Ultra DMA Mode

  • Thread starter Thread starter Ulysses Hardy
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Ulysses Hardy

I'm running WinXP Home with a 40 GB HHD, 128MB memory {only of which 96
appear in

System Properties. During startup, I see a line as follows: "Ultra DMA
Mode - 5

S.M.A.R.T. capable, but disabled." I called the system manufacturer and was
given a explanation so technical I had no idea what the man was talking
about. Online forums provided hit-n-miss

fixes that didn't fix.

I plan to increase the RAM shortly.

Printer drivers have already been updated for WinXP.

Is there an immediate fix for the UDMA issue, will increasing RAM provide a
fix, or is

there something more I should be aware of here?

ulyhard
 
I'm running WinXP Home with a 40 GB HHD, 128MB memory {only of which 96
appear in

System Properties. During startup, I see a line as follows: "Ultra DMA
Mode - 5

S.M.A.R.T. capable, but disabled." I called the system manufacturer and was
given a explanation so technical I had no idea what the man was talking
about. Online forums provided hit-n-miss

fixes that didn't fix.

I plan to increase the RAM shortly.

Printer drivers have already been updated for WinXP.

Is there an immediate fix for the UDMA issue, will increasing RAM provide a
fix, or is

there something more I should be aware of here?

ulyhard
Click to expand...

Most likely 32MB of your installed RAM is devoted to your video adapter.
UltaDMA mode 5 is a good thing to see. There doesn't appear to be a problem
there. There is a setting in BIOS to enable/disable SMART monitoring. The
message at startup is telling you that your hard drives are SMART capable
but monitoring is disabled in the BIOS settings. The system will work fine
with this feature on or off. The notice about "disabled" is informational
only.

If you want to change this, you would need to enter the BIOS setup screen
and change the menu setting for SMART Monitoring. How you enter these
screens varies from one system to the next. You might see "Press <some key>
to enter setup" in those initial POST screens (the ones that appear long
before Windows starts to load). Press that key (or key sequence). Explore
the menus to find the SMART settings and change the setting (the screen
should have some hints on what keys to press to change the value for the
setting).

With SMART enabled and if the failure type allows it, you would receive
early warning of an impending hard drive failure. This gives you a chance
to grab data off the drive before replacing it.
 
Thank you Sharon F
This relieves a lot of anxiety that something may be seriously wrong.

ulyhard
 
More patience is required from the folk of the group. I entered the BIOS
and scrolled from "Main" to "Exit", but SMART was not apparent. Are there
other steps I should know.

Sorry about my lack of understanding.

ulyhard
Ulysses Hardy said:
Thank you Sharon F
This relieves a lot of anxiety that something may be seriously wrong.

ulyhard
Click to expand...
 
Check the hard drive manufacturer's website for their diagnostic tools
making note of the instructions to create their diagnostic boot disk. Their
diagnostic setup should contain an option to enable SMART. You'll need to
go through the screens in the diagnostic, perhaps first letting the
diagnostic run in order for it to see that SMART is turned off and offering
you the option to turn it on. You might also check the manual for the hard
drive which, if you don't have it might also find it at the manufacturer's
website.

--
Michael Solomon MS-MVP
Windows Shell/User
Backup is a PC User's Best Friend
DTS-L.Org: http://www.dts-l.org/

Ulysses Hardy said:
More patience is required from the folk of the group. I entered the BIOS
and scrolled from "Main" to "Exit", but SMART was not apparent. Are there
other steps I should know.

Sorry about my lack of understanding.

ulyhard
Click to expand...
 
I indicated I would get back to the group regarding my

enabling/disabling S.M.A.R.T. capabilities in the

BIOS setup. Contacting the HHD drive

manufacturer didn't provide any possitive results.

But, further research found the following comment,

"For most users, S.M.A.R.T. capability isn't really

useful or necessary. In fact, all the S.M.A.R.T. traffic

eats up some bandwith. So ......., if you don't need

that level of real-tume reporting,

disable it for better system performance. "

I would re interested in comments regarding the

above quote.
 
SMART gives you a warning of impending drive failure not usually found
natively in the OS. While read and write failures and unexplained crashes,
especially during read or write activities are a symptom of impending
failure, users often spend a good deal of time trying to figure out the
source of such issues, wasting a lot of time that could be spent backing up
and preparing for a new drive.

I run with it enabled and that would be my recommendation to others.
 
If you are able to provide specific instructions on going into setup and
enabling SMART I would appreciate it.

ulyhard
 
I'm sorry, this varies by computer. You can either attempt to do it from
the hard drive manufacturer's diagnostic tools disk which can be found at
their website or you can try locating the option in your system BIOS. When
the system boots, there is usually a notation on the first boot screen
information you that if you wish to enter setup or something similar and
gives you a key to hit. When you see that, hit that key, you would then
need to navigate through the various screens and options to see if the
option exists in your system's BIOS.
 
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