Worst DMA enabling problem ever

notarkard · 12-20-2008, 09:50 AM

I've had this HD for a while, and it's reverted back to PIO mode a couple of times in the past. All I've had to do in the past was uninstall the Secondary IDE Channel and restart.

Recently, my HD reverted back to PIO mode, so I tried to do what I normally do in that case. Unfortunately, it didn't work. Upon doing some more reading in these forums and some others, I have:

1. Run a Visual Basic script that edits the registry. - Did nothing
2. Edited the registry myself. - Did nothing
3. Run a chkdsk /r. - Did nothing
4. Did a system restore. - Did nothing.

Every time I uninstall the Secondary IDE channel and restart, it does go back to UDMA-5, but after some use will start going down to UDMA3, 2, 1, and eventually back to PIO. The process can take anywhere from 10 minutes to 8 hours of use. As you can imagine, it's very annoying when I have to uninstall the Secondary IDE channel every day just to be able to use the computer for a couple of hours. Not to mention, if it reverts to PIO mode, everything starts crawling and I'm at risk for the computer freezing and losing whatever I was working on at the time.

I've looked through my Event Viewer and there are a ton of Event ID 11 and 5 errors from "disk" and "atapi" respectively. Could this mean the hard drive itself is failing? It still works as far as data storage goes, and everything runs perfect until it gets switched back to PIO mode.

My HD model is a ST3160023A. My question is this: Is it possible to just force the drive into DMA mode? Not even give it the option to ever revert back to PIO? I know if there are enough drive errors, WinXP will do me the "favour" of switching to PIO, but I don't want it to do that. Can I just force the drive into permanent DMA mode?

I've been using Windows XP and now WinXP x64, basically since they both came out, so I know very little about Vista. Does Vista also perform this "favour" after several read errors? Would installing Vista force my drive into DMA mode forever?

Thanks for your time in responding.

notarkard · 12-21-2008, 07:16 AM

I'd consider anything to be useful advice. Even "buy a new hard drive."

Anyone out there with a bit of wisdom to toss my way?

**simpswr** · 12-22-2008, 11:01 AM

The drive is very likley failing . . you can download Seatools and run their diagostics to rule out failure

notarkard · 12-22-2008, 12:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by simpswr

The drive is very likley failing . . you can download Seatools and run their diagostics to rule out failure

I ran all the basic tests on SeaTools, and my HD apparently passed all of them. I'm going to run the longer tests in a bit to see if it does the same. I also tried the advanced settings to see if my firmware could be updated, but no dice there.

Just for the hell of it, I'm attaching my drive information in case any of it might come in useful in figuring out what's wrong.

Quote:

--------------- SeaTools for Windows v1.1.1.0 ---------------
12/22/2008 3:41:20 PM
Model: ST3160023A
Firmware Revision: 8.01
SMART - Pass 12/22/2008 3:41:20 PM
Short DST - Started 12/22/2008 3:41:39 PM
Short DST - Pass 12/22/2008 3:42:41 PM
Identify - Started 12/22/2008 3:42:55 PM
Identify - Pass 12/22/2008 3:42:57 PM
SMART: Supported and enabled
48-bit Address feature set supported: True
Max LBA: 312581808
Host Protected Area features: Supported and enabled
Mandatory Power Management: Supported and enabled
Security Mode: Supported not enabled
SET MAX security extension: Supported not enabled
Advanced Power Managment: Not Supported
Download Firmware: False
SMART self-test supported: True
SMART error logging supported: True
Drive Temperature(C/F): 43/109
Power-On Hours: 28286
Short Generic - Started 12/22/2008 3:43:19 PM
Short Generic - Pass 12/22/2008 3:52:05 PM
Test Unavailable - Test Unavailable 12/22/2008 3:52:58 PM
Test Unavailable - Test Unavailable 12/22/2008 3:53:10 PM
Identify - Started 12/22/2008 3:57:51 PM
Identify - Pass 12/22/2008 3:57:52 PM
Identify - Started 12/22/2008 4:01:05 PM
Identify - Pass 12/22/2008 4:01:06 PM
SMART: Supported and enabled
48-bit Address feature set supported: True
Max LBA: 312581808
Host Protected Area features: Supported and enabled
Mandatory Power Management: Supported and enabled
Security Mode: Supported not enabled
SET MAX security extension: Supported not enabled
Advanced Power Managment: Not Supported
Download Firmware: False
SMART self-test supported: True
SMART error logging supported: True
Drive Temperature(C/F): 43/109
Power-On Hours: 28287

