New hard drive dropping frames, old one still isn't

[cheeseheadjed]

So i just got a new Western Digital 120 gb hard drive that I am using as a slave. I capture tv with my ATI TV software. I have never had a frame drop issue, but I just got the new WD hard drive that I wanted to use just for video capturing/editing, but the frames stutter (it looks like it skips, or freezes every 3 seconds) when i use the new drive to capture. If i go back to using my primary drive, it is still fine. What could be causing a problem for my big, new hard drive, but not for my smaller, old hard drive?

THANK YOU!!!! you all are the best at figuring problems out
-Jed

[redwudz]

First and most obvious is to check the DMA settings of the drive. Control Panel > Device Manager > IDE controllers. Should be UDMA 6. (At least it is with my HDs.)

You can also use SiSandra:http://www.overclockersclub.com/downloadcenter/download.php?action=file&id=12 to benchmark your drives to see what their transfer rate is.

[cheeseheadjed]

Thanks for your help. It clearly is a problem with the new hard drives read/write time. I did some test and the speed is horrible! I think it has to do with the transfer mode being on PIO, but when i change it to "DMA if available," it doesn't change it, just keeps it at PIO, how can i fix this?

[Soopafresh]

Are you using the ribbon cable that came with it ? Do so if you can.

Is it a slave on channel 1 (primary) or 2 (secondary) ? If 2, is it sharing the connection with your CD/DVD drive? If so, see if your DVD drive is on PIO or UDMA.

Try the drive on both of the channels and see if the performance changes.

[cheeseheadjed]

I am using the new drive as a slave to my other (master) hard drive, they are both on the primary IDE channel. Both my dvd drives are on the secondary IDE channel. My master hard drive is on DMA, but no matter what i do (even tried re-installing the IDE channel drivers), the new slave drive stays on PIO....but it remains selected on "DMA if available", so it seems to recognize that it is my choice, but for some reason can't change it.

Both my hard drives are using the same cable to connect to the motherboard.

Any suggestions? i am getting pretty frustrated, stupid new hard drive!

Some more info I found on my slave drive that might be of help:
MW DMA Support: 0,1,2 MW DMA Active: 2
Ultra DMA Support: 0,1,2,3,4,5 Ultra DMA Active: None
PIO Mode support: 3,4
S.M.A.R.T. support enabled
ATA # Supported:6,5,4,3,2

In case any of that info helps

[redwudz]

Check your BIOS settings for your drives. May see something there.

Generally deleting the IDE channel resets the OS and when the computer reboots it detects the drive and it sets it up as DMA. If that didn't work, not sure.

Another more remote possibility is a bad IDE cable. But if you temporarily put the HD on the secondary IDE in place of your DVD or whichever is set as slave as Soopafresh suggested, you could rule that out. I'm assuming the HD jumper is set to slave.

[cheeseheadjed]

Tried switching the hard drive to the secondary IDE channel, and still getting the PIO problem.

I found these software updates on Western Digital's homepage. I'm not exactly sure what they mean, but maybe they would be of help....what do you think?

IDE RAID Compatibility Upgrade - Non-3Ware Cards
The utility runs within DOS and is used to update WD drives connected to a host system via the primary IDE controller on the system's motherboard. Affected drives: WD drives with capacities between 40GB and 120GB. WD drives with greater than 120GB capacity with Mfg. date codes earlier than 3/25/03.

and


IDE RAID Compatibility Upgrade - 3Ware Cards
this utility runs within DOS and is used to update WD drives that are connected to one or more 3Ware 7500-X IDE (Parallel ATA) RAID controllers. Affected drives: WD drives with capacities between 40GB and 120GB. WD drives with greater than 120GB capacity with Mfg. date codes earlier than 3/25/03.

[cheeseheadjed]

Funny how life works....

So after messing with my computer for hours upon hours, I realized there wasn't going to be a solution without getting some major tech support from Western Digital (already had called them 3 times). So, i was putting my computer back to the original set up i had (new hd as slave to my old one) and a miracle happened...it worked! How the hell it instantly decided to work, when I hadn't changed anything, I haven't a clue....but it is now set as ULTRA DMA mode and the speed has increased tremendously (not perfectly, but 10 fold) and I am not having that original problem of video frame lag on capture (the one this post was initally about). I guess sometimes computers just like to work like that. Thanks for all the suggestions you guys provided me with! Phew, that is a load of my back.
-Jed

[dcsos]

Now check the JUMPERING.
Both Drives should be on the THIRD JUMPER POSITION (cable select)
away from the 40/80 pin.
If this makes no sense. look for a tutorial on how to JUMPER your drives
For no explainable reason, some drives need to be JUMPERED differently than the guide or tutorial says. Only resort to these positions if the default correct jumpering doesn't work. Jumper in the wrong position cannot damage the drive (only your data!)
Good Luck