Foxconn G31MV-K motherboard
- 1 HP CD Writer
- 1 HP DVD Writer
- 1 seagate 80 GB IDE HDD
- 1 WD WD5000AACS 500GB SATA HDD
- 1 Manhattan Ultra ATA/133 Controller PCI Card to connect my 80GB IDE HDD.

I used to have WD 500 GB IDE HDD but changed it for the SATA one I just mentioned above.

A fresh Windows XP was installed in the new SATA HDD.

Now the Windows XP is very very slow. I can hear the disk spinning and spinning even when executing basic commands.

The Windows XP startup is also very very slow. The disk spins and spins before it stops and Windows XP is finally loaded.

I thought that this new SATA HDD was going to be faster or at least with the same performance as my old IDE.

Took off the seagate 80 GB IDE HDD and the Ultra ATA/133 Controller PCI Card for testing purposes and no change.

Installed and executed TuneUp Utilities 2009, no change.

Western Digital diagnostic tool tests all passed.

Executed Uniblue DriverScanner 2009 and all drives are up to date.

These are the BIOS setting options for SATA:

**On-Chip Serial ATA Setting**
► SATA Controller
[Disabled] : Disable SATA Controller. Only 2 IDE drives are available at PATA port.
[Combined Mode] : SATA drives are acting as legacy IDE devices. Maximum there are four
IDE drives. Two SATA drives are displayed as IDE Channel 0 Master/
Slave and two PATA drives are displayed as IDE Channel 1 Master/Slave
in "System Information" menu.
[Enhanced Mode] : Maximum of 4 IDE drives are supported. Two PATA drives are displayed as
IDE Channel 0 Master/Slave, and two SATA drives are displayed as IDE
Channel 2 Master/Slave in "System Information" menu.
[SATA Only] : Two SATA drives are displayed as IDE Channel 0 Master/Slave in "System
Information" menu.
► SATA Port Speed Settings
When SATA is operating in [Enhanced Mode], you can select its speed to [Disabled], [Force
GEN I] or [Force GEN II]. [Force GEN II] can get the best performance.

Current settings are "Enhance Mode" and "Disabled". Already changed to "Force GEN II" but didn't notice any difference.

Under IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers on Windows XP I have the following:

Intel(R) 82801G (ICH7 Family) Ultra ATA Storage Controllers - 27DF
Intel(R) 82801GB/GR/GH (ICH7 Family) Serial ATA Storage Controllers - 27C0
Primary IDE Channel
Primary IDE Channel
Secondary IDE Channel

Thanks and any help is greatly appreciated,
Roberto

Often what happens in this scenario is the drive switches to PIO mode.
Just go back to system devices\hardware and take out the primary or secondary or both and then restart the computer. With luck it should force the Ultra dma mode.

ok, I removed both primary and secondary channels, did a restart and nothing, same issue with hard disk (spins and spins).

These are the IDE channel configurations on Windows XP:

Primary IDE Channel:

Advanced Settings
------------------
Device 0

Device Type:Auto Detection
Transfer Mode:DMA is available
Current Transfer Mode:Multi-Word DMA Mode 1

Device 1

Device Type:Auto Detection
Transfer Mode:DMA is available
Current Transfer Mode:Ultra DMA Mode 4


Primary IDE Channel

Advanced Settings
------------------
Device 0

Device Type:Auto Detection
Transfer Mode:DMA is available
Current Transfer Mode:Ultra DMA Mode 5

Device 1

Device Type:Auto Detection
Transfer Mode:DMA is available
Current Transfer Mode:Not Applicable

Secondary IDE Channel

Device 0

Device Type:Auto Detection
Transfer Mode:DMA is available
Current Transfer Mode:Not applicable

Device 1

Device Type:Auto Detection
Transfer Mode:DMA is available
Current Transfer Mode:Not Applicable

Any ideas?

