Dell Dim 8300 - System Slow to Boot-Up
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From: Daave on 23 Dec 2009 23:01 Nick wrote: > On Wed, 23 Dec 2009 21:45:43 -0500, in alt.sys.pc-clone.dell, Daddy > <daddy(a)invalid.invalid> wrote: > >> Not to be a troublemaker, but I did mention in my initial post that >> my Dell desktop is from the same era as the OP's desktop, that I >> also had NIS 2010, and that my PC boots to a working desktop in two >> minutes. > > I'm also using NIS 2010, and my bootups are nice and fast. Is there a significant difference between NAV 2010 and NIS 2010? And to Daddy, OP asked you if you "have 'Early Load' turned on." I wonder if there are some settings that can make a big difference. Also, I'm not sure if OP ever mentioned his post-bootup performance being affected. Some people don't mind a slow bootup (they're busy doing other things) as long as performance is peppy otherwise. Also, hibernation is an option for those who don't wish to boot up once a day or more.
From: Ben Myers on 24 Dec 2009 01:45 Daddy wrote: > charliech(a)email.com wrote: >>> On Wed, 23 Dec 2009 16:02:05 -0500, Ben Myers <ben_myers(a)charter.net> >>> wrote: >>>>> Any chance it is running in PIO mode and not DMA if it pertains to >>>>> this system? My son was having similar problems earlier this year >>>>> until I had him check it. >>>>> Charles >>>> What are these modes (PIO & DMA) and how do you check them? >>>> Charliec >>> PIO and DMA modes are the original slow and the newer fast way of >>> reading and writing hard disks. I can't recall if the 8300 BIOS has >>> discrete settings for PIO or DMA access on a per disk or system-wide >>> basis. The other place to check is Device Manager under the System >>> icon in Control Panel... Ben Myers >> >> I checked in Device Manager for the harddrive and did not see any >> reference to PIO or DMA on any of the tabs under properties? What am >> I amissing? >> charliec > > Do you now or did you at any time have the Intel Application Accelerator > installed? IIA performs many HDD configuration tasks, and it will hide > the Advanced Settings tab. > > Daddy > > Daddy AFAIK, IIA installs and runs only on generic Intel-branded motherboards, and only with the 845 chipset. But I may not have seen it running enough to think otherwise... Ben Myers
From: Daddy on 24 Dec 2009 10:23 Ben Myers wrote: > Daddy wrote: >> charliech(a)email.com wrote: >>>> On Wed, 23 Dec 2009 16:02:05 -0500, Ben Myers >>>> <ben_myers(a)charter.net> wrote: >>>>>> Any chance it is running in PIO mode and not DMA if it pertains to >>>>>> this system? My son was having similar problems earlier this year >>>>>> until I had him check it. >>>>>> Charles >>>>> What are these modes (PIO & DMA) and how do you check them? >>>>> Charliec >>>> PIO and DMA modes are the original slow and the newer fast way of >>>> reading and writing hard disks. I can't recall if the 8300 BIOS has >>>> discrete settings for PIO or DMA access on a per disk or system-wide >>>> basis. The other place to check is Device Manager under the System >>>> icon in Control Panel... Ben Myers >>> >>> I checked in Device Manager for the harddrive and did not see any >>> reference to PIO or DMA on any of the tabs under properties? What am >>> I amissing? >>> charliec >> >> Do you now or did you at any time have the Intel Application >> Accelerator installed? IIA performs many HDD configuration tasks, and >> it will hide the Advanced Settings tab. >> >> Daddy >> >> Daddy > > AFAIK, IIA installs and runs only on generic Intel-branded motherboards, > and only with the 845 chipset. But I may not have seen it running > enough to think otherwise... Ben Myers IIA installed and ran on my Dimension 4500, which I understand does not have a generic motherboard. For some reason, it didn't uninstall completely, probably my own fault. A left-behind driver was enough to keep the Advanced Settings tab from appearing, so I couldn't see whether I was running PIO or DMA. IIA supported a number of chipsets, including the 845, but there were others as well. I can't even remember why I installed IIA in the first place, but I think it had something to do with an application running faster. Anyway, once I got the Advanced Settings tab back I discovered that I was in PIO when I was supposed to be in DMA. Windows XP will do this under certain circumstances, for example: "IDE ATA and ATAPI disks use PIO mode after multiple time-out or CRC errors occur" http://support.microsoft.com/kb/817472 Boy, there sure is a lot of history in my PC! Daddy
