8i945P-G drives in PIO mode

mattinsocal8911 · 07-09-2008, 07:17 AM

Hi Sandra is reporting that transfer modes active is PIO-0 for my hard drives in my RAID 0 Array. I get performance tip 3108 which says "Drive is using PIO instead of DMA. This seriously limits performance of modern drives." All it says is to check settings and install an updated driver.
PS to Eneles I looked in device mgr for my device and there is no setting for this IT8212 ATA raid controller that you mentioned
I did DL and install an updated driver recently maybe it went wrong. Go to work now thanks specs in sig.

mattinsocal8911 · 07-09-2008, 07:44 AM

Here is a screenshot of my device mgr...in jpg

normal windows usage is ok but video apps and gaming are laggy.

mattinsocal8911 · 08-12-2008, 11:15 PM

Hi all just to update my post a little with new info. I have been searching all over for clues as to why SANDRA is reporting the slow speed on the drives.
Well I guess I would have to see what she (SANDRA) is seeing. SANDRA is is a smart program that reports just what she sees. She may be only looking at one hard drive at a time too. But, I have two drives not one. So take the speed she sees and multiply it by two and we get PIO * 2 = X. X would be the true speed overall. What X is I do not know. I will come back to this in a while when I get more information.
I have found out that windows XP does not support Dynamic disks. After googling around the web, I stopped at this site among others. ->
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314343
which says the same " NOTE: Dynamic disks are not supported on portable computers or on Windows XP Home Edition-based computers. " Go figure that out?? I have a RAID 0 array operating with windows XP home edition on a hardware controller.

Well I do know actually. I think it has something to do with the hardware making it look like a single windows disk. So windows is being fooled?
More to come stay tuned..."zzzzzzzzzzz" good night.

mattinsocal8911 · 08-16-2008, 01:44 PM

Even more information ! quote "She may be only looking at one hard drive at a time too. But, I have two drives not one. So take the speed she sees and multiply it by two and we get PIO * 2 = X. X would be the true speed overall. What X is I do not know. I will come back to this in a while when I get more information."
The PIO speeds can vary from 3.3 to 16.7 MB/s ( http://www.pixelbeat.org/speeds.html ),So the formula can be 3.3 * 2 = 6.6 MB/s for the low side. Here is the high side 16.7 MB/s * 2 = 33.4 MB/s I have HDTACH reporting an AVG read of 68MB/s and HD Tune reports 34.1MB/s AVG speed.

More interestingly (FYI) I found the manual for the mobo stating the PCI CLOCK speed is 33MHZ Which can be translated into MB/s using this formula from TomsHardware here > http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/187317-28-speed "PCI = 33Mhz x 4 bytes (32 bits) = 133MB/s AFAIK everything that rides on this bus would be " shared among other pci devices. " sound card, ethernet card etc... (thanks tomshardware).
The first place to check should have been the BIOS for the RAID controller, which I have found is integrated in to the mainboard BIOS. I also found to properly update the BIOS the RAID controller should be enabled in the BIOS and set to RAID (no links for this yet). I do have the updated BIOS version F11 (mobo BIOS) and I see the ITE BIOS is v 1.71 with a firmware version of 02093030 I may try to reflash the BIOS with RAID enabled this time, after backing up of course. Chow Guys

~~wiseleo~~ · 08-16-2008, 04:12 PM

If the drive is in PIO mode, it is likely to be failing.

A full backup must be made.

The drives must be tested individually using manufacturer's tools. If there are errors, replace the failing drive.

If there are no errors, proceed according to this: http://users.bigpond.net.au/ninjaduc...duck/udma_fix/

mattinsocal8911 · 08-17-2008, 12:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wiseleo

If the drive is in PIO mode, it is likely to be failing.

A full backup must be made.

The drives must be tested individually using manufacturer's tools. If there are errors, replace the failing drive.

If there are no errors, proceed according to this: http://users.bigpond.net.au/ninjaduc...duck/udma_fix/

Ah I see they have to be tested individually cuz the RAID array will not allow them to be individually tested. So I need to remove them (after a full backup ) then put one on the main IDE controller and test it prolly with a floppy disk or cd with the program on it, right? And I am still reading the information you gave but I get the feeling that windows may be to blame for all of this. When drive access attempts fail 6 times then windows bumps the drive down one speed at a time. Eventually falling in the PIO mode ditch with no way out???
About hard drive checks and upgrades there is a RAID upgrade available and I thought I applied it even though it was not necessary also formatted with the drive utility too before installing the array.

