well if you want to test the hd, i'd really get the hd manufacturer diag program. Copying a big file might tell you if the drive is failing in some cases but not all, it just depends on where the hypothetical bad sector(s) are and copying a huge file might hit the bad sectors and it might not..so its not a 100% sure test.

 

I don't think it has bad sectors or anything like that. I think it may have a faulty IDE controller so that's it's switching DMA to pio mode and back. Or it could be the IDE controller or south bridge on the mobo or it could be the optical drive, idk. But it's not having problems reading files

 

Still confused... What led you to think it would be the DMA and pio?

 

Googling why my interrupts where so high in sysinternals process explorer. I found others on the sysinternals forum having the same problems and it was cause the IDE channel was in pio mode

 

PIO mode would cause higher interrupts because the data between the drive and memory must pass through the CPU. Any memory reads/writes a drive in PIO mode peforms must pass through the CPU.

DMA is exactly what it is, direct memory access. This allows the drive to read/write data to/from memory without needing to pass through the CPU, eliminating load on the CPU.

 

I had this problem before. Turned out the IDE cable was bad. Basically you want transfers to take place using DMA Mode 5 (5 is the highest/fastest). But on data transfer errors, Windows sets the mode to the next slowest speed (Mode 4, then 3, then 2, then 1, 0) and after that it's PIO (programmed I/O, which is super slow since it uses the CPU).

An IDE cable only needs 40 pins. But they make 80 pin cables which just have 40 extra ground wires in between which is supposed to help with noise or whatever. I would try a new 40 pin cable and then maybe an 80 pin.

But the underlying this is that if you get to PIO, you have data errors and windows just kept "slowing down" the transfer mode until it hit rock bottom (PIO). Also check your Event Viewer, you should have stuff in there relating to it.

 

Except that we're talking about a laptop.

It's so old that, if you needed to dig in and replace a cable...I dunno if ripping the thing apart is worth the time and effort.

 

What's the worst that can happen?

 

Thanks new guy!! I read that samething elsewhere. Problem is it's an old laptop which I'm gonna assume has it's own custom cable. I hope I can still get that part if that ends up being what it is.

 

Oops...must've skipped that part. But it's still the same concept: data can't be transferred as fast as it should so Windows reverts to lower speed.

My laptop, I have to squeeze it everytime it freezes.

 

Also, check to see if there are new chipset drivers for your motherboard/laptop and also make sure your BIOS is up-to-date. Does this computer get suspended a lot? It's possible the suspend/wakeup process isn't fully bug-free (very common) and as such the hard-drive might miss the wakeup event and appear to be faulty (in terms of Windows).

 

HAHA!! Success BITCHES!!! It's the Optical drive!! I took it out (very easy BTW only one screw) and when I booted back up it gave me an error that "the device in the system modular bay can't be identified or has some other error, press esc to continue", I wasn't sure what they meant by that at the time cause I'd been getting this error every so often when I turned the laptop on but everything seemed to work fine. Well I guess the optical drive has gone rogue and now when I shake it like a salt shaka it doesn't do shit. So I reinstalled the optical drive and it's not recognizing it, I guess sometimes it does get recognized by windows and when it does I get the interrupt problem but when it doesn't everything works fine. But now I have to tell her it's gonna be $95 for a refurbished optical drive!!!! Unless you guys know where to get one new for cheaper and it'll work in an Inspiron 2200.

 

hmm, i wonder if its a loose connection, clean the contact points real good and try it or better yet, make a shim out of paper to make the drive fit a little more snug and see if it will work.

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/Dell-Inspiron-22...QQcmdZViewItem

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/Dell-Inspiron-60...QQcmdZViewItem

 

I think that you giving Azine 1/3 of your profits is required at this point.







Just kidding!

 

AZ search FTMFW! It found this thread on the first try!

Anyways so I'm back again with a different laptop this time but similar problem but not as crazy. This other girl's laptop is slow as fuck cause the hard drive this time is stuck in PIO mode instead of DMA. I did what I did before and uninstalled the Primary and Secondary IDE channels from the device manager then restarted and let XP reinstall them and then restarted again and when it came back up it was still in PIO mode. This is a new hard drive that I put in this girls laptop a couple weeks ago. I ghosted her old 40gb drive using the Ultimate Boot CD that I linked to in my software/tip thread and transferred all her data to the new 160gb drive. So do you think the drive is bad and I should get it replaced?

This laptop is being a real pain in my ass. Originally it had a problem where it wouldn't recognize the CD drive and that was a software problem fixed by deleting the upper and lower filters in the registry. Then it was I can rip CDs but can't burn. Now it's unbearably slow cause of PIO mode and it sux. Also she wanted me to upgrade her ram from 512 to 1gb so I did that but the RAM I got wouldn't let the system boot. So I payed the restocking fee and replaced it with RAM that the user reviews said would work with old compaq laptops (which this is). I install the RAM today and it won't boot when I replace both of the old sticks with the new ones. If I leave one of the old sticks and insert one of the new ones then it'll boot but I have to leave one of the old ones in there. WTF is the deal with that? Seriously I want to know. Is this so they can make money by forcing you to buy RAM only from the OEM and not from somewhere else? Cause that's :theghey:!

So now I've got to tell this girl that she can only use half of the RAM she paid for and the hard drive she bought is probably fucked too! And then I'll have to pay shipping and the restock fee again (about $12 total) if she wants the RAM returned. So I'd be out $25 on the thing after two returns. Pissing me off!

 

Compaq used to be really picky about ram, maybe it's less so since they became HP, but the rule used to be use Compaq ram for Compaq systems.

Back to the HD, does the event log show any errors? Here's a page with lots of DMA/PIO info: http://winhlp.com/node/10

 

I usually hit up kingston's website and use their guide to find compatible system ram.

I seriously doubt the drive is bad.

How old is this machine? whats the model #

 

www.discountelectronics.com

^^Great resource for surplus Dell parts and computers.

 

That's lame. I'll check event viewer later. I was on that site last night
It's a compaq v2000 presario laptop I think.
thanks I'll check it out.

 

Back up in your ass with the resurrection.

Dealing with this PIO mode issue on another PC. Remembered this thread and looked it up. I think this one was caused by a rootkit in the boot sector, TDSSKiller got rid of it.

 

Jesus. If it ain't SATA yet, get a freaking $10 adapter card and a new drive.