Hi,

I've just been upgrading my old Abit AV8 3rd Eye board from an old ATA 133 drive to a Seagate 320GB SATA2. The AV8 is just SATA1 so I left on the drive jumper and it all seems to work ok. The AV8 came out in the fairly early days of SATA and I'm wondering if I need to enable DMA somewhere for the drive. I've dug around in the BIOS and don't find any reference and I can't see anything on this in device manager. Does anyone know if I need to do this or is it automatic? I have seen other boards that have SATA DMA in the BIOS.

Thanks for the help

Pavesa

I don't think integrated SATA contollers use DMA. To see if the drive is running at SATA II go to Device Manager> IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers> SATA controller> Primary channel> Look at the transfer mode and run the speed test.

Hi OtheHill,

If I go to IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers, I don't see SATA listed. The PC works absolutely fine, but SATA is a bit of an add-on/after thought for this board! Could it be listed somewhere else?

Thanks

Pavesa

What is listed when you expand the IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers?

SATA may be listed under Controllers/Removable Devices in Device Manager!

Hi,

I get primary and secondary IDE channel and VIA Bus Master IDE Controller. There aren't any Controllers/Removable Devices mentioned. I do have VIA SATA RAID Controller but it doesn't mention DMA..

Pavesa

Are you running a RAID array or simple disk?

Hi,

I just upgraded from an old Maxtor IDE drive to this Seagate 320GB SATA. I attached the SATA drive, but the computer didn't detect it. Following a conversation with Seagate support, I installed the RAID software and then it was detected and I could use Discwizard to transfer my data. It is just one drive - simple disk - but the RAID software is installed.

Pavesa

Then expand the listing for the RAID controller and see response #1 again.

Hi OtheHill

looking at properties on the VIA SATA RAID Controller, I get 3 tabs,

1st: General

Device type, SCSI & RAID Controllers
Manufacturer, VIA Technologies
Location, PCI Bus 0, device 15, function 0

This device is working properly

Troubleshooter

2nd: Driver

VIA SATA RAID Controller
Driver Date 15/5/04
Version 5.1.2600.310

then buttons for driver details, update or uninstall

3rd: Resources

with the I/O range etc

conflict list, no conflicts

I can's see anywhere to do find the transfer mode or do a speed test. Should there be another tab?

Thanks..

I am not familiar with that controller. Got anything listed under disk drives?

Hi,

yes, I have the SATA drive

ST3320620AS SCSI Disk Device

4 tabs

1st: General

Device Type, Disk Drives
Manufacturer, (Standard Disk Drives)
Location, Bus Number 0 , Target ID 0, LUN 0

Device Status: this device is working properly

2nd: Disk Properties

nothing checked or listed, just Write cache enabled greyed out

3rd SCSI Properties

Disabled tagged queuing and Disable synchronous transfers both available but neither is checked

4th Driver

Microsoft. 14th Nov 99. driver version 5.0.2183.1

Then buttons with driver details, uninstall or update.

I can't see anything about tranfer mode or speed test.

Are you running with SP2 & fully updated? That driver sounds old. If you need to know if you are running in SATA II mode try running a speed test on the drive.

I have Win2k SP4, I'm not hugely diligent in keeping it up to date, but it isn't more than 3 months since it was updated. The AV8 is only SATA1 not SATAII.

I'm just surprised I can't find out if it is DMA mode. Maybe it goes into that mode by default. I'm not sure there would be much point in having SATA drives running in anything else so maybe other modes are not an option?

The SATA controllers may have direct access by default and may not need special routing.

Run a speed test and see what you get.

Hi OtheHill,

thanks, for all the advice and sorry to seem rather lacking in knowledge in all this.. How do you suggest going about a speed test? Is there software to do this?

Thanks..

Yes there are tests. Below are a couple of them. Sisoft SANDRA performs more tests than the other.

http://www.sisoftware.co.uk/index.h...

http://www.simplisoftware.com/Publi...