SATA controller problem

[funk doc]

hi all,

I recently discovered what the problem of the bad performance on my new pc.
The transfer mode of th SATA controller of my HD is set to PIO-mode. I updated the drivers of the controller and then it changed to Ultra DMA mode 5.
I was very pleased with the performance, but... it changed again to PIO-mode, resulting in poor performance again.

specs:
ASUS P4P800-E deluxe
P4 3200
512 mb (dual channel)
Maxtor 200gb SATA
ATI radeon 9800 (256mb)
WIN XP Pro (SP2)

Can someone tell me why it changes or what i can do about it so it wont change bacl to PIO?

thanks

 

[funk doc]

found this on http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/hwdev/tech/storage/IDE-DMA.mspx

PIO mode is enabled by default in the following situations:
...
For repeated DMA errors. Windows XP will turn off DMA mode for a device after encountering certain errors during data transfer operations. If more that six DMA transfer timeouts occur, Windows will turn off DMA and use only PIO mode on that device.

In this case, the user cannot turn on DMA for this device. The only option for the user who wants to enable DMA mode is to uninstall and reinstall the device.

Windows XP downgrades the Ultra DMA transfer mode after receiving more than six CRC errors. Whenever possible, the operating system will step down one UDMA mode at a time (from UDMA mode 4 to UDMA mode 3, and so on).
...

does this mean my HD is f*cked up ?

 

[Lukas]

*bump*

 

[funk doc]

no one knows about this?

 

[LordOfLA]

new cable