Slow read speeds with KT7E

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Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.abit (More info?)

Hi,

I know that the KT7E is an old board, but I'm trying putting together a
system with it. My config thus far:

- Motherboard: KT7E
- BIOS: A9 (last version from Abit)
- CPU: Duron 1.2
- Memory: 768MB of PC133 (3x256)
- Drive: Seagate 80GB (8MB Cache), as Primary Master, set for cable select
- CD drive on Secondary Master
- OS: Win2K Pro SP4

I am using HDTach, and am getting read speeds in the 35MB/s range.

I've also tested with Winbench 99, and that gives me approx. the same speed.

I have the same model Seagate in another system with an Asus A7A266, and am
getting approx. 70MB/s read speeds.

I confirmed that I'm using an 80-pin IDE cable, and BIOS display is showing
the drive as ATA100.

I'm running the default MS IDE controller drivers, etc., and have confirmed
that "Ultra DMA" is set.

I've been trying to figure out what the problem is for awhile, and I've
tried removing one of the memory sticks (found an old post that said that
KT7E might have problems with 3 sticks), and also switching to "Standard PC"
(vs. ACPI).

Nothing I've tried thus far has helped.

Has anyone run across this before? If so, how to get the HDTach read speed
to where an ATA100 should be?

Thanks in advance,
Jim
 
Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.abit (More info?)

"Jens C. Hansen [Odense]" <"Jens C. Hansen [Odense]"> wrote in message
news:407ea0f7$0$168$edfadb0f@dtext02.news.tele.dk...
> ohaya wrote:
> >
> > I am using HDTach, and am getting read speeds in the 35MB/s range.
> > I've also tested with Winbench 99, and that gives me approx. the same
speed.
> > I have the same model Seagate in another system with an Asus A7A266, and
am
> > getting approx. 70MB/s read speeds.
> > I confirmed that I'm using an 80-pin IDE cable, and BIOS display is
showing
> > the drive as ATA100.
>
> Bad cable?
> Try a new one.

Jens,

Thanks, but I've tried that.

I think that I may have accidentally found at least part of the problem.

I have a USB 802.11b Wireless Adapter (a Gigafast). When I powered the
machine on while testing once, the adapter didn't get recognized. When I
ran HDTach, I was getting 55MB/s burst read, vs. ~35MB/s with the adapter
installed. I've now confirmed this several times by booting the machine
with and without the adapter.

Without the adapter, the 55MB/s still seems kind of slow for an ATA100, I
think?

Also, my CPU Utilization is 20-28%, though I'm getting ~3% with Winbench...

Jim
 
Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.abit (More info?)

ohaya wrote:
>
> I am using HDTach, and am getting read speeds in the 35MB/s range.
> I've also tested with Winbench 99, and that gives me approx. the same speed.
> I have the same model Seagate in another system with an Asus A7A266, and am
> getting approx. 70MB/s read speeds.
> I confirmed that I'm using an 80-pin IDE cable, and BIOS display is showing
> the drive as ATA100.

Bad cable?
Try a new one.
 
Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.abit (More info?)

> I think that I may have accidentally found at least part of the problem.
>
> I have a USB 802.11b Wireless Adapter (a Gigafast). When I powered the
> machine on while testing once, the adapter didn't get recognized. When I
> ran HDTach, I was getting 55MB/s burst read, vs. ~35MB/s with the adapter
> installed. I've now confirmed this several times by booting the machine
> with and without the adapter.
>
> Without the adapter, the 55MB/s still seems kind of slow for an ATA100, I
> think?
>
> Also, my CPU Utilization is 20-28%, though I'm getting ~3% with
Winbench...
>
> Jim

I have KT7A, running 2 hdd's on primary IDE channel, with 80pin cable. Both
running in UDMA5.
Master is Seagate 40GB 2mb cache 5400 rpm --> 44Mb/s burst
Slave is WesternDigital 120GB 8mb cache 7200rpm -->42Mb/s burst

CPu is Duron 1.66GHz, 512mb PC133. I guess there is some driver problem.
 
Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.abit (More info?)

