Replaced Hard Drive, Slower Performance 2

[DFLewis]

We have an employee who carried their laptop (Dell Latitude D820) around in a non-padded backpack and it ultimately led to the hard drive failing. We replaced the hard drive and did a complete reinstallation of software. The system now runs extremely slow. Everything from starting the computer up, browsing through folders, viewing the control panel, and opening programs... all extremely slow. The two hard drives are the exact same part number:

Dell #UC006 - Hard Drive 80G Serial Ata Toshiba Aries-b

Since then we've reformatted the hard drive and reinstalled everything a second time. We ran diagnostics and the memory and everything else checked out ok.

Is it possible that this hard drive is just defective? Any other thoughts on what could be causing the slower performance?

Thanks,


DFLewis

http://www.phoenix-engineer.com

 

[wahnula]

Make sure the HDD is running in DMA mode. Many times, Windows will dial back a failed or failing HDD to PIO mode. Look in Device Manager under "Primary IDE Channel" or whatever is controlling the HDD. "DMA if available" is the correct setting.

Tony

Users helping Users...

 

[DFLewis]

Interesting...

I did as you said and checked Primary IDE Channel and the "DMA if available" option is selected, but underneath that it says the current transfer mode is PIO mode. There were no other options to change this available under the Primary IDE Channel.

What are some options from this point forward? Any other settings I could check?

Thanks,

DFLewis

http://www.phoenix-engineer.com

 

[wahnula]

I'm running out the door right now, check out thread602-1509732 to see if any of that thread can apply to your situation.

Tony

Users helping Users...

 

[wahnula]

DFLewis,

I just finished re-reading my old thread, look in BIOS to see if PIO mode is selected somewhere within it. I would think "optimal defaults" would be DMA enabled. I know Dell is not famous for its comprehensive BIOS options but poke around in there a bit.

If the current transfer mode is PIO I think we've found the culprit, now to figure out how to change it back...

Tony

Users helping Users...

 

[BadBigBen]

Run REGEDIT. Go to the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}

It has subkeys like 0000, 0001, 0002, etc. Normally 0001 is the primary IDE channel, 0002 the secondary, but other numbers can occur under certain circumstances. You have to go through these subkeys and check the DriverDesc value until you find the proper IDE channel.

Delete the MasterIdDataChecksum. Reboot. DMA capabilities will be detected at boot and correctly reset.

Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."

How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.

 

[DFLewis]

Worked like a charm. I deleted MasterIdDataChecksum value and rebooted and everything was much faster. The solution was confirmed when I checked the Primary IDE Channel and it was running in DMA mode again.

Thanks wahnula and badbigben!

DFLewis

http://www.phoenix-engineer.com

 

[BadBigBen]

Glad you got it up and running SMOOTH...


Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."

How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.