From: charliech on 24 Dec 2009 14:37 >On Wed, 23 Dec 2009 21:58:37 -0500, Daddy <daddy(a)invalid.invalid> wrote: >charliech(a)email.com wrote: >> On Wed, 23 Dec 2009 20:33:20 -0500, Daddy <daddy(a)invalid.invalid> >> wrote: >> >>> charliech(a)email.com wrote: >>>>> On Wed, 23 Dec 2009 16:02:05 -0500, Ben Myers <ben_myers(a)charter.net> wrote: >>>>>>> Any chance it is running in PIO mode and not DMA if it pertains to this >>>>>>> system? My son was having similar problems earlier this year until I >>>>>>> had him check it. >>>>>>> Charles >>>>>> What are these modes (PIO & DMA) and how do you check them? >>>>>> Charliec >>>>> PIO and DMA modes are the original slow and the newer fast way of >>>>> reading and writing hard disks. I can't recall if the 8300 BIOS has >>>>> discrete settings for PIO or DMA access on a per disk or system-wide >>>>> basis. The other place to check is Device Manager under the System icon >>>>> in Control Panel... Ben Myers >>>> I checked in Device Manager for the harddrive and did not see any >>>> reference to PIO or DMA on any of the tabs under properties? What am >>>> I amissing? >>>> charliec >>> Do you now or did you at any time have the Intel Application Accelerator >>> installed? IIA performs many HDD configuration tasks, and it will hide >>> the Advanced Settings tab. >>> >>> Daddy >>> >>> Daddy >> >> Not that I am aware of - do not know what it is! >> charliec > >Go to Add/Remove Programs...do you see the Intel Application Accelerator >listed? Uninstall it and restart your computer. Checked A/R and it was not there. > >If you don't see it in Add/Remove Programs: Do you have the file >IdeBusDr.sys on your system? (Search for it; it's a hidden file.) If so, >you had the IAA at one time, and this file was left behind by the >installer. This actually happened to me. If so, download the IAA, >reinstall it, re-boot, uninstall it, reboot and voila! The Advanced >Settings tab re-appears. > >Daddy Searched all hard drives and did not find that program. On advice from here, I researched all my startup programs in MSCONFIG and unchecked a number of them and the startup is much faster. But there still seems to be a lag before NAV2010 appears on the Taskbar - is there something it might be doing on startup that I don't know about - such as some sort of scan at startup - how and where do I check for that - I looked at settings, but could not determine anything going on at startup - maybe looking in the wrong place!
From: William R. Walsh on 28 Dec 2009 02:28
Hi! > The Dimension 8300 is new enough that all of its disk I/O would be DMA. That's not quite true. DMA mode will be used only if the operating system running the show is aware of or can handle it. Otherwise PIO/Fast PIO mode will be used. The place to find what mode is currently in use (on Win2000/XP) is under the disk controller category in Device Manager. Look at both the "primary" and "secondary" disk controller entries. The mode currently in use for each device is shown. The Dell BIOS on the Dim8300 cannot tell you, and doesn't really care. It's up to other software to determine the best transfer mode that may be used. If a disk connector (SATA or PATA) is disabled on many Dell systems (the Dim8300 is included), the device attached will still work when the operating system takes over but it will be forced into PIO mode. Strange but true--"disabled" isn't really what it should be in the Dell BIOS on some systems. > If you have a SATA drive, they are all DMA. Perhaps that is true of a SATA controller running in AHCI or RAID mode, but it would surprise me. In the case of the Dim8300, the i875/ICH5 SATA controller is hardwired into "legacy" or "PATA compatible" mode. As such it behaves just like a PATA controller and supports all the operating modes that a PATA controller would support--including PIO data transfer. My Dim8300 has never been what it should be in terms of I/O performace from its disks. (And now I have new disks in it, so the originals have been taken out of the picture...they're now "scratch disks" that I use with motherboards that are under test.) William |