SLee 0 Posted July 13, 2001 HELLBRINGER, why don't you try another benchmarking program? Sandra is not considered a very reliable or accurate benchmark for hard drives. You could try HD Tach for a quick and easy test to see whether your transfer rates, access times and burst rates are in line with what you expect. Get it from: http://www.tcdlabs.com The shareware version only works on Windows 9x OSes, but it should at least verify if there really is a problem with the hard drive or not. Share this post Link to post
HELLBRINGER 0 Posted July 14, 2001 I will try that right now and show you what I get. Share this post Link to post
HELLBRINGER 0 Posted July 14, 2001 This is what it says... I had to load in in WinME though. :-( It is a bit higher, but I still dont think my drive is running ATA100 though. The WD utility wont give me the option. The only thing there is 33. Here is a pic so that you can see. Share this post Link to post
Uykucu 0 Posted July 14, 2001 I apologize for my too sarcastic remarks... I guess it was my mood that was responsible. I do understand how frustrating it is, having something that does not work as it should be. I am sorry I do not have anything else to offer you that is it. I am out of idea's. (BTW you would not hear an IT Consultant say that ever) But I know this, your heat sink's will not effect the performance. Just a thought that occurred to me now when I saw your desktop. try disabling or closing all the tray icon's especially NAV to be disabled. Than shut down some of CPU intensive programs etc in the background. Disable Smart Monitoring and try again.... PS. The reason I repeated them was basically i thought you have not tryed them. Sorry! Share this post Link to post
Uykucu 0 Posted July 14, 2001 Just a thought: If this problem is ever solved we should celebrate! since we are all pretty far away and going down the local for a pint is out of the question. I suggest an online party. Everybody writes a message while drinking beer. And I just noticed how lame it sounds Well I just woke up what do you want from me! Share this post Link to post
harlock 0 Posted July 14, 2001 what you want to look at is your uncached read and write speeds they tell the real story,if you are getting 40 to 50 meg a second i'd be surprised,also the os has some to do with but it is mostly harware related . and no hardrive will ever perform at the speced speed.ata33,66,100 are all theoretical burst speeds,maximum for a given second or so,like within an apps first nanosecond of launching. Share this post Link to post
jcurbo 0 Posted July 14, 2001 I have the exact same hard drive (Western Digital WD400BB-00AUA1) and it runs flawlessly for me at ATA100. First off, here's my system: 900 Mhz Thunderbird MSI K7T Turbo (which uses the VIA 686b southbridge) GeForce 2 MX400 SBLive aforementioned hard drive Creative 12x DVD-ROM generic 56x CD-ROM Creative 6432 CD-RW Windows 2000 Professional Debian GNU/Linux And another data point, previously I had a K7T Pro (686a) and a Promise Ultra100 20267 IDE Controller, which the hard drive also ran flawlessly on. I know that you have checked a lot of things trying to get this to work, but I'd like to throw a checklist at you again, since you haven't solved your problem yet, and hopefully we can find your problem. 1. Make sure you are using an ATA66 80-wire IDE cable. One of the connectors will be blue, and the ribbon itself will have smaller wires in it. 2. When your computer boots, what does it say on the second BIOS screen? The one that has everything listed in a table and gets scrolled off the screen by Windows loading is the one I am referencing. Mine lists my drive like so: Primary Master: LBA,ATA100,UDMA5 3. Check your BIOS settings. The ones in particular that matter are in Integrated Peripherals and are: Primary Master PIO Primary Master UDMA These should both be set to AUTO. 4. Make sure you have the latest BIOS for your motherboard. 5. Check your Windows drivers. You will probably want the latest VIA 4in1 drivers, 4.32. In Win2k, under Device Manager, VIA Bus Master IDE Controller, the version number for viaide.sys is 5.0.2195.5110. Offhand I think that's not the newest version, but there has been 686b ATA100 support for the past 4 or 5 driver revisions, so as long as you are up to date, you will be ok. The procedure under WinME is similar. 6. Make sure you have Service Pack 2 installed, on Win2k. There were issues with ATA100 that were fixed in SP1, IIRC. Plus, there are literally hundreds of things that SP1+2 fix. It's just a good idea in general. 7. Check your settings in Device Manager. Under Primary IDE Channel->Advanced Settings, it should be set to DMA Mode If Available, and will register as Ultra DMA Mode on Win2k. (I noticed XP actually lists the mode number.. much nicer!) That should just about cover everything related to ATA100. I don't have Sandra installed at the moment, but in HWINFO's benchmarks, I get 74.50 read burst rate and 16.81 random access mode, which are the best scores I have had yet. (They have gotten better as newer VIA IDE drivers have been released) I would also like to point out that ATA100 does not necessarily equal 100 MB/sec. This is a theoretical maximum, and usually get bottlenecked by other parts of your system, especially your PCI bus. Also, I noticed some posters said that you had to run a program from Western Digital to enable ATA100 mode on the hard drive. I never ran such a program and my drive has worked at ATA100 from the first time I plugged it in. I have never even put the WD disk in my floppy drive! I think I will check it out though, just to see what it says. But I didn't have to do a thing to get it to work... Anyway, I hope this post helps you out. I'll be checking this thread, but feel free to mail me at the address in my profile if you have any other questions about the drive. But it'd probably be best to keep the discussion here. James Share this post Link to post
