Computer Slow Downs

[ChillyPepper]

Well, this problem didn't appear before my upgrade so I can safely say I think it has something to do with my new 320GB Western Digital Hard Disk Serial ATA.

I can only have a number of tasks, more specifically 5. If I happen to start an additional task, my entire computer starts lagging and slowing down after a minute or two. Then I went back to µTorrent (it took a long time for it to show after double clicking on the icon in the system tray) and stopped the additional task.

After waiting for a minute or two, the problem stops. I'm not too sure what happened and did some poking and I found this:

http://forum.utorrent.com/viewtopic.php?pid=290042#p290042

I'm not sure whether this applies to only IDE hard disks or to SATA-2 hard disks too. One of my IDE Channel properties Current Transfer Mode is in PIO Mode. How to change it to DMA?

Or could the problem come from something else all together?

Help appreciated, thanks.

[DreadWingKnight]

One of my IDE Channel properties Current Transfer Mode is in PIO Mode. How to change it to DMA?

Uninstall che channel and reboot. It is possible that this is part of the issue.

[ChillyPepper]

Uninstalled and rebooted.

Problem is, it's still in PIO mode.

[jewelisheaven]

Are you sure your BIOS supports hard drives that large? Even a SATA II controller should be able to throttle back to SATA I speeds if it is a controller issue. There appears to be a hardware incompatibility issue.

[ChillyPepper]

Hrm... I thought SATA II hard drives are compatible with SATA I motherboards?

[jewelisheaven]

That's what I said, it should throttle back to SATA I speeds. But since it's not and you're seeing PIO (MUCH MUCH slower)... Is it possible there are updated drivers for your onboard controllers?

That's the first thing I'd check.

[ChillyPepper]

I used the Hardware Update Wizard but it turns out there were no results.

[jewelisheaven]

Was this after you removed the controller under Device Manager?

Er, and afaik the wizard doesn't search your MFG's site it would only re-install any default driver that came with windows (remember xp is OLD, sp1 is ALMOST as old, and sp2 is from '04). Who is your mobo's manufacturer?

[ChillyPepper]

It's an eSys motherboard.

[jewelisheaven]

yea so http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=esys+sata+controller&btnG=Search should help... I'm thinking esysmb.com is your mobo's website.

[ChillyPepper]

Should I update the BIOS?

Can't download any drivers from www.esysmb.com.

Ok, erm. I downloaded the second driver from

http://www.viaarena.com/default.aspx?PageID=420&OSID=1&CatID=1180&SubCatID=177

and now the all my IDE channels show DMA Mode. One of them was Ultra DMA Mode 6, which my new hard disk supports when I saw the boot-up.

Is it fixed? Or am I asking a rather obvious question?

[jewelisheaven]

UDMA6 is code for UDMA133 iirc.

This is not PIO, which is good

Check for yourself to see if the same slowdown happens when writing at high speeds. SATA I is ~ 192 MiBps, and UDMA133 is 133 MiBps, so its definitely not going to be as high as possible throughput if the chipset drivers for the SATA controller are not installed. But it is most certainly HEAPS better than PIO

[ChillyPepper]

So far so good. Running 10 tasks without any slow downs or lagging. Everything works fine.

Thanks for the help, Jewel and others.

Umm... one question.

How come the VIA drivers work for the motherboard? Weird.