Forum Home
Press F1
 
Thread ID: 63076 2005-10-28 17:49:00 Suggestions on faster PC Parry (5696) Press F1
Post ID Timestamp Content User
400041 2005-10-28 17:49:00 Hi, I recently purchased a 250gb IDE HD and now have a set up as follows:-
Primary Controller/Master: Prev HD (120gb) with XP pro O/S
Primary Controller/Slave: DVDRW
Secondary Controller/Master: New HD (250gb)
Secondary Controller/Slave: DVD ROM

My previous set up had 120gb HD on Primary Master with the DVDRW on Secondary Master and DVDROM on Secondary Slave.

Since installing new HD XP has been very slow to boot up or to save settings before shutting down. I am after suggestions of things to investigate to speed things up as I dont know where the bottleneck is. Any ideas?

EDIT:
Ive noticed that in the Device settings under ATA/ATAPI Controllers | Secondary IDE Channel | Properties | Advanced Settings that Device 0 (the new HD) has transfer mode of PIO while all the others have Ultra DMA Mode 2. How do I amend PIO to DMA?
Parry (5696)
400042 2005-10-28 18:05:00 Put the dvd and dvd burner on Secondary IDE .

The burner as Master, the dvd as Slave .

And the 2 hdd's SHOULD be on Primary Master/Slave .

Hard drives and cds/dvd's/burners should NEVER go on the same IDE connection .

They can create errors, when u burn something, due to the different speeds,of the dvd's/burners, and the hard drives .

Also, if u can, connect both the hdd's and dvd's/burners, with 80 wire ide cables (these have blue connectors, which plug into the motherboard end) .
Speedy Gonzales (78)
400043 2005-10-28 19:20:00 Hi, I recently purchased a 250gb IDE HD and now have a set up as follows:-
Primary Controller/Master: Prev HD (120gb) with XP pro O/S
Primary Controller/Slave: DVDRW
Secondary Controller/Master: New HD (250gb)
Secondary Controller/Slave: DVD ROM

My previous set up had 120gb HD on Primary Master with the DVDRW on Secondary Master and DVDROM on Secondary Slave.

Since installing new HD XP has been very slow to boot up or to save settings before shutting down. I am after suggestions of things to investigate to speed things up as I dont know where the bottleneck is. Any ideas?

EDIT:
Ive noticed that in the Device settings under ATA/ATAPI Controllers | Secondary IDE Channel | Properties | Advanced Settings that Device 0 (the new HD) has transfer mode of PIO while all the others have Ultra DMA Mode 2. How do I amend PIO to DMA?

I'd lose the DVDRom. Why keep it when you have the DVDRW?
And take it off PIO - thats the problem.
pctek (84)
400044 2005-10-28 19:31:00 If possible (and I know this is a big change-around) always try running your newest hd as your system drive (C:). In most cases they will be faster which will improve performance. All IDE drives have a controller built in, when you have a slave drive on the same ide chain as a master drive it uses the controller of the master drive. If your master drive has an older version controller than your slave drive then this may (and I say MAY) impeed performance.

Another less dramatic thing you might like to try is simply unplugging devices one at a time to see if one particular device is responsible for your problem. It will not necessarily be your new hd.
Freejack (375)
400045 2005-10-28 20:26:00 Thank you all for your advice. I changed the devices aroud so both HD were on the primary controller and the DVD's on secondary and now all devices are UDMA 2 and it has made a difference. Parry (5696)
400046 2005-10-28 20:37:00 Good to hear its better Parry :thumbs: Speedy Gonzales (78)
1