"Asestar" <a s e s t a r @ s t a r t . n o> wrote in message
news:HLBfc.79698$BD3.9256396@juliett.dax.net...
> > I think that I may have accidentally found at least part of the problem.
> >
> > I have a USB 802.11b Wireless Adapter (a Gigafast). When I powered the
> > machine on while testing once, the adapter didn't get recognized. When
I
> > ran HDTach, I was getting 55MB/s burst read, vs. ~35MB/s with the
adapter
> > installed. I've now confirmed this several times by booting the machine
> > with and without the adapter.
> >
> > Without the adapter, the 55MB/s still seems kind of slow for an ATA100,
I
> > think?
> >
> > Also, my CPU Utilization is 20-28%, though I'm getting ~3% with
> Winbench...
> >
> > Jim
>
> I have KT7A, running 2 hdd's on primary IDE channel, with 80pin cable.
Both
> running in UDMA5.
> Master is Seagate 40GB 2mb cache 5400 rpm --> 44Mb/s burst
> Slave is WesternDigital 120GB 8mb cache 7200rpm -->42Mb/s burst
>
> CPu is Duron 1.66GHz, 512mb PC133. I guess there is some driver problem.
>
>

Hi,

Thanks for your info.

Frustrating isn't it?

Does anyone have a KT7E/KT7 that has been able to do better than ATA66
speeds with HDTach and Winbench??? If so, how?

Jim
 
Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.abit (More info?)

> Hi,
>
> Thanks for your info.
>
> Frustrating isn't it?
>
> Does anyone have a KT7E/KT7 that has been able to do better than ATA66
> speeds with HDTach and Winbench??? If so, how?
>
> Jim


Well, I was not even aware of this problem untill you mentioned it 🙁 Maybe
has to be something to do with having both Hdd on one IDE channel?



--
"Ignorance is a bliss" Cypher
 
Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.abit (More info?)

On Fri, 16 Apr 2004 15:54:27 GMT, "Asestar" <a s e s t a r @ s t a r t
.. n o> wrote:

>> Hi,
>>
>> Thanks for your info.
>>
>> Frustrating isn't it?
>>
>> Does anyone have a KT7E/KT7 that has been able to do better than ATA66
>> speeds with HDTach and Winbench??? If so, how?
>>
>> Jim
>
>
>Well, I was not even aware of this problem untill you mentioned it 🙁 Maybe
>has to be something to do with having both Hdd on one IDE channel?


Well, there's the obvious: make sure you've got the VIA chipset
drivers installed; also George Breese's PCI Latency patch and
disabling or setting to 0 PCI Latency settings in your BIOS.
Theoretically, more recent 4in1 drivers are supposed to incorporate
George Breese's patch and make the BIOS setting unnecessary, but they
all still seem to help - belt'n'braces maybe!

Try flat ribbon IDE cables rather than round ones, as well: I found
once that with a board I was having IDE problems with, flat cables
produced much better results than rounded ones.

Possibly try the VIA SCSI Miniport IDE driver rather than the regular
one in the 4in1 set. That improves IDE performance, too.


patrickp

patrickp@5acoustibop.co.uk - take five to email me
 
Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.abit (More info?)

"patrickp" <me@privacy.net> wrote in message
news:k75080pg5fb17nfdqi2tr8ebonm7lujea8@4ax.com...
> On Fri, 16 Apr 2004 15:54:27 GMT, "Asestar" <a s e s t a r @ s t a r t
> . n o> wrote:
>
> >> Hi,
> >>
> >> Thanks for your info.
> >>
> >> Frustrating isn't it?
> >>
> >> Does anyone have a KT7E/KT7 that has been able to do better than ATA66
> >> speeds with HDTach and Winbench??? If so, how?
> >>
> >> Jim
> >
> >
> >Well, I was not even aware of this problem untill you mentioned it 🙁
Maybe
> >has to be something to do with having both Hdd on one IDE channel?
>
>
> Well, there's the obvious: make sure you've got the VIA chipset
> drivers installed; also George Breese's PCI Latency patch and
> disabling or setting to 0 PCI Latency settings in your BIOS.
> Theoretically, more recent 4in1 drivers are supposed to incorporate
> George Breese's patch and make the BIOS setting unnecessary, but they
> all still seem to help - belt'n'braces maybe!
>
> Try flat ribbon IDE cables rather than round ones, as well: I found
> once that with a board I was having IDE problems with, flat cables
> produced much better results than rounded ones.
>
> Possibly try the VIA SCSI Miniport IDE driver rather than the regular
> one in the 4in1 set. That improves IDE performance, too.


