new Samsung 1tb hd causing slow mvp and stutter!

[Spag Bol]

Are you using the drive in AICH mode? Have you ensured there isn't a compatibility mode jumper that you need to (re)move that is restricting you to SATA 1 speeds?

[pcostanza]

@Martint123 -

@pBs- Where do I look at the IDE controllers to see this PIO mode? I can see that the disk cache is on. But funnily enough not on the IDE HD. So many variables.

In Device Manager, look under the IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers. Look at the Primary Channel then Advanced Settings tab and then look at the Transfer Mode. It should be set to DMA if available (doing this from memory).

[ilovejedd]

Try formatting the 1TB drive using 64k clusters.

Also, what SATA port is the Samsung drive connected to? Have you tried switching SATA ports and replacing cables?

System Properties >> Hardware >> Device Manager >> IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers

Then, just check Properties >> Advanced Settings for each IDE channel. Normally, I think hard drives Ultra DMA Mode 5.

[Spag Bol]

If your SATA drive is set correctly to AICH, it won't be using the IDE controller settings. IDE mode on new SATA drives are a backwards compatibility mode that isn't ideal and won't give the best performance. Check your BIOS settings to ensure your SATA drives are set to AICH.

[ilovejedd]

I think you probably meant AHCI (Advanced Host Controller Interface). HDTach benchmarked the drive to be pretty fast so I think something else is likely at fault. Somewhat hard to pinpoint, though. Switching to AHCI mode is beneficial, but if doing so after Windows XP is already installed, then use a different controller for the OS drive, unless you fancy doing a repair install.

@mattrobo
As a quick test, have you tried timing copies to and from the hard drive using regular Windows Explorer? Use a file that's at least 1GB. 5GB or bigger might be better.

[martint123]

It won't be the answer to your problem, but you asked. for the info.

OK - basically it is delete the interface stuck on PIO mode. This is sometimes not possible!
I found the answer here http://winhlp.com/node/10 after a lot of searching.

Martin

[mattrobo]

All,

Thanks for all your input. I have read them all and will try everything. I did look at the device manager and where it was available I did not have any PIO mentioned it was ll DMA as suggested.

When copying files the speed seems to go with the hdtach. I copied a 2gig file in about 40 seconds. Will try this again later.

I did find the AHCI setting in the BIOS but changing that I lost my IDE olden days drive. But the problem was still there for the SATA drive.

I spent the night playing with different formats of partitions and clusters. In the very first attempt I tried mixing way to many variables and it WORKED!

But then I scratched those partitions and tried to make less partitions with one at like 990gig and 1 at 10gig. that did not work. I then tried all other combinations and 2 hours later I could not even reproduce the success I had for 1 min. So then I played with the BIOS looking for a miracale cure but no.

So another night gone and I am off to bed no smarter but there was a small light there at the end of the tunnel for awhile but I could not reproduce it!

Tomorrow I will write down what I do so that I dont change all the variables at once.

[mattrobo]

well now I cant even get my original setup working.

I have reset thre bios to default and have not touched any of the exisiting harddrives when i have been playing with the reformatting. I did not want to accidently wipe them! So I was extra careful.

So now I am in real trouble!

[mattrobo]

All,

An update.

I got another SATA drive. Installed it into the same computer and reinstalled windows and enough drivers to get the lan to work. Then I re installed the .net and the vredist that sub says you need. - all on the new HD

I then installed GBPVR. I noticed that this took 2 mins to install but for some reason on the other C drive take about 10mins! But not other programs. This is where I have an issue I need to solve! Also uninstalling it takes 20 mins on the original c drive.

Then I reformated the 1000gb HD to 1 partition and it all worked at full speed.

Actually after 20 seconds of playing this avi that normally stutters it had converted 3mins!

So it is not the bios nor the HD, it is my corrupted windows on the original C drive. I hate reinstalling everythig so I will start with .net and the vredist and then will look at disabling services until i find out why the orginial windows version is behaving like this.

Regards
Matthew

[pBS]

i'm thinking about making a separate partition for my gbpvr and using Returnil to lock down the windows drive so nothing can happen to windows..
[an alternative is MS 'windows steady state' which works similar but requires ntfs format..]

they both lock down the windows drive so any changes are lost upon reboot..
just make a separate partition and install gbpvr to it so it can have changes saved and windows is now bulletproof..