Man, look at all those hours! I know the drive is extremely old, which is why I was surprised that it passed every test on SeaTools. Barring drive failure, what other possibilities are there for all these disk read errors on my system viewer that cause XP to switch me to PIO mode?

Could the IDE cable be faulty? It's not loose, since I adjusted it when this problem started, but it might be... "aged."

I'm going to buy a new hard drive for christmas, anyway, and I have all my important data backed up on portable media and devices. Still, I want to figure out what's wrong so that I know how to troubleshoot this in the future; any advice as to what might be wrong is still welcome.

12-20-2008, 09:50 AM	#1 (permalink)
notarkard Registered User Join Date: May 2007 Posts: 18 OS: WinXP	Worst DMA enabling problem ever I've had this HD for a while, and it's reverted back to PIO mode a couple of times in the past. All I've had to do in the past was uninstall the Secondary IDE Channel and restart. Recently, my HD reverted back to PIO mode, so I tried to do what I normally do in that case. Unfortunately, it didn't work. Upon doing some more reading in these forums and some others, I have: 1. Run a Visual Basic script that edits the registry. - Did nothing 2. Edited the registry myself. - Did nothing 3. Run a chkdsk /r. - Did nothing 4. Did a system restore. - Did nothing. Every time I uninstall the Secondary IDE channel and restart, it does go back to UDMA-5, but after some use will start going down to UDMA3, 2, 1, and eventually back to PIO. The process can take anywhere from 10 minutes to 8 hours of use. As you can imagine, it's very annoying when I have to uninstall the Secondary IDE channel every day just to be able to use the computer for a couple of hours. Not to mention, if it reverts to PIO mode, everything starts crawling and I'm at risk for the computer freezing and losing whatever I was working on at the time. I've looked through my Event Viewer and there are a ton of Event ID 11 and 5 errors from "disk" and "atapi" respectively. Could this mean the hard drive itself is failing? It still works as far as data storage goes, and everything runs perfect until it gets switched back to PIO mode. My HD model is a ST3160023A. My question is this: Is it possible to just force the drive into DMA mode? Not even give it the option to ever revert back to PIO? I know if there are enough drive errors, WinXP will do me the "favour" of switching to PIO, but I don't want it to do that. Can I just force the drive into permanent DMA mode? I've been using Windows XP and now WinXP x64, basically since they both came out, so I know very little about Vista. Does Vista also perform this "favour" after several read errors? Would installing Vista force my drive into DMA mode forever? Thanks for your time in responding. Last edited by notarkard; 12-20-2008 at 09:51 AM.

12-21-2008, 07:16 AM	#2 (permalink)
notarkard Registered User Join Date: May 2007 Posts: 18 OS: WinXP	Re: Worst DMA enabling problem ever I'd consider anything to be useful advice. Even "buy a new hard drive." Anyone out there with a bit of wisdom to toss my way?

12-22-2008, 11:01 AM	#3 (permalink)
simpswr Moderator Hardware Team Join Date: May 2007 Location: Houston, Texas Posts: 8,936 OS: XP, Vista	Re: Worst DMA enabling problem ever The drive is very likley failing . . you can download Seatools and run their diagostics to rule out failure __________________ Rich MemTest86 \| BenchTest \| Virus/Trojan/Spyware Help \| How to Post a Screen shot \| PC running slow?]