Thanks

I would look in to your motherboard drivers; make sure you have the latest chipset drivers, etc

This is the readme.txt file from the Intel chipset drivers:

************************************************************
* 9B. INSTALLING THE WINDOWS* XP INF FILES AFTER OS
* INSTALLATION
************************************************************
Some Intel(R) chipset platforms already are supported by
Windows* XP so it may not be necessary to use the INF
files provided by this software to update Windows* XP.

The following steps describe the installation process of
the Windows* XP INF files. You may need to repeat these
steps to update all Intel(R) chipset devices not supported
by Windows* XP.

1. Copy the contents of the
<INF Extract Directory>\XXXX\All
directory to the root directory of the floppy disk (A:\).

NOTE:
XXXX is the directory name for the chipset
of interest. Refer to Section 8 for more details.

2. Close all programs currently running on the system.
3. Click on Start.
4. Select Settings.
5. Select the Control Panel.
6. Double-click on the System icon.
7. Click on the Hardware tab.
8. Click on the Device Manager button.
9. Select "Devices by connection" under the View menu.
10. Click on MPS Uniprocessor PC -OR- MPS
Multiprocessor PC.

NOTE:
Only one of the above items will be
displayed for a given system.

11. Click on PCI bus.
12. Right-click on the line containing the description
PCI standard host CPU bridge
-or-
PCI standard ISA bridge
-or-
PCI standard PCI-to-PCI bridge
-or-
PCI System Management Bus
-or-
Standard Dual PCI IDE Controller
-or-
Standard Universal PCI to USB Host Controller
(This line will be selected.)
13. Select Properties from the pull-down menu.
14. Click on the Driver tab.
15. Click on the Update Driver button.
16. Windows* XP will launch the Upgrade Device Driver
Wizard. Select Next.
17. Ensure that the following choice is selected:
Search for a suitable driver for my device
(recommended)
18. Insert the floppy containing the Windows* XP INF
files into the floppy drive.
19. Select Next.
20. Windows* XP will list locations from where the
updated driver file can be found. Ensure that the
following choice is selected: Floppy disk drives
21. Select Next.
22. Windows* XP should report that a driver has been
found: (The detected device name will be displayed.)
Select Next.
23. Select Finish.
24. Reboot the system when prompted to do so.
**************************************************************

Problem is step number 10:

10. Click on MPS Uniprocessor PC -OR- MPS Multiprocessor PC.

Control Panel from my PC reports ACPI Multiprocessor PC. Don't know if these drivers will screw up everything.

WD's website doesn't have any drivers for this HD. Only files available are disk utilities.

Video card is on-board by the way.

Thanks for any help.

ACPI Multiprocessor is fine, that is normal for a dual core processor to report.


I really think that your issue lies somewhere other then the hard drive itself. I am really suspecting a motherboard controller issue. I would reset your CMOS, and uninstall all of your motherboard drivers and download the latest ones from the manufacturers website


You can use a simple program like HDDtune to check if your hard drive is getting the speeds it should. That drive should easily be giving you ~65-75MB/s

These are the results from PassMark Benchmark testing:

Disk-Sequential Read = 86.5 range 0-90
Disk-Sequential Write = 83.2 range 0-90
Disk-Random Seek+RW = 2.56 range 0-10
Disk Mark (This computer) = 623.0 range 0-70
PassMark Rating (This computer-partial results) = 124.6 range 0-200

The "List of Hard Drives" table gives me the following results for this particular model:

Drive Rating 428
Rank 203

Is there an easy way to uninstall all motherboard drivers?

Thanks

ok, I guess that my motherboard drivers were successfully updated.

When I try to do the update again I get "The wizard could not find a better match for your hardware than the software you currently have installed"

I really don't know what this "PCI bridge" item is supposed to do to all my motherboard drivers.

Anyway there was no change on the slow disk access (disk spins and spins)

Any other ideas?

Thanks

There are so many options to test - nearly impossible to do that through a forum -
besides this forum is not thought to be for pc repairs...

