Not using max udma

I noticed recently that the two devices running on my secondary ide channel are running UDMA 2 (ATA-33) transfer mode when Everest says the max is UMDA 5.

Is this affecting my system's performance and if so can I fix it?

I'd be grateful to hear some advice. Thanks...

Motherboard:
CPU Type Intel Pentium 4, 2600 MHz (26 x 100)
Motherboard Name MSI MS-6701 (Medion OEM) (3 PCI, 1 AGP, 2 DIMM, Audio, LAN)
Motherboard Chipset SiS 648
System Memory 1024 MB (PC2700 DDR SDRAM)
BIOS Type Award (07/05/05)

Storage:
IDE Controller SiS PCI IDE UDMA Controller
Device
Disk Drive SAMSUNG SP1614N (160 GB, 7200 RPM, Ultra-ATA/133)
Disk Drive ST3120023A (120 GB, 7200 RPM, Ultra-ATA/100)
Disk Drive WDC WD400BB-00FRA0 (37 GB, IDE)
Optical Drive PIONEER DVD RW DVR-109 (DVD+R9:6x, DVD-R9:6x, DVD+RW:16x/8x, DVD-RW:16x/6x, DVD-ROM:16x, CD:40x/24x/40x DVD+RW/DVD-RW)
SMART Hard Disks Status OK

ATA Device Properties:
Model ID ST3120023A
Serial Number 3KA1EQPF
Revision 3.33
Device Type ATA-100
Parameters 232581 cylinders, 16 heads, 63 sectors per track, 512 bytes per sector
LBA Sectors 234441648
Buffer 2 MB
Multiple Sectors 16
ECC Bytes 4
Max. PIO Transfer Mode PIO 4
Max. UDMA Transfer Mode UDMA 5 (ATA-100)
Active UDMA Transfer Mode UDMA 5 (ATA-100)
Unformatted Capacity 114473 MB


[ SAMSUNG SP1614N (S016J10X329554) ]

ATA Device Properties:
Model ID SAMSUNG SP1614N
Serial Number S016J10X329554
Revision TM100-24
Device Type ATA-100
Parameters 310101 cylinders, 16 heads, 63 sectors per track, 554 bytes per sector
LBA Sectors 312581808
Buffer 8 MB (Dual Ported, Read Ahead)
Multiple Sectors 16
ECC Bytes 4
Max. PIO Transfer Mode PIO 4
Max. UDMA Transfer Mode UDMA 5 (ATA-100)
Active UDMA Transfer Mode UDMA 2 (ATA-33)
Unformatted Capacity 165148 MB



ATA Device Properties:
Model ID WDC WD400BB-00FRA0
Serial Number WD-WCAJF1088841
Revision 77.07W77
Device Type ATA-100
Parameters 77545 cylinders, 16 heads, 63 sectors per track, 600 bytes per sector
LBA Sectors 78165360
Buffer 2 MB (Dual Ported, Read Ahead)
Multiple Sectors 16
ECC Bytes 74
Max. PIO Transfer Mode PIO 4
Max. UDMA Transfer Mode UDMA 5 (ATA-100)
Active UDMA Transfer Mode UDMA 2 (ATA-33)
Unformatted Capacity 44727 MB

 

That solution wasn't possible on my pc. UDMA modes can't be changed. A friend told me over the weekend there are two types of IDE cable and that the old type only supports UDMA mode 2. I ripped an IDE cable out of an old 386 machine and assume that this must be the problem. It was raining too hard at the weekend to get to the shops but hopefully a new cable will sort the problem!

Will post back here when I've tested with a new cable

 

It's been my experience that if you use the a 40-pin IDE cable on a 80-pin IDE cable device, you get an onscreen warning during POST.

 

Two other things I would mention in case you still run into a blank wall.

Older motherboards did not support 80 lead cables (ATA 100) on the secondary controller. They expected that you would be using optical drives on those. If you notice that the cable connectors on the motherboard are coloured differently, you should check. You will find information by looking up the specifications for the motherboard's model at the manufacturer's website, or reading the section concerning IDE in the motherboard manual. The Dell computers we have at work with 2.6Ghz CPUs are like this.

It does not sound like the situation in your case, but the UDMA can be set in the drive's firmware by using a utility from the drive manufacturer's website. Read through the descriptions of the utilities that the drive manufacturer offers.

Matt