UDMA status keep changing & VIA 4in1 question

[Orpheuss 0]

Help. Why my UDMA status keeps changing according to WinXP ?

This happens only on the Primary Master using my ATA66 IBM 22GXP.

First boot, it says the status is UDMA3 (eventhough it's an ATA66 hd). Once in a while, it

will really run at UDMA4.

But after some heavy harddisk activity, the status CHANGE to PIO. All this happens on the same

Windows session. In fact it happens within the first 10-15 minutes. It happens only on the

Primary Master. Checking the transfer rate using HDTach confirms that the hd transfer rate

is really falling. In Win2k, Microsoft says it is only the wrong status, but the harddisk is still

running at UDMA66, but I dont think this is the case with my WinXP. The harddisk is really losing

its UDMA, as indicated by the transfer rate which dropped from 50-52MB/sec to only 3-5 MB/sec.

Using my new ATA100 Seagate Barracuda IV, the problem is the same, so I think the problem is not

the harddisk itself, but might relate to VIA chipset, or WinXP driver for Via chipset ?

Anyone have this problem with hd performance losing its UDMA slowly ?

 

2nd question about Via 4in1:

For curiosity sake, I tried to solve the problem above by installing the latest VIA 4in1 4.33, but

the only available option to install is "The VIA 1.30 INF file". Where the hell "Atapi driver",

"Agp driver", and "IRQ Routing" go ? Using Win98SE, all options appears.

Is this normal for everyone here ?

 

Fyi, my system is Abit KT7 non-Raid, using Bios 3c.

[ThC 129 0]

ive read there is a problem with UDMA 66 on XP. I think tweakXP has an option to enable it. As for the 4in1 question, the only drivers really needed are the AGP drivers, which you can install by running the setup in Windows 2000 compatability mode, which is done by right clicking on the installer selecting properties, compatability tab, then win2k.

[Orpheuss 0]

I finally got an answer to this strange problem.

Read http://www.microsoft.com/hwdev/storage/IDE-DMA.htm

 

So much for WinXP. So fussy. Win2k is doing fine though.

[ThC 129 0]

well looks like you can thank VIA for making a poo poo chipset. Its just sad how much VIA can't make a northbridge on a motherboard. I know im going with AMD northbridge on my next board.