Sound problems

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

I am having problems with the sound on my Dimension 3000 P4 3.0 gig (HT
enabled) 500meg ram, still running xp home
I have the original 70 gig hard drive as the master and a 120 gig drive as
the slave on the same ide cable.
I also have a DVD writer on the secondary IDE as the master.
These make up a C and a D drive, with the DVD as the E Drive.

I have managed to fault the problem down to disk activity, using the
performance monitor.
If I am playing a sound file in any of my players, on say the C drive and
any activity occurs on the D drive there is significant break up on the
audio. If this access is say a large video file the break up last for around
10 seconds.

Both hard drives check out 100% with chkdisk and are not fragmented.
I have also run a program called HD Tune to test the hard drives and these
are reporting ok.
(Testing the drive with a mp3 playing on the other causes the same
distortion)

However the Transfer rate of the slave drive is only 2.2 MB/sec whilst the
master is reporting 25.0 MB/sec.

This would look to me like the problem.
The device manager is reporting no conflicts on both the Primary and
secondary IDE

The slave drive is a Hitachi IC35L120AVV207
http://www.hgst.com/hdd/support/d180gxp/180gxp_ov.htm

And the spec says it is supposed to manage between 59 and 26 MB/sec.

Why is the drive running so slow (at least as reported by the HD Tune tool)
when everything else seems OK?

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

OK, I'll bet this is an easy one, with one (or both) of two problems.

When you installed the second hard drive, did you properly jumper it Cable
Select? If you jumpered it Slave and changed the original drive to Master,
go back and make them both Cable Select and put the boot drive on the end of
the cable. Actually, it should work either way, but Cable Select is proper.

The real answer, however, is to go into the BIOS and ensure that the second
hard drive is AUTO, not OFF. I'd bet $10 that it is OFF. It's very
confusing because the drive will work if it is OFF, but in very slow PIO
mode. Since you're seeing slow performance, I think that is the problem.

Tom
"Hamish" <nothanks@btopenworld.com> wrote in message
news:dbam7g$goa$1@nwrdmz02.dmz.ncs.ea.ibs-infra.bt.com...
>I am having problems with the sound on my Dimension 3000 P4 3.0 gig (HT
> enabled) 500meg ram, still running xp home
> I have the original 70 gig hard drive as the master and a 120 gig drive as
> the slave on the same ide cable.
> I also have a DVD writer on the secondary IDE as the master.
> These make up a C and a D drive, with the DVD as the E Drive.
>
> I have managed to fault the problem down to disk activity, using the
> performance monitor.
> If I am playing a sound file in any of my players, on say the C drive and
> any activity occurs on the D drive there is significant break up on the
> audio. If this access is say a large video file the break up last for
> around
> 10 seconds.
>
> Both hard drives check out 100% with chkdisk and are not fragmented.
> I have also run a program called HD Tune to test the hard drives and these
> are reporting ok.
> (Testing the drive with a mp3 playing on the other causes the same
> distortion)
>
> However the Transfer rate of the slave drive is only 2.2 MB/sec whilst the
> master is reporting 25.0 MB/sec.
>
> This would look to me like the problem.
> The device manager is reporting no conflicts on both the Primary and
> secondary IDE
>
> The slave drive is a Hitachi IC35L120AVV207
> http://www.hgst.com/hdd/support/d180gxp/180gxp_ov.htm
>
> And the spec says it is supposed to manage between 59 and 26 MB/sec.
>
> Why is the drive running so slow (at least as reported by the HD Tune
> tool) when everything else seems OK?
>
>
>
>
>
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

Well you would have won your $10. I had been chasing down another fault and
had removed the drive and turned it off in the bios and forgot to turn it
back on again.

I have been adding drives to PC's for a few years now and have always
considered "cable select" as something from the olden days, but you are
advocating that as the correct way of configuring them, so I am off to read
up on that now.