Patrick,

1) I can't find a "PCI Latency" setting in the BIOS.

2) I'm already using flat ribbon cable.

3) I tried the VIA Miniport driver from:

http://www.viaarena.com/?PageID=340

and saw no change.
 
Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.abit (More info?)

"Asestar" <a s e s t a r @ s t a r t . n o> wrote in message
news:TkTfc.79773$BD3.9278511@juliett.dax.net...
> > Hi,
> >
> > Thanks for your info.
> >
> > Frustrating isn't it?
> >
> > Does anyone have a KT7E/KT7 that has been able to do better than ATA66
> > speeds with HDTach and Winbench??? If so, how?
> >
> > Jim
>
>
> Well, I was not even aware of this problem untill you mentioned it 🙁
Maybe
> has to be something to do with having both Hdd on one IDE channel?


Asestar,

Just to be clear, I have only 1 hard drive (the Seagate 80GB/8MB) on the
1st/Primary IDE. I have a CD burner as master on the 2nd IDE.

Jim
 
Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.abit (More info?)

On Fri, 16 Apr 2004 19:28:04 -0400, "ohaya"
<ohaya_NO_SPAM@NO_SPAM_cox.net> wrote:

>
>"patrickp" <me@privacy.net> wrote in message
>news:k75080pg5fb17nfdqi2tr8ebonm7lujea8@4ax.com...
>> On Fri, 16 Apr 2004 15:54:27 GMT, "Asestar" <a s e s t a r @ s t a r t
>> . n o> wrote:
>>
>> >> Hi,
>> >>
>> >> Thanks for your info.
>> >>
>> >> Frustrating isn't it?
>> >>
>> >> Does anyone have a KT7E/KT7 that has been able to do better than ATA66
>> >> speeds with HDTach and Winbench??? If so, how?
>> >>
>> >> Jim
>> >
>> >
>> >Well, I was not even aware of this problem untill you mentioned it 🙁
>Maybe
>> >has to be something to do with having both Hdd on one IDE channel?
>>
>>
>> Well, there's the obvious: make sure you've got the VIA chipset
>> drivers installed; also George Breese's PCI Latency patch and
>> disabling or setting to 0 PCI Latency settings in your BIOS.
>> Theoretically, more recent 4in1 drivers are supposed to incorporate
>> George Breese's patch and make the BIOS setting unnecessary, but they
>> all still seem to help - belt'n'braces maybe!
>>
>> Try flat ribbon IDE cables rather than round ones, as well: I found
>> once that with a board I was having IDE problems with, flat cables
>> produced much better results than rounded ones.
>>
>> Possibly try the VIA SCSI Miniport IDE driver rather than the regular
>> one in the 4in1 set. That improves IDE performance, too.
>
>
>Patrick,
>
>1) I can't find a "PCI Latency" setting in the BIOS.
>
>2) I'm already using flat ribbon cable.
>
>3) I tried the VIA Miniport driver from:
>
>http://www.viaarena.com/?PageID=340
>
>and saw no change.
>
>
PCI Latency seems to have different references in every BIOS, Jim!
Try looking for PCI Delay Transaction or something like that. If you
do a google on VIA PCI Latency or George Breese, you may be able to
find references to just what the setting(s) are in your BIOS.

Other than that, those were just suggestions - afraid I can't think of
anything else that you haven't already mentioned.


patrickp

patrickp@5acoustibop.co.uk - take five to email me
 
Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.abit (More info?)

