Replacing IDE DVD burner with SATA DVD burner problem

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01-17-2009, 08:33 PM
b_t

Replacing IDE DVD burner with SATA DVD burner problem

My current IDE DVD burner is broken - won't read anything anymore - so I bought a SATA burner to replace it. The actual hardware swap is no problem.

My configuration
Biostar TForce P965 mobo
500gb IDE Seagate hard drive
IDE Benq DVD burner, replacing with SATA Samsung DVD burner

Everything is detected fine. I check in the Vista installer and all my files are there, the C: drive is, the DVD burner works fine. However, the hard drive becomes INCREDIBLY slow. As a slave drive, it is slow, and as a master, it is still slow. It takes over five minutes to display the Vista login screen and then god only knows how long to progress past that. I tried both jumping it as the master/single drive and as cable select, and tried both the slave & master connectors on the 80 wire IDE cable I have.

What is the issue here? Everything looks fine but I can't find any clear cut reason for why my hard drive would become so incredibly slow. It is the only device connected to IDE after swapping the DVD burner. I just put my IDE burner back in and now the computer is fine again.

What's the deal?
01-17-2009, 09:36 PM
SpireTECH

A couple things come to mind.

First, check the BIOS over. Check to see if the CD-ROM was manually set instead of auto-detect, in which case you should remove the settings.

Check the DMA mode of the drive. It should be ATA-7 or ATA 133, or UDMA6.

Next check/replace the IDE cable. They're fragile creatures, and kinks or nicks can cause all sorts of strange errors. Also make sure the ends are properly seated on both ends.

If all of that doesn't help, reconnect the IDE dvd drive and see if the problem resolves. It might be that a bump or jolt while replacing the dvd drive caused damage to the hard drive.
01-18-2009, 03:24 PM
b_t

I just installed both the IDE and SATA DVD drive and everything works fine. Then I just unplugged the IDE drive to see if it would continue work - it didn't. I must have a driver problem somewhere, but there is no where in the BIOS to adjust any kind of SATA settings.

Plus the problem only seems to afflict Windows once it loads.. in safe mode or otherwise.
01-19-2009, 08:58 AM
SpireTECH

Did you check and replace the IDE cable like I suggested? Also, the DMA settings you are looking for are for the IDE hard drive, not the SATA CD-ROM.

It is unlikely that this problem is related to the drivers. Unlike other hardware, CD-ROMs and hard drives use the standard windows driver.

Can you run a hard drive benchtest with the IDE CD-ROM connected, and then one with it disconnected. The slow load issue may not be related to how fast the drive is going.
01-19-2009, 09:18 AM
Thaco

i'd say it's the DMA too... it's probably stuck in POI mode
01-19-2009, 11:16 AM
b_t

All my DMA and POI settings are set to auto, for the channel 0 master.

I can't do a hard drive benchmark w/o my IDE DVD drive at all Spire.. I gave my computer an hour to login and it still hadn't reached the desktop.
01-19-2009, 11:42 AM
Thaco

dd you try a bios update?
01-19-2009, 12:04 PM
b_t

I'm on the new version of the BIOS yeah, they haven't been updated in a long time.
01-21-2009, 08:21 AM
SpireTECH

Quote:

Originally posted by b_t
All my DMA and POI settings are set to auto, for the channel 0 master.

I can't do a hard drive benchmark w/o my IDE DVD drive at all Spire.. I gave my computer an hour to login and it still hadn't reached the desktop.

This indicates to me that something else is causing the slowdown/lockup. Even in the slowest DMA mode, it wouldn't take that long to login. Did you install any software that came with the IDE burner? I would remove them if you did and see if that fixes the situation.