Many thanks

Hamish




TS> When you installed the second hard drive, did you properly jumper it
TS> Cable Select? If you jumpered it Slave and changed the original drive
TS> to Master, go back and make them both Cable Select and put the boot
TS> drive on the end of the cable. Actually, it should work either way,
TS> but Cable Select is proper.

TS> The real answer, however, is to go into the BIOS and ensure that the
TS> second hard drive is AUTO, not OFF. I'd bet $10 that it is OFF. It's
TS> very confusing because the drive will work if it is OFF, but in very
TS> slow PIO mode. Since you're seeing slow performance, I think that is
TS> the problem.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

I googled for info and found this
http://www.mikeshardware.com/howtos/howto_connect_ide_hd.html
and learn't about the differances between CS and master/slave and also there
is differant sorts of IDE cables. 40 wire and 80 wire, and guess what mine
was a 40 wire, which evidently is ok for backups and cd/dvd writters but an
80 wire is preffered for the main drives. I have left the jumpers as M&S, as
its not too easy to get them out, but may try CS at a later date

Well I had a hunt round and found an 80 wire and have it pluggerd in and HD
Tune is now showing twice the transfer rate as it did on the old 40 wire.

All the Best to you and yours

Hamish





H> I have been adding drives to PC's for a few years now and have always
H> considered "cable select" as something from the olden days, but you are
H> advocating that as the correct way of configuring them, so I am off to
H> read up on that now.

H> Many thanks

H> Hamish

TS>> When you installed the second hard drive, did you properly jumper it
TS>> Cable Select? If you jumpered it Slave and changed the original drive
TS>> to Master, go back and make them both Cable Select and put the boot
TS>> drive on the end of the cable. Actually, it should work either way,
TS>> but Cable Select is proper.

TS>> The real answer, however, is to go into the BIOS and ensure that the
TS>> second hard drive is AUTO, not OFF. I'd bet $10 that it is OFF. It's
TS>> very confusing because the drive will work if it is OFF, but in very
TS>> slow PIO mode. Since you're seeing slow performance, I think that is
TS>> the problem.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

Glad it worked out. As long as the jumpers match the position on the cable
(if the cable is a cable select cable), then you're fine. Of course, if it
is a M/S cable, then you have it done correctly.

Tom
"Hamish" <nothanks@btopenworld.com> wrote in message
news:dbb0mh$ue$1@nwrdmz03.dmz.ncs.ea.ibs-infra.bt.com...
>I googled for info and found this
> http://www.mikeshardware.com/howtos/howto_connect_ide_hd.html
> and learn't about the differances between CS and master/slave and also
> there is differant sorts of IDE cables. 40 wire and 80 wire, and guess
> what mine was a 40 wire, which evidently is ok for backups and cd/dvd
> writters but an 80 wire is preffered for the main drives. I have left the
> jumpers as M&S, as its not too easy to get them out, but may try CS at a
> later date
>
> Well I had a hunt round and found an 80 wire and have it pluggerd in and
> HD Tune is now showing twice the transfer rate as it did on the old 40
> wire.
>
> All the Best to you and yours
>
> Hamish
>
>
>
>
>
> H> I have been adding drives to PC's for a few years now and have always
> H> considered "cable select" as something from the olden days, but you are
> H> advocating that as the correct way of configuring them, so I am off to
> H> read up on that now.
>
> H> Many thanks
>
> H> Hamish
>
> TS>> When you installed the second hard drive, did you properly jumper it
> TS>> Cable Select? If you jumpered it Slave and changed the original
> drive
> TS>> to Master, go back and make them both Cable Select and put the boot
> TS>> drive on the end of the cable. Actually, it should work either way,
> TS>> but Cable Select is proper.
>
> TS>> The real answer, however, is to go into the BIOS and ensure that the
> TS>> second hard drive is AUTO, not OFF. I'd bet $10 that it is OFF.
> It's
> TS>> very confusing because the drive will work if it is OFF, but in very
> TS>> slow PIO mode. Since you're seeing slow performance, I think that is
> TS>> the problem.
>
>