Disk I/O degredation, Help!

[TPfan071]

My disk I/O isn't where it should be! Hard drive access has slowed down over the course of the last 5 months drastically! It once used to be fast as heck! Thanks for taking the time!

>> Most key characteristics

- boot time from button push to no-more-hard-drive-thrash after login = 7.5 minutes (!)

- recent time to defrag (only 5% fragmented--with 38% free space--20% free space recently cleared) = 3.5 hrs (!)
- Mozilla disk-cache access (and image/file-saving dialogs) have significant (5-7 seconds) delay (!)
- Surface scan test alone in PC-Doctor over 6+ hours (!)
- Streaming a typical *.wmv file (any size) takes practially full CPU power and skips greatly until in cache (!)
--> All of these tasks were at one time perfect and have degraded unknowingly in the past few months ...

>> System Information:

- TP T41 2373-XMX 1.7 gHz
- Toshiba MK6025GAS 7200 rpm 60 GB HDD
- Windows XP Pro SP2
- 1024 MB RAM 1024 MB pagefile (static)

>> Signs that other I/O is as snappy as ever:

- Menus are flash instant quick
- Mozilla Program shell appears within one second (once quicklaunch loaded into memory)
- Explorer Windows are virtually instantaneous with most navigation
- once a folder is opened and in cache, navigating is lightning quick
- however, create-a-new-folder has a slow 2-3 second delay
- Internet I/O very quick (although Web Browser disk cache access show signes of I/O sluggishness)
==> All signs the CPU and Buses are proper

>> Other pertinent information:

- I have all un-essential startup programs disabled, just IBM and ani-virus for the most part
- I have <PCI Bus> and <CPU> power management disabled (this is my primary home desktop--I need it snappy)
- Battery Maximizer configurations do NOT work right (can't create new profiles--doesn't successfully save them)
--> Don't know if this is a symptomatic issue

>> Already Accomplished:
- Ran registry link checker (Norton Win Doctor from CD) and registry is lean and in great shape
- Ran HDD checker (Norton Disk Doctor from CD) and nothing wrong found
- Ran PageDefrag to defrag registry and pagefile
- Ran Perfect Disk to optimize defrag
- Ran Device Manager to verify write-caching enabled
- Ran Device Manager to verify form of Primary IDE Channel
- Ran UPHclean to refresh user profiles
- Ran PC Doctor HDD test sucessfully
- Ran Spybot and antivirus to remove malicious software (none found) like in this thread:
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... ght=defrag

--> Running all of these items didn't affect any of the key characteristics listed earlier (!)
--> Therefore, there is something awry completely unrelated to any other performance issues?
--> Is it simply Disk I/O (physical sluggishness of the HDD)

>> Additional suggestions?

- Registry max size met? How to tell? Is it even an issue?
- Is it simply DMA vs PIO?
http://ubfm.net/HDD/Primary_IDE.JPG
- HDD failing? Test to discover? (passed all other HD tests--and is very consistently slow...)
- HDD supposed to be in DMA mode? (PIO mode detected only and running)
--> Hint of similar circumstance (like the title states...) at 3rd-to-last post here:
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... g&start=30
- Clean XP install necessary? Why? (perhaps not applicable--even though current install 17 months and counting)

[zyphria]

Definitely the issue with PIO. DMA is where you want to be at.

Give this a read.

http://users.bigpond.net.au/ninjaduck/i ... /udma_fix/

[TPfan071]

First of all, I truly appreciate you finding that link. I searched up and down and in and out and couldn't find anything like it on IBMs support site. This problem is exactly what I am experiencing entitled 'PIO Fallback'. Thank you!

Unfortunately, the solution did not work for me! My DMA mode reverted back to PIO (and my registry DMAEnabled flag reverted back to 0) after multiple fix and reboot attempts! Argh!

>> Additional Questions:

- What are the symptoms of a DMA outage or failure?
- What are Microsoft's implications to how to avoid and or correct the problem?
- The author of the solution states "Notes: After you’ve rebooted, go back into the IDE settings and see if DMA is available now. If the Current Transfer Mode is still PIO, then I wash my hands of you. (splash splash) See that? I’m washing my hands."
--> What should I attempt next!?!?

[GomJabbar]

The following procedure has worked for me in the past.

Go to Start > Control Panel > System > Hardware > Device Manager. Right click on everything under IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers and uninstall. Now reboot. Go back into Device Manager. Both the Primary IDE controller and Secondary IDE controller should be using Ultra DMA mode - or a version of DMA.

[jdhurst]

This does not appear to be a normal problem. I don't see disks deterioating over time as you describe. Certainly DMA is probably the problem, but since you can't correct it, there must be something else. I haven't seen a drive slip from DMA to PIO that I can recall. So a re-install may be in order. There may also be a drive problem and a re-install won't solve that. ... JD Hurst

[TPfan071]

I got it!

As it turns out, my primary IDE channel was at ../0004 and ../0002 as referenced in the article. I applied the same techniques to the alternate location (and extrapolated the resulting data points for the other IDE channels) and there you go--Ultra DMA Mode 5 baby! Hehe I'm diggin it

[christopher_wolf]

Just to add onto this; here is the, quite difficult to find, Microsoft article on it

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=817472

According to that, there should be a lasting fix via the registry if one is brave enough.

HTH

[TPfan071]

That's exactly the kind of reason I love this site!