A pair of HD doubts

[Bobby2004]

I came accross a HD utility known as "HD Tune" recently and was trying it out when I noticed that on running its test, it showed CPU usage to be nearly 100%. Isn't this too high. I read somewhere that DMA means that special chips take care of transfer so CPU usage ought to be just above 0%?

Also I noticed that the utulity reported that the HD supported "UDMA Mode 6" but that "UDMA Mode 4" was active. Shouldn't Mode 6 be active ( whatever it is but assuming that Mode 6 is better than Mode 4 )?

 

[DragonQ0105]

Unsure about number 1.

However, number 2 could have a variety of different reasons as to why your drive is using UDMA4 rather than UDMA6:

a) The cable used to attach the Drive to the Motherboard is limited to UDMA4.
b) The motherboard can only handle up to UDMA4.
c) Your OS might limit it to UDMA4 (however, I assume that you're using XP, which can definately handle UDMA6).
d) Drive incorrectly setup in BIOS.

What's your motherboard's make and model number?

 

[garebo]

Someone else is taking care of the UDMA question so i will stick to your first question.

Anytime you have your cpu running at 100% then you have to suspect foul play, as in malware\virus\worm\trojan at work.
The first thing i will hear back is that your antivirus is up to date and says all is well. That means nothing as many antivirus progs dont get the worms\trojans\malware that is out there, sorry to say.
Go to task mgr and see what files are running that are taking up your percentages.
Also, you should be running an up to dat AV prog, spybot, stinger, hijack this, adaware. This is about the minimum these days.
What i would do is go to trend-micro and allow them to do a complete system scan of my system. they are a very good company and its safe to let them do the system scan. You may be surprised to see what they might find, although i hope i am wrong! But if not then trend-micro will help you out.
The other programs, they are all free and you can google for them. Stinger is made by Macafee. Spybot just came out with ver 1.4 recently, might be best to get that version.




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[Bobby2004]

Thanks for the responses. Will rely after digesting them.

 

[Bobby2004]

DragonQ0105: chewed upon the leads. The only one I could understand is the BIOS case and there the only item that seemed to be related is "ECP DMA Sel" ( whatever that may be ). Is this the right one? How do you determine the others? M/b make and model is Asus Cusi fx with Via C3 733 MHz.

PS. I am a programmer, not a h/w person
PPS. I am using W2KP

garebo: I checked out TM. The only thing that seemd to be relevant is TM/Processes/CPU ( this is first time I've opened any of these pages! ). The only three readings are "System Idle Process" ( 90s ); "taskmgr.exe" ( 1,2,3, ... ), and Explorer.exe ( 1,2, 3, ... ). Everything else os 0. Is this what you are talking about?

I had visited the Trend Micro site just before this thread original post, as I had found a copy of PCcillin on my previous m/b CD. However I can't make out if there is anything still free or not. Do you knwo the position on this? I will download the others and get back to you.

PS. talking about malware, beleive it or not, I havn't used any protection all these years! This is because I hardly go online. As a matter of fact, it is so rare that I use someone else's connection and just download the pages of interest onto my pen drive and read them on my own system. However just recently, I have been having a couple of strange problems and I was wondering about a DIY approach ( much reinforced by some of your initial remarks ). According to my reasoning, I need not worry about boot sector visuses at all as my pen drive is not bootable ( I don't use floppies ). This leaves executable files of all types and other files that include macros such as MS Office documents. I don't download many executable files so if I could get a checksum for those I do, I could easily check them manually ( big ? mark ). This leaves other files containing macros. Can you suggest some crude way of checking them?

 

[garebo]

On the trend micro, use this url:

http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

In the middle of that page you will find "Scan your PC", under that will be "scan now - its free". Click on that one and follow thru with the scan. They add a small prog to your computer that will enable them to scan your computer not only for av, but trojans, etc, etc,. Next time you use their online scan the prog is already there and it will go faster. No harm at all to your computer.

Using some or all of the programs listed above, along with a trend-micro online scan once in a while, along with keeping your av up to date, all that should take care of you. The only manual method i use is when i scan files that i recently downloaded, other than that i use the above-listed programs. They are an assembly of programs that, when used together, pretty much do the job. I dont have enough experience to do things the way you are suggesting. Thats for programmers, lol, and that certainly isnt me. Also, im a relative latecomer, I wasnt even around for the dos days.

I'm a

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[Bobby2004]

How convenient! Unfortunately I'm off line for the time being. BTW, talking about DOS days, I was around when the first virus hit - C-Brain, a boot sector virus said to hev been written by two Pakistani brothers! However except for once I've managed to avoid any problem but of late I've having a few.

 

[garebo]

I cant believe your computer is even still running without protection!! You must use the net very very seldom.

As for your processes you mentioned, you are fine. Sometimes malware\virus\ and especially trojans will show up in task manager as a name, could be any name, last one i had was called "up2dat5", which was a trojan. I had one a while back that was similar to iexplorer and it was hell to get rid of. Anyway,some, not all, but some of these you will see taking 80% or more of you system resources. You reported only 3 taking up usage, idle means that amount is free, so its kind of a reverse reporting. Idle of 80% means that only 20% is being used. The other 2 you mentioned are supposed to be there, task manager itself is reporting its own usage, and explorer, well, its explorer, integral part of windows, so you are ok there.
In future, if you have probs, go to task manager and see what files or programs are using your computer. When you see idle at 80% or above, odds are you are in good shape there at least.

I do strongly suggest you install the free antivirus that you can get at avg antivirus. Also the free firewall at zone alarm, you can google these both, again, free!
You can google all the others i mentioned as well.
You should have most or all of them to go on the net. Even that doesnt guarantee safety but as it is now its like you are in Iraq with no machine gun, no pistol, no camouflage, not even boots, lol!
Its a miracle you can even boot up.

As for the other issue, the section you mentioned, or the setting you mentioned, you are right, thats the place. You can go in there and set your mode. There may be an auto setting, depends on your bios and they vary.
If you want, just report what you see when you click on that setting you mentioned and we can advise which way to go on that. ECP DMA sel - sel is for select, so thats the place for sure.
You may have to both select it in there and perhaps even go to device mgr and set each ide channel to auto or to dma if available, whichever works.
Bear in mind that hard drives may accept one setting and optical drives another setting, just the nature of the beasts is all, nothing wrong with you or your computer.



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