A7N8X-E Slow IDE Drives

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fbionyourtail

I just bought an Asus A7N8X-E and have been very happy with it so far.
Very nice motherboard - some rough spots such as placements but
nothing that couldn't be tolerated. Everything was up and running so
pretty smoothly despite the HORRIBLE instructions that say nothing
about how to boot from the SATA drives nor provide a floppy with
drivers. Amazing. But I'm up and running with two brand new Maxtor 250
GB SATA drives as raid-0 and two IBM Deskstar 60GB on the IDE chains.

What is strange is that there is now an unbelievably slow response.
Double click a file and things stop for a moment, wait, and then load
up. I'm not sure what is going on but something is set incorrectly.
For example, if I double click a simple jpeg and want it to load up
image viewer, it takes at least a full second pause and maybe more
until the app launches and I can see the file. Can anyone help?
 
Bitstring <[email protected]>, from the
wonderful person fbionyourtail said:
I just bought an Asus A7N8X-E and have been very happy with it so far.
Very nice motherboard - some rough spots such as placements but
nothing that couldn't be tolerated. Everything was up and running so
pretty smoothly despite the HORRIBLE instructions that say nothing
about how to boot from the SATA drives nor provide a floppy with
drivers. Amazing. But I'm up and running with two brand new Maxtor 250
GB SATA drives as raid-0 and two IBM Deskstar 60GB on the IDE chains.

What is strange is that there is now an unbelievably slow response.
Double click a file and things stop for a moment, wait, and then load
up. I'm not sure what is going on but something is set incorrectly.
For example, if I double click a simple jpeg and want it to load up
image viewer, it takes at least a full second pause and maybe more
until the app launches and I can see the file. Can anyone help?
Click to expand...

Open device manager and check that the EIDE drives are not dropped back
into non-DMA modes. Use task manager to see what all is chewing up CPU
cycles and memory. One assumes you are running XP .. how much RAM did
you put in?

You could also usefully run some benchmarks (SiSoft Sandra, or whatever
it is called these days, works for me) to make sure there is nothing
really stupid going on.

Does the problem happen with files other than .JPGs (big Excel or Word
files for instance). Windows Explorer has a known issue with media files
in that it's always trying to open them and look inside to see what the
Codec, bitrates, pixels sizes, etc. are (ditto .zip files). Google for
fixes.
 
Hello fbi,
Here is a few links that could help.
http://www.techsupportforum.com/computer/topic/11224-1.html
http://www.techsupportforum.com/computer/topic/14606-1.html
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Hardware/Desktops/Q_20982326.html
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=29&threadid=1306420
http://www.techimo.com/forum/showthread.php?t=100808

Make sure DMA is checked for *ALL* IDE devices in system config.
Huge slowdowns can happen if the drive is not well recognized then
all drives work in 'compatibility mode'... Byebye DMA.
Strange things can also happen if the OS sees a partition of unknown type,
Double check Drive fat through FDISK like utilities.

I don't know if this is gonna resolve your problem.
.... Your drive setup is quite impressive.
I look forward to a MAXTOR like that... I read some SATA can hold up to ATA150.

PI is on yours,
http://www.privacyinternational.org/
Just joking.. eh.. :]
Cheers
 
Thanks guys... oddly enough, powering the PC down, turning off the UPS
and then turning it all back on did the trick. I love this
motherboard. Put in 1.25 GB of PC 2700 RAM, an XP 2600, the four
drives, a TEAC 52X CDR and the Sony DVD-RW+- 4X, an All In Wonder
9600 with 128 MB RAM with built in TV, and it is just one sweet system
that may withstand the tests of time for a while. It's just a dream
not having to put in so many PCI cards and this setup was up and
running way, way faster than the Abit KT-7 RAID I bought a while
ago... get the SATAs. They are damn nice and they don't cost so much
more than IDE. I got two 250GBs for $160 each...



Hello fbi,
Here is a few links that could help.
http://www.techsupportforum.com/computer/topic/11224-1.html
http://www.techsupportforum.com/computer/topic/14606-1.html
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Hardware/Desktops/Q_20982326.html
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=29&threadid=1306420
http://www.techimo.com/forum/showthread.php?t=100808

Make sure DMA is checked for *ALL* IDE devices in system config.
Huge slowdowns can happen if the drive is not well recognized then
all drives work in 'compatibility mode'... Byebye DMA.
Strange things can also happen if the OS sees a partition of unknown type,
Double check Drive fat through FDISK like utilities.

I don't know if this is gonna resolve your problem.
... Your drive setup is quite impressive.
I look forward to a MAXTOR like that... I read some SATA can hold up to ATA150.

PI is on yours,
http://www.privacyinternational.org/
Just joking.. eh.. :]
Cheers
fbionyourtail wrote in message ...
I just bought an Asus A7N8X-E and have been very happy with it so far.
Very nice motherboard - some rough spots such as placements but
nothing that couldn't be tolerated. Everything was up and running so
pretty smoothly despite the HORRIBLE instructions that say nothing
about how to boot from the SATA drives nor provide a floppy with
drivers. Amazing. But I'm up and running with two brand new Maxtor 250
GB SATA drives as raid-0 and two IBM Deskstar 60GB on the IDE chains.

What is strange is that there is now an unbelievably slow response.
Double click a file and things stop for a moment, wait, and then load
up. I'm not sure what is going on but something is set incorrectly.
For example, if I double click a simple jpeg and want it to load up
image viewer, it takes at least a full second pause and maybe more
until the app launches and I can see the file. Can anyone help?
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
U're welcome,

When shopping for an upgrade. I had a crush on both solutions.
P4 with wither P4C800 / P4P800 -E delux, or
that nifty ASUS A7N8X deluxe for Athlon.. Using Nforce2 chipset.
Absolutely excellent board/reviews. Nvidia also provide excellent support nowaday
for Windows and Linux lovers. Can't speak for all the ASUS added features though.

The rest of the hardware you have attached to it is formidable for video editing.
If I were you.. I would check for a NEC 2510, highly recommended.

Glad it fixed itself.. But this is still odd.
But this world is odd as well.. Lets hope it fix itself soon. ;)
 
James Bald said:
U're welcome,

When shopping for an upgrade. I had a crush on both solutions.
P4 with wither P4C800 / P4P800 -E delux, or
that nifty ASUS A7N8X deluxe for Athlon.. Using Nforce2 chipset.
Absolutely excellent board/reviews. Nvidia also provide excellent support nowaday
for Windows and Linux lovers. Can't speak for all the ASUS added features though.

The rest of the hardware you have attached to it is formidable for video editing.
If I were you.. I would check for a NEC 2510, highly recommended.

Glad it fixed itself.. But this is still odd.
But this world is odd as well.. Lets hope it fix itself soon. ;)
Click to expand...
It probably just needed to finish driver setup with a reboot.
Glad to read all is well....I may go to a 64 next year...
Happy with my Mobile 2500+/A7N8X for now.
OZoNE
 
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