IMPORTANT: Installing an nForce system

PoliticallyCorrect

PoliticallyCorrect

PoliticallyCorrect

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I've recently found out something very interesting about my nForce 3 system that i've had for some time now.

When u've build your system and installed windows xp and the nForce ATA drivers, you need to set the hard drive speed manually.

To do this, right click my computer and select properties. Go to the hardware tab and open device manager. from there look for nForce Parallel ATA controler under IDE controllers. and you will see some tabs along the top. Asuming u've connected the Hard Drives to Primany go to this tab and select ATA133 for each hard drive (make sure u uncheck use BIOS setting, and don't forget to enable ultra ATA in the BIOS).

Doing this made my PC performance jump from fast to even faster. The XP loading bar goes across 2.5-3 times now instead of 6 times :D

I don't know if this informantion is useful for nForce 2 or nForce 4 systems, and i'm not sure about SATA setups either. But i hope someone will find this usful.
 
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tomos

tomos

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something similar with my old gigabyte mobo - ga-7vaxp (i think). it set drives to PIO4 by default. took me ages to find how to change this (wasnt in the manual or gigabytes site).

had to press some weird option in the bios to unhide a menu!!
then it let me choose dma. no wonder i couldnt write dvds at 12x and above. it wouldnt let me enable dma for anything.

checked in dev man and it was set to PIO even if i tried to force it to DMA. spent ages trying to fix it there thinking it was a driver issue in windows :mad:

i'm staying away from their mobos from now on tho :p
 

Jimbo

Jimbo

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What?? this is all news to me.

Im gonna take a look at my drives mate, and if your correct here, then your a legend sir.

Oh also, 2 of my drives are satas, so does anyone know what they should be set at??

At the mo they are both on serial ata dma and my ide drive is on ultra dma 6 - ultra 133, so I think im ok arent I?
 
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FatRakoon

FatRakoon

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Mine were all set to what the BIOS says.

I have tried adjusting them to various flavours, but they dont make any noticeable changes in speed.

Actually I have asked this in a previous post, but I got no answers.... Thought I would knock it back here too!

This happens on all my Socket 754 Mobos... VIA and NF3.

Its only with the SATA that I get this, but, when I read or write its very quick, but if I R/W a lot of data, be it a load of smaller files or one large file, it slows down.

This happens at about 100MB

The slow downs start off with WinAmp glitching, then the mouse slowing down ( USB Mouse ) and eventually, the whole system seems to hang...

This happens at about 250-300MB

If I left it alone, eventually, the file/s will have copied over and then the mouse will start to move again, and the music will start back up.

Now, it does this on the following Mobos ( Socket 754 ):-

Gigabyte K8 VT800M
DFI LanParty 250GB UT
ECS NForce 3+

But I dont get it on any Socket 939 or ven Socket A boards

Its bloody irritating.... I cannot cure it... I had thought it could be simply SATA DMA needs to be enabled, but on the DFI Boards I just accepted my loss, and I am now using IDE Only, but the ECS Has 2xIDE and 2xSATA HDs, and moving those back to IDE will mean that I will have wasted money on SATA Drives.
 
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