Dell Dimension 2400 (not mine) stuck in UDMA-2

[jtr1962]

Yesterday I helped a friend install XP and otherwise get a Dell Dimension 2400 system he inherited from a neighbor into useable condition. Surprisingly since it was a Dell, everything went fine. The only glitch was that the hard disks (Samsung 250 GB, WD 80GB) are stuck in UDMA-2 (33 MB/sec). I probably doesn't slow the system down much, but he would like to fix it as both drives and the M/B are capable of UDMA-5. Yes, I know it's a Dell. Yes, I know it's crippled in some respects. However, we just want it to be all it can be so my friend can get service out of it for the next few years. He's not a power user by any means, so this system should be adequate. He was still using a Dell with a PIII 933 MHz when he inherited this.

Here's what I did do:

1) Checked to make sure there's an 80-pin cable.

2) Disconnected the 40-pin cable on secondary channel used for the two optical drives and turned off the secondary channel in the BIOS. The theory (proven wrong) was that the PC might see the 40-pin cable on the secondary channel and default to UDMA-2 on both channels.

3) Checked for updated drivers or BIOS versions from Dell. I found none. The IDE controller is using the native XP drivers anyway.

4) Checked to make sure UDMA was enabled in the BIOS.

5) Tried an arcane registry fix I found. No effect. Actually it was to be used in case you were stuck in PIO mode, but I thought it might help here.

It's probably a driver issue. I also should have checked if his 80-pin cable may have been defective by substituting one of mine but I didn't think of it at the time (the guy has a habit of talking a lot while I was working). If it helps the IDE controller chip is an 82801DB.

 

[Fushigi]

Immediate thoughts:
1. Disconnect the non-boot drive to see if the boot drive will work at UDMA5. It's possible one of the drives is causing the channel to fall back to UDMA2.
2. Check to see if the hard drives have any firmware updates available.
3. Run HD diagnostics. Long shot but you never know if it'll turn up something.
4. Run the Dell diagnostics for that machine.

 

[Bozo]

Go into Device Manager. Open IDE ATA/ATAPI Devices. Open both the primary and secondary IDE controllers. On the Advanced tab there are drop down menus for the Transfer mode. Make sure they are set to DMA if available.

Bozo :joker:

 

[jtr1962]

Go into Device Manager. Open IDE ATA/ATAPI Devices. Open both the primary and secondary IDE controllers. On the Advanced tab there are drop down menus for the Transfer mode. Make sure they are set to DMA if available.

I checked that already. They are in DMA mode, just they stuck in mode 2.

I'll tell my friend to disconnect the non-boot drive as Fushigi said to see what happens. AFAIK, both drives are mode 5 capable. The Samsung was bought a few months ago. The WD is older, but since the transfer rate graph is a flatline, that means it can go into a faster mode, certainly at least mode 4. No HD manufacturer ships drives with an interface which bottlenecks the transfer rate.

 

[timwhit]

You could suggest he buy a cheap PCI controller. Something like this would work.

 

[mubs]

Deleting the IDE controllers in Device Manager and having Windows redetect them might fix the issue.

 

[blakerwry]

Deleting the IDE controllers in Device Manager and having Windows redetect them might fix the issue.

I'd try this as well as resetting the BIOS to factory defaults. I know Dell BIOS apps are pretty limited, but does either the BIOS or POST screens provide any information about what modes the hard drives are capable of or running at prior to the operating system starting?

Some Dell's also have a bios option to limit the UDMA mode, something to look for in the BIOS.

 

[jtr1962]

I'd try this as well as resetting the BIOS to factory defaults. I know Dell BIOS apps are pretty limited, but does either the BIOS or POST screens provide any information about what modes the hard drives are capable of or running at prior to the operating system starting?

Some Dell's also have a bios option to limit the UDMA mode, something to look for in the BIOS.

I did check the BIOS and UDMA is enabled. I'm starting to think more and more this may be just a case of a defective 80-pin cable. I'll ask my friend to try the delete and redetect thing also.

 

[sdbardwick]

Some time back Dell computers were really insistent that you use Cable Select rather than master/slave configurations. I have no idea if that is still the case; might be ancient history from before 80 conductor cables (earlier cables did not always support CS).

 

[Tannin]

Sdbardwick's suggestion is a good one. Dells, like Compaqs, are incredibly badly designed, and I wouldn't put that sort of idiocy beyond them for one moment. Considering the amount of extra work required to semi-cripple what was probably a perfectly good OEM design before they got their hands on it and "improved" it, I can only believe that they actually take pride in this sort of signature-tune pettiness. Certainly worth a try.

 

[jtr1962]

Actually, the drives were already in cable select. I've been using cable select exclusively for a few years now.

Anyway, the guy just emailed me that a new cable he received from a friend's spare parts bin solved the problem. Turns out it was his 7-year old ratty cable all along. And here I was blaming the problem on Dell. :rotfl: