Secondary Hard Drive Problem [pio4, crc errors]

[mbobilin]

Hello,
System:
AMD Phenom II X6
Mobo: ASUS M5A97 LE R2.0
DD3 8 Gigs

I just received a WD Caviar Black 1 TB HDD and it runs slow. It switches to Pio4 whenever I try to use it. I have ran HD Tune and it reported CRC errors. I have ran disk check, no problems. I have updated BIOS, chipset. I have switched cables and ports several times.

I have uninstalled the controllers hoping to reset it to Ultra DMA 6. When I run the computer in safe mode it lasts longer in DMA mode until I try to do several things with it then it eventually goes to pio4 mode. I did notice under the IDE ATA controllers in device manager there is: ATA Channel 0, ATA Channel 3, Standard AHCI 1.0 Serial ATA Controller. When I check under the channels the device description it lists IDE Channel. I'm not sure if this is what it should be.

I have no idea what else I can do. The HDD seems to work but I'm not sure. I checked all the BIOS settings and they seem to be right.

I don't know what to do next.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[mbobilin]

The test is sketchy on my HDD. Sometimes it passes. Sometimes it's unresponsive. It reads it fine and I have no problems formatting it.

They are sending me a new one, but I don't want to get it and have the same problem.

It's acts similar to like a firewall. When it runs in DMA its really fast, but it's almost as if something is blocking the connection.

I don't know if there's like a Windows 7 setting or BIOS setting that I need to fix to allow it to communicate effectively.

I read something about indexing the drive. I'm not sure what it means (unless it just means D: drive). I lost the site though. 🙁

 

[mbobilin]

Or if there's an AHCI driver I need to get from Windows/ASUS. I've been building computers for a long time and this is the first time I've come across this issue before.

 

[mbobilin]

Also, under the ATA Channels in Device Manager for the Device description is it supposed to say IDE Channel or something else like AHCI/SATA or whatever channel?

 

[mbobilin]

Update:
Now my IDE ATA controllers switched to just: AMD SATA Controller

My HDs are now listed as SATA Disk Device now.

However, my secondary hard drive is still unresponsive.

Do I have to reinstall Windows, Reset BIOS, or regedit something?

Or is it most likely my HDD was defective?

 

[fzabkar]

Try reducing the SATA link speed with the OPT1 jumper.

Jumper Settings for WD SATA and EIDE Hard Drives:
http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/library/other/2579-001037.pdf

Could we see HD Tune's SMART report and read benchmark graph?

 

[mbobilin]

Bump.

Just got the replacement HDD and I'm having the same problem.

This is so frustrating. It didn't come with a jumper thing and I don't have one.

The HDD works for about 30 seconds really fast then just goes unresponsive and I have to restart my computer the majority of the time.

I just bought a new power supply but maybe there's not enough power from my outlet? I have tons of electronics/fans connected into them... I'm out of ideas.

Someone pls HELPP.

Thanks.

 

[mbobilin]

I put the jumper to enable OPT1 settings and it seemed to work.

Now am I curious of what that means? How to fix it? Will I be able to use my new HD with its full efficiency?

What makes it so not having this jumper set like that makes the HD not work?

I'm curious.

 

[fzabkar]

The OPT1 jumper forces the HDD to autonegotiate a lower SATA link rate. It appears that there are much less communications errors at the lower speed.

As for how to "fix" the problem, if HD Tune's benchmark graph is displaying the full curve, then you don't really need to fix anything. Otherwise, if the curve has a long flat plateau at the outer zones, then that might require investigating.

 

[mbobilin]

so what does the lower SATA link speed actually mean?

i'll run HD Tune in a bit to check it out.

Thanks for help.

 

[fzabkar]

"Link speed" is the speed of transmission over the SATA data cable.

Let's say you have a SATA controller on your motherboard that is only designed for 3Gbps link speeds. If you plug a 6Gbps drive into the SATA port, then it will need to negotiate a mutually acceptable link speed with the SATA controller.

Alternatively, it could be that a 6Gbps controller and a 6Gbps HDD cannot communicate at 6Gbps without errors, so they would normally shift to a lower speed, eg 3Gbps. In fact some SMART reports have a "SATA Downshift" attribute. In your case it could be that the two parties are persisting with an error prone link speed that neither can properly handle, so you need to intervene by forcing them to negotiate a lower speed. As long as the link speed is greater than the drive's maximum sustained data transfer rate, then you should see no performance hit.

 

[mbobilin]

I did the read benchmark and it says my main HDD with the OS is 65-86 MBps and my new one is 100-140 MBps.

Should I put my OS on the new one or is it not a big deal?

 

[mbobilin]

C: Read: 67126 KB/s Write 69034 KB/s

D: Read: 120112 KB/s Write 115982 KB/s

OS is on C, Should I make D my main drive?

 

[fzabkar]

Numbers on their own don't tell the full story. The shape of the curve is important.

Can we see the actual graph?

 

[mbobilin]

Read Graphs:

C:

D:

will update the C drive w/ the access time in a sec.

 

[mbobilin]

C: Read: