drive stuckin PIO mode

[perkster]

friend of mine has a problem where music he plays is stuttery even the windows startup sound, i recognised the symptom as being hard drive in PIO mode, and sure enough it was.

tried the uninstall the primary IDE from the device manager, but it stays in PIO mode.
ive tried script on the web to reset them
ive tried going in to registry and manually switching it to DMA mode again.

i have run scan disk, defrag, ccleaner etc in case it was a drive error causing it to go into PIO all the time all to no avail.

aside from replacing drive or reformatting it, does anyone have any ideas on how to resolve this or why the drive wont go into DMA?

Thanks

[EzyStvy]

Try a new cable.

[liambl]

Check in the BIOS under the drives properties for DMA options.

[perkster]

thanks guys will try both of those!

[perkster]

ok i replaced the IDE cable and made sure its a good connection but no luck with that., tried many times in registry and removing primary IDE channel. have run scan disk and found no errors, CCcleaner, AVG scan and defragged it.

So it must be either windows or the drive, but will check the bios settings.

The main symptom that is annoying is the stuttering of music, even the load windows sound, the computer otherwise doesnt run noticably slow. but it is stuck in PIO mode despite being set to DMA if available.

There is no soundcard so no reason or driver issue, i think its definately the PIO that causes the sound to stutter.

aside from BIOS and a repair windows install or complete reformat, anyone got any ideas?

[glc]

Specs, please?

[perkster]

I believe from memory it is a Dell Dimension 3100 with only a second hard drive added for backup and upgraded to 2gb of ram, all other specs as per the factory, onboard video and sound, a network card in PCI.

the drive that is stuck in PIO mode is a maxtor 80gb drive.

[thefultonhow]

I've seen this problem before, and I had to do a reformat to fix it. Maybe a repair install would work?

[glc]

If it's a Maxtor, run SeaTools on it. There is something wrong with the drive, not the computer.

You have verified that it has 80 wire cables and CS jumpering, right?

[TwoRails]

I've had good luck unsticking PIO mode by hooking up a different drive, boot and use it, then install the "old" drive.

[perkster]

thanks for tip tworails, glc, yes, replaced cable and it was working fine before it got stuck in PIO mode. both drives on cable select and on primary IDE channel and the boot drive is on the master part of the cable.

thefultonhow, thanks will try repair install but worried it would lose their documents etc, although a repair install shouldnt mess with the users and their docs but would need to convince them of that.

[thefultonhow]

Right, a repair install will leave all programs and files intact. It will only replace Windows components. Make sure you know how to do it, though -- it's kind of hidden in the setup. There is a tutorial in the Tips and Tricks section.

[glc]

BEFORE doing a repair install, you need to run drive diags. No sense in reinstalling if the drive is failing.

[perkster]

yeah ill run the UBCD hard drive tools on it as scandisk didnt find anything. then check BIOS for any settings that are stopping it and then do a repair install.

if memory serves you put in xp cd, it loads up the consol and you press r to do a repair install, correct?

glad it wotn disrupt the data files, will try it out. will the fact that it was an OEM dell be a prob if i use my win xp cd to initiate the repair install for them, based on fact they have licence and its not a fresh install? they wont have to reactivate will they?

thanks for help

[TwoRails]

Maybe I missed it, but did you try putting a different unit in there yet?

[perkster]

I havent got another bootable drive to put in there at moment tworails, and unless it boots into windows from the drive i put in its place it wont work will it? or can i put any drive in there let it say it cannot find any OS and then change it back and reboot?

[TwoRails]

Sorry, perkster, I had a "dooh!" moment. Have a lot on my mind right now and somehow I was thinking it was not the boot drive. Swapping it out would Not to any good as it's Windows that has to see a different drive int there for the trick to work.

Have you looked at?:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/817472 (this talks about how Windows will lock a drive into PIO mode. It's also why the swapping the drive trick will work on non-boot drives.)

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/920918

http://forums.microsoft.com/WindowsHomeServer/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=3115627&SiteID=50

[thefultonhow]

if memory serves you put in xp cd, it loads up the consol and you press r to do a repair install, correct?

No, you have to press Enter, then accept the license agreement by pressing F8. After that, it will say "Setup found a previous installation of Windows." Usually at that point you would press Esc, but you press R there instead. If you get to the screen that shows you the current partitions and allows you to delete and recreate them, you've gone too far.

will the fact that it was an OEM dell be a prob if i use my win xp cd to initiate the repair install for them, based on fact they have licence and its not a fresh install? they wont have to reactivate will they?

You need to use an OEM CD (not Upgrade or Retail). You will have to reactivate, but assuming you type in their product key, either it will be seamless (just click through the dialogs to activate) or if you have to call Microsoft, they will have no problem giving you an activation code.

[glc]

OEM Dell? Press F12 at startup and run Dell diagnostics. You don't need a CD.