XP - Getting the system to redetect UDMA transfer rates

[Hodgkinson]

Hi there,
I've recently been shuffling some drives around in my 1Ghz XP tower and it would seem like XP now only wants to access the main HDD at a paltry mode 3, even though the BIOS flags the drive up at mode 4. At this point in time all I have on the system is the one HDD (Connected via a high-speed IDE cable) and floppies A: and B: - All the CD's and other IDE devices are disconnected and the second IDE chain cable removed completely from the mobo.

I seem to remember somewhere about some registry hack to make the system redetect the UDMA speeds, but I can't remember for the life of me where it is.

Any ideas folks?
(This is my main PC so with it in bits im kinda stuck at the minute...)

Thanks,
Hodgkinson.

[Oli_hd]

Could it be you are not using a 80 conductor IDE cable and as such it drops the speed?
fast IDE modes do require the 80 conductor cable, it isnt optional.

[Hodgkinson]

Yup, all IDE cables are 80 conductor.

[Trev]

Windows is just reporting what the driver tells it to report. Some things to try:

1. Replace the cable.
2. Replace the device.
3. If you have more than one device on the same channel, remove the second device. (If you're not using cable select, make sure your devices are jumpered correctly.)
4. If you are *not* running the latest version of the interface driver, try upgrading.
5. If you *are* running the latest version of the interface driver, try downgrading, starting with the previous version and moving down incrementally until the problem disappears. (If this fixes it, notify the vendor.)

Upgrading and downgrading the driver may not be as simple as installing a new driver. It may be part of bundle, and certain driver versions may be dependent on specific versions of other drivers or device information files. When in doubt, contact the vendor.

You could also try Microsoft's knowledge base, which is quite comprehensive, despite popular belief. If you have access to premier support, you'll get "Microsoft Confidential" information as well.

Also, there are no registry "hacks"--just documented and undocumented values. The registry isn't a mystical land off the edge of the map, beyond which there be dragons. It's just a big set of binary INI files that support multiple data types and access control. ;-)

[Oliver]

Hi,

I have also heard of the 'hack' you are talking about, but it slips my mind as to where.

A couple of simple things come to mind, but may not be of any relevance here:

Make sure your single drive is at the end of the cable

Try re-connecting your CD/DVD ROM drive as master on the secondary IDE channel. Windows sometimes acts a bit strangely without any CDROM type drive available in the system.

Good luck!

[whabang]

This is a well-know issue with Windows, and contrary to what the information from Microsoft says, the problem was not neccesarily fixed by XP SP2.

There is more information about the problem here, I'd recomend that you use the workaround for Windows 2000. That usually solves the problem for our customers.

If that doesn't solve the problem, try pasting the following text into an empty text document, and save it as dma.vbs (and then run it):

If MsgBox("This program will now reset the DMA status of all ATA drives with Windows drivers." _
  & vbNewline & "Windows will redetect the status after the next reboot, therefore this procedure" _
  & vbNewline & "should be harmless.", _
    vbOkCancel, "Program start message") _
  = vbOk Then

RegPath = "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}\"
ValueName1 = "MasterIdDataChecksum"
ValueName2 = "SlaveIdDataChecksum"
ValueName3 = "ResetErrorCountersOnSuccess"
MessageText = "The following ATA channels have been reset:"
MessageTextLen0 = Len(MessageText)
SubsequentMisses = 0
Set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")

For i = 0 to 999
  RegSubPath = Right("000" & i, 4) & "\"

  ' Master

  Err.Clear
  On Error Resume Next
  WshShell.RegRead RegPath & RegSubPath & ValueName1
  e1 = Err.Number
  Err.Clear
  On Error Goto 0
  If e1 = 0 Then
    On Error Resume Next
    WshShell.RegDelete RegPath & RegSubPath & ValueName1
    On Error Goto 0
    MessageText = MessageText & vbNewLine & "Master"
  End If

  ' Slave

  Err.Clear
  On Error Resume Next
  WshShell.RegRead RegPath & RegSubPath & ValueName2
  e2 = Err.Number
  On Error Goto 0
  If e2 = 0 Then
    On Error Resume Next
    WshShell.RegDelete RegPath & RegSubPath & ValueName2
    On Error Goto 0
    If e1 = 0 Then
      MessageText = MessageText & " and "
    Else
      MessageText = MessageText & vbNewLine
    End If
    MessageText = MessageText & "Slave"
  End If

  If e1 = 0 Or e2 = 0 Then
    On Error Resume Next
    WshShell.RegWrite RegPath & RegSubPath & ValueName3, 1, "REG_DWORD"
    On Error Goto 0
    ChannelName = "unnamed channel " & Left(RegSubPath, 4)
    On Error Resume Next
    ChannelName = WshShell.RegRead(RegPath & RegSubPath & "DriverDesc")
    On Error Goto 0
    MessageText = MessageText & " of " & ChannelName & ";"
    SubsequentMisses = 0
  Else
    SubsequentMisses = SubsequentMisses + 1
    If SubsequentMisses >= 32 Then Exit For ' Don't search unnecessarily long.
  End If
Next ' i

If Len(MessageText) <= MessageTextLen0 Then
  MessageText = "No resettable ATA channels with Windows drivers found. Nothing changed."
Else
  MessageText = MessageText & vbNewline _
    & "Please reboot now to reset and redetect the DMA status."
End If

MsgBox MessageText, vbOkOnly, "Program finished normally"

End If ' MsgBox(...) = vbOk

[Hodgkinson]

Well, I buggered around in the registry and tried uninstalling/reinstalling the drivers (That is, Microsofts own drivers); as well as reconnecting the drives one by one (In the correct places, setting all drives to master or slave only…) and nothing seems to of helped.

I’m now hearing from the guy who gave me the board that it might only support up to UDMA3 (Yuck) and up to 137GB HDDs (That explains why it trashed my brand new Hitachi 160GB drive...Sigh...).

I’m now downloading the drivers for the board from the manufacturers’ website...At 7KB/Sec on broadband...zzzzzz...Might be here a while...

Also, there are no registry "hacks"--just documented and undocumented values. The registry isn't a mystical land off the edge of the map, beyond which there be dragons. It's just a big set of binary INI files that support multiple data types and access control.  

I can assure you that there are dragons out there - They have a habit of eating your system and turning it into fire whenever you make a mistake...Apparently... :-) :flame:

Thanks,
Hodgkinson.

EDIT: I've not tried everything yet...