If you have the recources - its a case of logical steps *):

My impression: defect mainbord
test:
1. same pc, new power supply, new ram - plus the SATA hdd (no other one connected)
. . set up xp and check / compare speed - but do take that Manhattan ide card out of
. . the system before installation !

if that works - you can try it with old power supply and ram - and if still ok, then connect
ide card + 80gb drive - and afterwards - use the new windows to play / work

or
2. Other pc with different mainboard + this new hdd - set up xp on that machine
. . and check / compare speed - but dont use that ide card before a first test,
. . after this 1st test put it in the system and run a 2nd test!

if both tests work fine - and the suggestion #1 did not - then its the mainboard

***

dont forget to switch into ide compatible mode for setup of xp on the sata hdd.
if this is not possible, then create the floppy disk with the SATA drivers - to be
included with F6 key at setup - be aware that the present intel matrix driver
does not include / support Intel(R) 82801GB/GR/GH (ICH7 Family) - you need the
one out of your mainboard driver cd - otherwise pm

+++
*) if you dont have the recources, let a pc repair shop do the job+

ok bros, I installed a fresh copy of XP on my second 80GB IDE HDD and the Windows XP is loading normally, I mean really fast as it should be.

I again booted from my SATA HDD and the same thing, the disk spins and spins and Windows XP takes a lot of time to startup.

Does this sounds like I need to reinstall again Windows XP on my SATA HDD?



Thanks

ok another thing.

My Foxconn G31MV-K MB has two SATA ports (SATA_1 and SATA_2).

The current port I have my SATA HDD connected to is SATA_2.

Whenever I connect my HDD to SATA_1 I get the blue screen of death.

Is this normal or should Windows XP start independently on which SATA port I plug my HDD onto?

Does this sounds like a damaged SATA port on the motherboard?

Thanks

It has to be an issue with the SATA controller on your mainboard, could be physical or driver related.


I would look into replacing the mainboard, would probably be easier to do.

Dear Russwinters:

These are the current BIOS settings that are reported when I plug my SATA HDD on port SATA_2:

IDE Channel 0 Master: None
IDE Channel 0 Slave: None

IDE Channel 1 Master: None
IDE Channel 1 Slave: None

IDE Channel 2 Master: None
IDE Channel 2 Slave: WD SATA HDD

When I change my SATA HDD to port SATA_1 these are the settings reported on the BIOS:

IDE Channel 0 Master: None
IDE Channel 0 Slave: None

IDE Channel 1 Master: None
IDE Channel 1 Slave: None

IDE Channel 2 Master: None
IDE Channel 2 Slave: WD SATA HDD

On both configurations the Channel 1 is always disabled (greyed out if you know what I mean)

Aren't Channel 1 settings suppose to change when I connect my SATA HDD to port SATA_1?

Thanks for your help

You are having a mother board issue. Mother board for this processor run around 100 dollar or give or take. It is easier to change out your mother board to correct these problem. Falther set up is correct and when doing this as he has explained and not results are gained on your drive then it is time to stop and change out the mother board. If what you say is true and SATA1 gives you a blue screen when using this port then there is a issue with your SATA ports on this card and you have two choice. Either change out your mother board or aqueire a SATA to IDE adaptor and turn your SATA drive to an IDE drive and run it that way on your PC and see if there is a change in your drive. If you drive works normally with the adaptor and has no more slow down then your problem is solved. You mother board needs to be changed out.

Best of luck

_________________
Iorana Haraharaini

hmmmm

Could be A SATA I/II conflict.

Check the jumpers on the drive. If it is set to SATA II then check that
a) the motherboard supports SATA II
b) check that the BIOS is set to SATA II for that particular SATA bus

Check the jumper settings on the drive so that it matches what is in the BIOS - there is a jumper setting for backward compatibility to SATA I on these drives.. Or if it is already installed, try removing it ..

_________________
If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs, you probably don't fully understand the situation. ... Mr Kipling

https://www.mjm.co.uk/