Maxtor-VIA UDMA mode Problem

[MeanGene]

I have two Maxtor drives on an 80 wire cable. This in installed on Abit KT7 RAID board. I am not using the RAID controller (disabled). The drives are set to CS (cable select) and the cable is installed correctly, blue side to board, gray to slave, black to master (tried jumper slave/master as well), cable has missing pin or slot for UDMA 66+. I even went out and bought the $15.00 shielded cable. The newer Maxtor drive D740X Ultra DMA133 is the master and the older Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 40 Ultra DMA 66 is the slave. The latter drive is always at DMA4 while the newer DMA133 will reduce the mode from UDMA3 to PIO mode after enough time. See:
http://www.microsoft.com/hwdev/tech/storage/IDE-DMA.asp

I am trying to figure out if it is the board, drivers, or the drive? If the slave is not having the same problem as the master, I would think that it is the drive itself producing enough CRC errors that XP automatically demotes it down a UDMA level until PIO. Maybe it is just a matter of using the master more than the slave. What's your best guess?

More information:
Windows XP Pro 2002
VIA 4n1 version 4.35
KT7 BIOS version 64
FSB=100MHz
No Overclocking at present
Motherboard has been sent back to Abit once before and I don't have complete faith in it.
Problem occurs even when the HD is the only drive in the system and the SCSI sub-system has been removed.
Problem also remains consistant with various BIOS changes including Fail-Safe setting.
Shuffling PCI cards around to various slots has no effect.

Everthing else is working well, no error found running Norton DD or ChkDsk. SpeedDisk runs without a hitch. Writing this thread from the machine in question. HD access just slows down over time.

You may want to check your own XP machine. Click on Start--> Right click My Computer and select Manage. Then select Device manager--> IDE ATA/ATPI controllers--> Primary IDE Channel--> Right click and select properties--> Advanced Settings. Then check out your Current Transfer Mode.

The attached jpg shows what I am getting for the Current Transfer mode.

Someone recommended that I switch the Master HD over to the Highpoint contorller. If I do this, do I have to reformat? I also have an Adaptec 2940 with a burner, zip, and scanner attached. I am not sure if the 2940 and the Highpoint will get along. This would be a last resort type move.

Thanks

 

[Lonman]

Hi, i've got the same board. I'm not going to say anything for certain but i'll toss out some ideas. My guess is it's the board. Your UDMA 133 is actually a generation ahead of this board. The highest transfer rate you can achieve on the standard IDE channels is UDMA 66, which is fine for your second drive.
I'd suggest moving your 133 over to the raid as a single drive, no format is necessary. If this is your boot drive, go into your bios and have it boot to the Raid. When your raid bios starts, hit cntrl+h (i think, it will say on the screen) to enter it and set your transfer rate for the drive in there, it will support mode 5. To get the maximum support for the drive, you'll need a new board or controller card.

Abit hasn't caught up with Highpoint as far as getting the latest raid bios incorporated into their flash utility, but setting this drive on the raid should prevent reverting to lessor rates. I'm running a maxtor ata100 as the single drive on the raid, it's working well for me but i'm still not able to use highpoints "XP compatible" bios and drivers for the raid. hope that helps.

 

[MeanGene]

Well I have hooked up both drives in a master/slave connection to the Highpoint controller. My new "C" drive is NTFS and a UDMA 6, Ultra 133 capable drive. The "D" drive is FAT32 and is a UDMA4, Ultra 66 capable drive. The jpg has the results from Sandra. Much better than when hooked to the VIA controller, but the older drive is still faster. Do I have a bad drive? Do you think there could be a problem with connecting them together? Does NTFS or the fact that it is the master and runs the OS a consideration?

 

[Lonman]

I think it has to do with the Highpoint Bios and drivers. We're stuck waiting for Abit to get caught up with Highpoint. I would suggest putting each drive on it's own channel on the raid though, that will give them all their own rights, no sharing of some resources. Actually, the regular IDE channel for your 66 is cool, the raid (i don't think) really heightens it's performance.

 

[Iceman]

everybody who knows me knows I smoke it on a regular basis

however

never when I am working
never when I am driving
never in front of the kids

 

[funky dredd]

Not since school.