slow dell hd / dvd burn = shared ide channel

[Paul Unger]

I just figured out my dad's Dell and made him a very happy man. Thought I'd share the fix here in case it affects anyone else.

Problem: Dell Inspiron 2200 with a HD slow as molasses in February; DVD burn took ~ 3 hours; no malware; registry sorted, jkdefrag'ed . . . still just poking along

Solution: the Dell 2200 has the HD and the DVD drive sharing an IDE channel ; my understanding is that when a DVD drive experiences a read/write error, it bumps the DMA mode down a notch until it gets to the 'basement' of PIO. Since HD and DVD drive were on a shared IDE channel, both drives were running in PIO mode . . . As per instructions found on the web to restore Ultra DMA capability, I removed the IDE channel driver and rebooted upon which it reinstalled the IDE driver and restored UDMA capability. And the thing ran like the 'beast' that it is (as much of a 'beast' as a Dell 2200 can be . . . !)

Hope this helps someone.

PS Is there any way to 'install' a second IDE channel and move one of his devices to it? Two devices on one channel seems trouble prone.

[gator]

Doesn't the motherboard have a 2nd IDE channel? You can just get another IDE cable and connect the optical drive to it ...

Even the cheapest desktops I have built back in the days have had 2 IDE channels ...

[Paul Unger]

I didn't open it up--it's my dad's machine I guess I could google for a while and probably find out. It would really be as simple as running a cable from second device to second IDE channel on motherboard? Might be worth a look. Thanks

[gator]

It would really be as simple as running a cable from second device to second IDE channel on motherboard?

Yep.

[aaa]

Inspiron 2200.

That's a laptop, right? There is no second channel on laptops.

[Paul Unger]

Inspiron 2200.

That's a laptop, right? There is no second channel on laptops.

Really? I'd attach a picture of my device manager for T42 2373-3UU if I could . . . There's a primary and a secondary IDE channel: HD on primary, CD-RW/DVD on secondary.

[SHoTTa35]

he probably ment Dimension 2200. The inspiron systems are just like our Thinkpads, they have ports and both drives connect as a master per channel.

Yeah, it's never a good idea to put your optical storage on the same cable as your magnetic ones

[Paul Unger]

he probably ment Dimension 2200. The inspiron systems are just like our Thinkpads, they have ports and both drives connect as a master per channel.

Nope--I meant Inspiron 2200 (laptop / portable / notebook), just like I wrote in the first post. So how do I have two IDE channels on my T42? And how can I do the same for my dad's Inspiron 2200?

[SHoTTa35]

so that's weird, how does one change the cable? isn't it like the TPs where the drive is connected to a rise card or something and that connects to the mobo? I never thought any laptops used cables even if the drives weren't removable.

Eitherway, good thing you got it fixed

[Paul Unger]

I found a couple of pictures of the Inspiron 2200 system board here and here. Both are fairly grainy pictures, but the layout of components is the same as my T42: cd drive right rear; hd right front (pcmcia left front). Can't really tell what anything would plug into though . . . Probably just best to leave well enough alone (until my dad complains about a "slow computer" again).

[gator]

Oops there, I thought we were discussing a desktop. To the OP: sorry if I had mislead you ...

[Paul Unger]

Oops there, I thought we were discussing a desktop. To the OP: sorry if I had mislead you ...

Right down the proverbial garden path!

[RealBlackStuff]

On Thinkpads (those without SATA) they connect the hard disk to the first IDE bus, and the optical drive goes on the second IDE bus.
Check it out in Device Manager.
Dell was skimping on those (nothing unusual there ).