HELLBRINGER 0 Posted July 15, 2001 Excellent. I will go check everything again and report back. Thank you guys for responding. I do appreciate it. And Uykucu, it's ok. I understand where you are coming from and where the other guy was coming from also. We will get this figured out hopefully. If not, WD will be getting a nice call... Or actually. I think I will take it back to Circuit City where I bought it from and deal with them first to see if I can trade it in for a new one. Who knows... it may be my motherboard. I have still yet to get my friends comp to test it out since he has nearly the exact same sys config as me. We have just been so busy lately working, and out website. Which you should check out some time, I want some hits anyway. Who doesnt right? Share this post Link to post
HELLBRINGER 0 Posted July 15, 2001 Ok here are the results. I feel dissapointed. :-( I will do a WinME test here in a few... Hard Drive I also put in other sys benches, in case anyone wants to compare or sees a problem. CPU RAM Network Ok... I will post the stuff for jcurbo here in a sec... Share this post Link to post
HELLBRINGER 0 Posted July 15, 2001 Ok here we go... Quote: I have the exact same hard drive (Western Digital WD400BB-00AUA1) and it runs flawlessly for me at ATA100. First off, here's my system: 900 Mhz Thunderbird MSI K7T Turbo (which uses the VIA 686b southbridge) GeForce 2 MX400 SBLive aforementioned hard drive Creative 12x DVD-ROM generic 56x CD-ROM Creative 6432 CD-RW Windows 2000 Professional Debian GNU/Linux And another data point, previously I had a K7T Pro (686a) and a Promise Ultra100 20267 IDE Controller, which the hard drive also ran flawlessly on. I know that you have checked a lot of things trying to get this to work, but I'd like to throw a checklist at you again, since you haven't solved your problem yet, and hopefully we can find your problem. 1. Make sure you are using an ATA66 80-wire IDE cable. One of the connectors will be blue, and the ribbon itself will have smaller wires in it. ------------------------------------------------------------- I CHECKED THE CABLE... IT IS AN ATA100... 80 WIRE IDE CABLE. THE CONNECTOR TO THE MOTHERBOARD IS BLUE. THE RIBBON HAS SMALLER CABLES. I KNOW ITS A ATA-100 CABLE. ------------------------------------------------------------- 2. When your computer boots, what does it say on the second BIOS screen? The one that has everything listed in a table and gets scrolled off the screen by Windows loading is the one I am referencing. Mine lists my drive like so: Primary Master: LBA,ATA100,UDMA5 ------------------------------------------------------------- I CHECKED ALL OF THAT... IT READS LBA,ATA 100, 40022MB. BUT IT DOES NOT SAY UDMA 5 AND I CAN NOT FIGURE OUT HOW TO GET IT TO SAY THAT! I TRIED A FEW THINGS AND I CANNOT GET IT TO SAY UDMA 5. SO HOW DO I KNOW ITS USING UDMA 5??? ------------------------------------------------------------- 3. Check your BIOS settings. The ones in particular that matter are in Integrated Peripherals and are: Primary Master PIO Primary Master UDMA These should both be set to AUTO. ------------------------------------------------------------- THESE ARE BOTH ON AUTO AS SPECIFIED AS PRI SLAVE AND SEC MASTER AND SEC SLAVE. ------------------------------------------------------------- 4. Make sure you have the latest BIOS for your motherboard. ------------------------------------------------------------- I HAVE THE ONLY BIOS AVAILIABEL FOR MY BIOS. THE BOARD WAS RELEASED IN FEBURARY OF THIS YEAR AND IS DATED FEBRUARY 19, 2001. THERE IS NO NEW COPY FOR IT THAT I COULD FIND. I CHECKED UNICORE.COM OR WHAT EVER FOR BIOS UPDATES AND TALKED TO AN REP ABOUT IT THERE ARE NONE. ------------------------------------------------------------- 5. Check your Windows drivers. You will probably want the latest VIA 4in1 drivers, 4.32. In Win2k, under Device Manager, VIA Bus Master IDE Controller, the version number for viaide.sys is 5.0.2195.5110. Offhand I think that's not the newest version, but there has been 686b ATA100 support for the past 4 or 5 driver revisions, so as long as you are up to date, you will be ok. The procedure under WinME is similar. ------------------------------------------------------------- I CHECKED ALL THAT IT DOES SHOW 5.0.2195.5110 EXACTLY. ------------------------------------------------------------- 6. Make sure you have Service Pack 2 installed, on Win2k. There were issues with ATA100 that were fixed in SP1, IIRC. Plus, there are literally hundreds of things that SP1+2 fix. It's just a good idea in general. ------------------------------------------------------------- I HAVE SP1 INSTALLED, AND REINSTALLED SP2... AND SOME OTHER UPDATES SEE WHAT FILES I HAVE HERE I HAVE ALL OF THEM INSTALLED... UPDATES I HAVE ------------------------------------------------------------- 7. Check your settings in Device Manager. Under Primary IDE