Some Questions on IDE controllers...

[erikg84]

Ok i'm having some troubles getting my HD to switch from PIO transfer mode to DMA. I'm really big on online gaming, specifically Battlefield 2. It's a real resource hog, requiring an almost perfect running machine to get optimum performance out of it. My big problem is when i load new maps, i get to a certain point where I am required to 'verify client data' This takes me almost 5-6 minutes to complete this, when everyone else takes about 30-45 seconds. So i went onto some gaming forums, and i was told that my HD was in PIO mode when it was supposed to be in DMA mode. I asked this person how to switch it, and he never responded (this was a couple weeks ago). So i figure it's a windows problem, why not go to a windows forum. Anyway, i kinda figured out how to do it, but i have some questions:

1. In the Device Manager, under the IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers there are three subboxes. one is the Primary IDE controller, the second is the Secondary IDE controller, and the Third is the Sis PCI IDE controller. How do i know which on is the HD my Game is running on? I have (2) 80 Gb HD's. One Internal (where the game and windows is running on), and the other is external (mostly used for a media drive).

2. Once i left click on one of those drives and go into properties, and under the Advanced Settings Tab. It had 2 sections Device 0, and Device 1. under these sections they have three settings, Device Type, Transfer Mode, and Current Transfer Mode. Under both Device 0, and Device 1, they both read the same thing, which is:

Device type: Auto Detection

Transfer Mode: DMA if available

Current Transfer Mode: PIO mode (for Device 0) and Not Applicable (for Device 1)

how do i switch the current transfer mode to DMA rather than PIO?

I tried to uninstall the devices like someone told me, then reboot my PC so the computer automatically resets itself at the fastest possible speed. but that didn't do anything, they are all still at the same settings as mentioned above..

Just FYI i ran a program called HDTach it said i was reading the HD at about 3.3 Mb... i don't think that's too good.

Any help would be much appreciated here fellows.

If you need any more information, i'd be more than happy to give it to you.

If i don't get this solved here, i was going to get another HD that runs at 10,000 RPM to see if i can get it fixed there, and run the game from that HD rather than my WD 80G 7200 RPM i'm running now.

[erikg84]

Ok, here's an update... so i suddenly came across a site that said that if my CD-drive, and HD were on the Same IDE, both would run on PIO only. To test, i unplugged the CD-drive, and guess what!!! the HD is running on DMA ultra 5 or somthing like that. So now i gotta figure out how to set it up so i can run the CD-drive, and still keep the HD running on Ultra DMA. Which i don't understand... because they both have thier own IDEi cable, and are plugged into different IDE slots on the computer... You think there's a problem in BIOs somewhere?

[Boris]

Simplest solution is :-

Put your H/D on the Primary IDE board connection (jumpered as Master)

Put your CD drive on the Secondary IDE board connection (also jumpered as Master)

and you should be fine.

[r4may]

Simplest solution is :-

Put your H/D on the Primary IDE board connection (jumpered as Master)

Put your CD drive on the Secondary IDE board connection (also jumpered as Master)

and you should be fine.

Once you have done this you should go to the first page of your BIOS and set up the drives for Max performance IE:-

Primary IDE

Master : select your boot Hard drive: Secondary: select your secondary Hard drive: or NONE

Secondary IDE

Master CD secondary: NONE

Make sure you alter the CD select Jumper to master

This will allow max boot speed.