Can anybody help with this? A motherboard problem, a memory problem or what

  • Thread starter Thread starter eddwnn
  • Start date Start date
E

eddwnn

Why my hard drives are performing so badly?

ASUS P4C800-E motherboard, 512mb RAM, Windows 98SE. The HDDs are
connected to the primary IDE ports. I have no sata drives.

I have an ATA/100 80gb Seagate and an ATA/66 8gb WD. When the WD was
in my old P2, which I no longer have, there was no problem. Now, both
HDs (and another I used just to see what would happen), attached to
the P4C800-E, do not perform properly. Although programs open faster
than on the P2, operations like copying and unraring take forever. If
I move the mouse cursor, it responds very slowly and it is almost
impossible to get it to land on the spot where I want it to land. The
mouse behaves properly after the copying takes place.

Operations like Scandisk and Defrag also take forever. Although the
Seagate is twice as big as an old HD I used to use, it is faster, but
it takes way too long. On a WD 40gb on my P2, Scandisk took a few
hours and Defrag took a few minutes. Attached to my ASUS, the 80gb
Seagate took from bedtime to dinnertime the next day to complete
Scandisk, and hours to complete Defrag, even after the disk had
already been defragged!

In BIOS, I tried different combinations of enabling hyperthreading and
using enhanced and compatibility modes in IDE configuration. I don't
know what else to do.

I will appreciate all help and suggestions.

eddwnn
 
My war cry is: do you have a GOOD power supply to make your box work
reliably? Check the voltages with a digital meter with and without air
conditioners etc are running. These new boxes need mor on +12 than
older boxes. 30 amps and more, esp if items are added later.
 
Sorry I took so long to answer back. I didn't mean to be rude.

I found the problem: it is the hard drive controllers on the
motherboard. I bought a PCI controller, actually two of them, the
first one was defective. But the drives work fine on the card, just
not on the motherboard.

I updated my issue at the Asus helpdesk asking for a replacement and
was ignored. Then I answered their survey and complained about not
getting service and they've ignored me too. I will find another way to
get it resolved.

Thanks for your help,
eddwnn
 
Normally you have to deal with the supplier of your motherboard to arrange
warranty return/replacement issues.

The manufacturer will usually not deal directly with end users unless the
original supplier of the product has gone under.

John S.
 
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