"ohaya" <ohaya_NO_SPAM@NO_SPAM_cox.net> wrote in message
news:94%fc.7988$55.6439@lakeread02...
> Asestar,
>
> Just to be clear, I have only 1 hard drive (the Seagate 80GB/8MB) on the
> 1st/Primary IDE. I have a CD burner as master on the 2nd IDE.
>
> Jim

Well Jim, I guess that IS the optimum setup. However, I do have such a big
tower case that i can't have any other configuration possible.


Also i read somewhere, don't remember where, about NOT selecting "Auto" for
drives in bios. It's where all your 4 drives are listed, go into each one's
page and select master/slave as "Manual" and not "Auto", as this might
effect performance. I don't think this made any huge difference.
 
Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.abit (More info?)

"Asestar" <a s e s t a r @ s t a r t . n o> wrote in message
news:z0agc.79836$BD3.9306208@juliett.dax.net...
>
> "ohaya" <ohaya_NO_SPAM@NO_SPAM_cox.net> wrote in message
> news:94%fc.7988$55.6439@lakeread02...
> > Asestar,
> >
> > Just to be clear, I have only 1 hard drive (the Seagate 80GB/8MB) on the
> > 1st/Primary IDE. I have a CD burner as master on the 2nd IDE.
> >
> > Jim
>
> Well Jim, I guess that IS the optimum setup. However, I do have such a big
> tower case that i can't have any other configuration possible.
>
>
> Also i read somewhere, don't remember where, about NOT selecting "Auto"
for
> drives in bios. It's where all your 4 drives are listed, go into each
one's
> page and select master/slave as "Manual" and not "Auto", as this might
> effect performance. I don't think this made any huge difference.
>
>

Hi,

I just tried that, and saw no change.

I am seeing something strange. Not sure about this one, but if I run HDTach
immediately after the reboot, and before the popup about checking updates
(bottom right) appears, I am getting CPU Utilization as low as 15%.

Jim
 
Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.abit (More info?)

On Thu, 15 Apr 2004 10:34:05 -0400, "ohaya"
<ohaya_NO_SPAM@NO_SPAM_cox.net> wrote:

>Hi,
>
>I know that the KT7E is an old board, but I'm trying putting together a
>system with it. My config thus far:
>
>- Motherboard: KT7E
KT7A
>- BIOS: A9 (last version from Abit)
Ditto
>- CPU: Duron 1.2
Duron 1600 runnng at 1200
>- Memory: 768MB of PC133 (3x256)
384 of 133 (128 & 256)
>- Drive: Seagate 80GB (8MB Cache), as Primary Master, set for cable select
Seagate U Series 40GB EIDE ULTRA ATA/ 100 Hard Drive 5400 RPM 2MB
(master)

Western Digital Caviar WD800BB 80GB (Ultra ATA/100, 7200 RPM, 2MB)
(Slave)
>- CD drive on Secondary Master
DVD-RW & CDRW on master & Slave on secondary

>- OS: Win2K Pro SP4

WinXP Pro
>
>I am using HDTach, and am getting read speeds in the 35MB/s range.
>
>I've also tested with Winbench 99, and that gives me approx. the same speed.
>
>I have the same model Seagate in another system with an Asus A7A266, and am
>getting approx. 70MB/s read speeds.
>
>I confirmed that I'm using an 80-pin IDE cable, and BIOS display is showing
>the drive as ATA100.
>
>I'm running the default MS IDE controller drivers, etc., and have confirmed
>that "Ultra DMA" is set.
>
>I've been trying to figure out what the problem is for awhile, and I've
>tried removing one of the memory sticks (found an old post that said that
>KT7E might have problems with 3 sticks), and also switching to "Standard PC"
>(vs. ACPI).
>
>Nothing I've tried thus far has helped.
>
>Has anyone run across this before? If so, how to get the HDTach read speed
>to where an ATA100 should be?

getting 16mg burts speeds on both HDs and 9 & 12 meg per second
sequential read speeds :-( On my recently deceased AT7 I didn`t do a
read test but i`m sure I got way more then 10meg / second...

>
>Thanks in advance,
>Jim
>

--
e-mail to aoxr19[AT]dsl[DOT]pipex[DOT]com

*All e-mail to "reply to" adrress will*
*automatically be deleted*
 
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