About reformatting every time will that harm the drives? I will do it again as I want to be sure that I start fresh.
I have some PIX to share too of HDTach (ver 3.0 ) These pix were after I did a BIOS flash with RAID enabled and then uninstalled the RAID controller (which I do not recommend for noobies I was scared

) and it reinstalled but stated it could not load the registry OOPS! But it found a way around that problem and finnally loaded but still no resolution the the problem.
Thanks TONS!

~~wiseleo~~ · 08-17-2008, 02:25 PM

Windows stepping down the speed is the symptom.

Drive health, controller health, or controller driver is the root cause of the problem. :)

Fix the root cause and that should solve the problem. Do nothing without a complete backup. :)

Reformatting won't make a difference. You can reformat a drive a million times without any ill effects, except for normal wear and tear of operating a drive for that period of time.

The heads inside the drive do not touch the data surfaces.

mattinsocal8911 · 08-21-2008, 07:16 AM

Hi Thanks for the help
I have managed to backup and test the drives with lifeguard diagnostics floppy which I copied. Tests were performed on the primary IDE controller with no CD DVD drive connected. The drives were set acording to the connection IE single drive had no jumpers and two drives had master configured as master-slave was configured as slave. Had some trouble with my HP monitor getting a wavy screen till it warmed up but thats the way it is now(speakers damaged the screen with electromagnetic effect).

Test Results: One hard drive had error code 0007 READ ELEMENT FAILURE
Lifeguard Diagnostics repaired the drive

Other drive tested good with code 0000 NO ERRORS

Made sure to re-format the drives and also this time instructions said to set detection to auto and also set to LBA mode if available. I did set it like that this time before formatting with the tool. The drives are back in the array and windows XP home is loaded(I know XP home does not support dynamic disks, but this is a test setup for now to resolve the problem)
More later......

07-09-2008, 07:17 AM	#1 (permalink)
mattinsocal8911 Registered User Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Southern California Posts: 127 OS: WinXP SP2	8i945P-G drives in PIO mode Hi Sandra is reporting that transfer modes active is PIO-0 for my hard drives in my RAID 0 Array. I get performance tip 3108 which says "Drive is using PIO instead of DMA. This seriously limits performance of modern drives." All it says is to check settings and install an updated driver. PS to Eneles I looked in device mgr for my device and there is no setting for this IT8212 ATA raid controller that you mentioned I did DL and install an updated driver recently maybe it went wrong. Go to work now thanks specs in sig. __________________ My Current System: CPU: Pentium 4 3.0 GHz Gigabyte GA-8i945P-G RAM: 1 GB DDR2 8800GTS 640MB DDR3,PCIe Windows XP SP2 x86

08-12-2008, 11:15 PM	#3 (permalink)
mattinsocal8911 Registered User Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Southern California Posts: 127 OS: WinXP SP2	Re: 8i945P-G drives in PIO mode Hi all just to update my post a little with new info. I have been searching all over for clues as to why SANDRA is reporting the slow speed on the drives. Well I guess I would have to see what she (SANDRA) is seeing. SANDRA is is a smart program that reports just what she sees. She may be only looking at one hard drive at a time too. But, I have two drives not one. So take the speed she sees and multiply it by two and we get PIO * 2 = X. X would be the true speed overall. What X is I do not know. I will come back to this in a while when I get more information. I have found out that windows XP does not support Dynamic disks. After googling around the web, I stopped at this site among others. -> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314343 which says the same " NOTE: Dynamic disks are not supported on portable computers or on Windows XP Home Edition-based computers. " Go figure that out?? I have a RAID 0 array operating with windows XP home edition on a hardware controller. Well I do know actually. I think it has something to do with the hardware making it look like a single windows disk. So windows is being fooled? More to come stay tuned..."zzzzzzzzzzz" good night. __________________ My Current System: CPU: Pentium 4 3.0 GHz Gigabyte GA-8i945P-G RAM: 1 GB DDR2 8800GTS 640MB DDR3,PCIe Windows XP SP2 x86

08-16-2008, 01:44 PM	#4 (permalink)
mattinsocal8911 Registered User Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Southern California Posts: 127 OS: WinXP SP2	Re: 8i945P-G drives in PIO mode Even more information ! quote "She may be only looking at one hard drive at a time too. But, I have two drives not one. So take the speed she sees and multiply it by two and we get PIO * 2 = X. X would be the true speed overall. What X is I do not know. I will come back to this in a while when I get more information." The PIO speeds can vary from 3.3 to 16.7 MB/s ( http://www.pixelbeat.org/speeds.html ),So the formula can be 3.3 * 2 = 6.6 MB/s for the low side. Here is the high side 16.7 MB/s * 2 = 33.4 MB/s I have HDTACH reporting an AVG read of 68MB/s and HD Tune reports 34.1MB/s AVG speed. More interestingly (FYI) I found the manual for the mobo stating the PCI CLOCK speed is 33MHZ Which can be translated into MB/s using this formula from TomsHardware here > http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/187317-28-speed "PCI = 33Mhz x 4 bytes (32 bits) = 133MB/s AFAIK everything that rides on this bus would be " shared among other pci devices. " sound card, ethernet card etc... (thanks tomshardware). The first place to check should have been the BIOS for the RAID controller, which I have found is integrated in to the mainboard BIOS. I also found to properly update the BIOS the RAID controller should be enabled in the BIOS and set to RAID (no links for this yet). I do have the updated BIOS version F11 (mobo BIOS) and I see the ITE BIOS is v 1.71 with a firmware version of 02093030 I may try to reflash the BIOS with RAID enabled this time, after backing up of course. Chow Guys __________________ My Current System: CPU: Pentium 4 3.0 GHz Gigabyte GA-8i945P-G RAM: 1 GB DDR2 8800GTS 640MB DDR3,PCIe Windows XP SP2 x86 Last edited by mattinsocal8911 : 08-16-2008 at 01:52 PM.

08-16-2008, 04:12 PM	#5 (permalink)
~~wiseleo~~ Troubled Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: San Francisco Bay Area Posts: 461 OS: Win 2003 SP2 My System	Re: 8i945P-G drives in PIO mode If the drive is in PIO mode, it is likely to be failing. A full backup must be made. The drives must be tested individually using manufacturer's tools. If there are errors, replace the failing drive. If there are no errors, proceed according to this: http://users.bigpond.net.au/ninjaduc...duck/udma_fix/

08-17-2008, 02:25 PM	#7 (permalink)
~~wiseleo~~ Troubled Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: San Francisco Bay Area Posts: 461 OS: Win 2003 SP2 My System	Re: 8i945P-G drives in PIO mode Windows stepping down the speed is the symptom. Drive health, controller health, or controller driver is the root cause of the problem. :) Fix the root cause and that should solve the problem. Do nothing without a complete backup. :) Reformatting won't make a difference. You can reformat a drive a million times without any ill effects, except for normal wear and tear of operating a drive for that period of time. The heads inside the drive do not touch the data surfaces.

08-21-2008, 07:16 AM	#8 (permalink)
mattinsocal8911 Registered User Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Southern California Posts: 127 OS: WinXP SP2	Re: 8i945P-G drives in PIO mode Hi Thanks for the help I have managed to backup and test the drives with lifeguard diagnostics floppy which I copied. Tests were performed on the primary IDE controller with no CD DVD drive connected. The drives were set acording to the connection IE single drive had no jumpers and two drives had master configured as master-slave was configured as slave. Had some trouble with my HP monitor getting a wavy screen till it warmed up but thats the way it is now(speakers damaged the screen with electromagnetic effect). Test Results: One hard drive had error code 0007 READ ELEMENT FAILURE Lifeguard Diagnostics repaired the drive Other drive tested good with code 0000 NO ERRORS Made sure to re-format the drives and also this time instructions said to set detection to auto and also set to LBA mode if available. I did set it like that this time before formatting with the tool. The drives are back in the array and windows XP home is loaded(I know XP home does not support dynamic disks, but this is a test setup for now to resolve the problem) More later...... __________________ My Current System: CPU: Pentium 4 3.0 GHz Gigabyte GA-8i945P-G RAM: 1 GB DDR2 8800GTS 640MB DDR3,PCIe Windows XP SP2 x86