hard disk working in pio mode

ghgh · 18 May 2007 at 14:31

hi all,

ive got an old laptop here and the hdd is working in pio mode and its set to dma if available in the device manager. The spec is p4 1800, 768mb, 20gb.

there are no options in the bios to set dma on

any help much aprechiated.

ghgh

ron3003 · 18 May 2007 at 15:58

Take a look here,
http://sniptools.com/tipstricks/getting-back-to-dma-mode-in-windows-xp

Although most of the thread is concerning optical drives the info works the same for hard drives.
Start by trying what Stark suggests in post 87.
If that doesnt work try uninstalling the ide controller and restart to make windows re-install it.
Lastly if all else fails it's regedit time.

ghgh · 18 May 2007 at 16:59

thanks bud

i tried uninstalling the primary ide channel - rebooted. Still the drive was in pio mode.

googled and found a regedit as im using 2000 pro - 'EnableUDMA66' and 'EnableBigLba' in the registry but none of this worked...

drive is still stuck in pio mode unfortunately..

real tricky one this as i cant find any ide drivers for the laptop.

it could be a lot slower but as the system has 768meg once its up it isnt slow at all...just takes a while to boot...it definitely isnt lying about running pio mode either which was a possibility as hd tach gets 3mb/s transfer rate LOL

cheers,
ghgh

Reality|Bites · 18 May 2007 at 18:55

change ide cable?

Test different memory(read/write errors)

Test drive on another system.

ron3003 · 18 May 2007 at 20:44

Did you actually try the reg hack at the top of the page? If you read down the replies you'll see some from folks who used it on their HDDs with win2k.

ghgh · 18 May 2007 at 22:56

I tried the registry hack on that website and another hack without success..i cant really open it up i dont know anything about laptops, as far as i got was upgrading the ram and thats the limit of my laptop knowledge, dont even know where the hard disk is.

is it right that the dvd-rom drive and hdd are on the same ide channel? my mate said this is normal for laptops - there doesnt appear to be any device on the secondary ide channel.

thanks,
ghgh

basmic · 18 May 2007 at 23:48

I can't help thinking that you've got the drive setup wrong in the BIOS.

I would reinstall your chipset drivers. If that doesn't work, then backup and reformat.