Channel->Advanced Settings, it should be set to DMA Mode If Available, and will register as Ultra DMA Mode on Win2k. (I noticed XP actually lists the mode number.. much nicer!) ------------------------------------------------------------- CHECKED THAT AS WELL. IT SAYS ULTRA UDMA MODE AND APPEARS TO BE WORKING FINE. I DO HAVE IT SET TO "DMA MODE IF AVAILABLE" ------------------------------------------------------------- That should just about cover everything related to ATA100. I don't have Sandra installed at the moment, but in HWINFO's benchmarks, I get 74.50 read burst rate and 16.81 random access mode, which are the best scores I have had yet. (They have gotten better as newer VIA IDE drivers have been released) I would also like to point out that ATA100 does not necessarily equal 100 MB/sec. This is a theoretical maximum, and usually get bottlenecked by other parts of your system, especially your PCI bus. Also, I noticed some posters said that you had to run a program from Western Digital to enable ATA100 mode on the hard drive. I never ran such a program and my drive has worked at ATA100 from the first time I plugged it in. I have never even put the WD disk in my floppy drive! I think I will check it out though, just to see what it says. But I didn't have to do a thing to get it to work... Anyway, I hope this post helps you out. I'll be checking this thread, but feel free to mail me at the address in my profile if you have any other questions about the drive. But it'd probably be best to keep the discussion here. James ------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------- I have looked EVERYTHING! I already checked all of this and it had no effect. The utility provided on the WD boot disk still says ATA33 and ATA33 only available and so does the updated version of the software. I wonder if it is not the motherboard it self or damage in the BIOS, the ROM on the hard drive, or a stream of bad IDE cables I have... Anything else I should check? WD is pretty much saying the same things as you guys and I am telling them the same thing I am telling you. They have stopped responding to me as of Wednesday. I think they are sick of hearing from me lol. Share this post Link to post
SLee 0 Posted July 15, 2001 HELLBRINGER, you need to check the Advanced Size Check option in HD Tach. Otherwise, it will only test the first 8GB of your hard drive. Still, looking at your burst speed, you're definitely in ATA100 mode. BTW, what's the model of your WD hard drive? Share this post Link to post
HELLBRINGER 0 Posted July 15, 2001 yeah but burst speed is jack crap really... i think the regular random reads suck ***... 6MB a sec!? com on! my freekin NETWORK CARD CAN GO FASTER! no wonder network never seems lagged... I still think something is wrong Share this post Link to post
EM 0 Posted July 15, 2001 Ok...three seperate systems. System #1: Supermicro P6DBE with dual 700e's @ 933 ATA33 bus 2 IBM 30g 7200rpm ATA 100 drives. Results down the list on Sandra's Disk benchmark are: 30 - 27 - 5 - 27 - 26 - 7 System #2 Abit VP6 with dual 600e's @ 900 ATA100 bus IBM 40g 7200rpm ATA 100 Drive Results down the list on Sandra are: 58 - 37 - 8 - 67 - 31 - 10 System #3 MSI 694D with dual 750's @ 750 ATA66 bus Quantum 26g 5400rpm ATA66 Results down the list on Sandra are: 36 - 19 - 5 - 28 - 19 - 5 As you can see, my first system has a buffered read of 30Mbytes and my second system has 58. Your results you show of 67 - 23 - 6 - 29 - 24 - 7 show reasonable results, considering that all of my systems are running dual procs. A 67 buffered read is more than twice as fast as my ATA33 bus will transfer, even with an ATA100 drive attached to it. Notice that the random reads on all my systems are 8, 5 and 5 with the ATA33 and ATA66 both being 5? Maybe the type of ATA33, ATA66 or ATA100 doesn't matter for this type of test. I posted this to give you an idea of how "old" technology versus "new" technology in ATA standards compares. Share this post Link to post
HELLBRINGER 0 Posted July 15, 2001 Yes... But shouldn't it go faster? Or is that average? I am not complaining of speed. I just dont see ATA100 on the WD option leads me to think it is having a problem. But the more I talk to you guys and compare it seems to me it is running just fine... I am just confused... LOL. Share this post Link to post
jcurbo 0 Posted July 15, 2001 I would definately say you are running at ATA100, after looking over what you told me in the earlier post. I got part of what I said wrong though, I probably caused you some undue grief I was typing it from memory though. The post-BIOS screen says "LBA,ATA100,40022 MB" and not "UDMA5" like I said before. That's my bad Also, keep in mind that even ATA66 drives can't really fill up 66 MB/sec continous data rate. Burst, yes, maybe. ATA100 scores tend to be about like the ones everyone else have said on this thread. Oh, and random access scores always suck. It takes a long time for the read/write head to move back and forth across the platters. The real speed on a hard drive comes from sequential access, because then the heads don't have to move and you're using the 7200 RPM of the drive to move from sector to sector. Share this post Link to post
HELLBRINGER 0 Posted July 15, 2001 Yeah I figured that... I still think it's a rip off though. If they say 100, it should be 100. Sorry but I think thats BS. Just my opinion. Share this post Link to post
