K7S5A hates Seagate 7200.7 40GBs? The 60 & 80GB work fine

How do I get the K7S5A to recognize 40GB Seagates?? 60 and 80GB models work
great!

I've got a K7S5A with 256MB RAM, Duron 1.3 and a 450-watt power supply. No
overclocking, no fancy stuff. The machine has been working great with my
Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 80GB drive for 6 months.

Now, I wanted to backup my data so I plugged a new Seagate Barracuda 7200.7
40GB drive onto the IDE channel as slave. When I start the machine, the
K7S5A recognizes the 80GB drive but not the 40GB.

I checked the jumpers and they're properly set. I ensured that the cable
had the master and slave plugged into the correct sockets. Next, I set the
7200.7 40GB to master and plugged it in all alone. (I later changed the
jumper to cable select mode.) The K7S5A will not recognize the drive!

I've reset the BIOS to defaults, turned off power management and tried to
auto detect the drive. The K7S5A will not recognize the drive.

Now, I've also got a 60GB Barracuda in the closet. So, I plugged it where
the 40GB was. The 60GB works perfectly.

Here's the weird part. I've got a 40GB 7200.7 at work, so I tried it too.
It can't be detected either.

Thanks for your help!

In article <fE%Lb.50253$JQ1.45659@pd7tw1no>, says...
> How do I get the K7S5A to recognize 40GB Seagates?? 60 and 80GB models work
> great!
>
> I've got a K7S5A with 256MB RAM, Duron 1.3 and a 450-watt power supply. No
> overclocking, no fancy stuff. The machine has been working great with my
> Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 80GB drive for 6 months.
>
> Now, I wanted to backup my data so I plugged a new Seagate Barracuda 7200.7
> 40GB drive onto the IDE channel as slave. When I start the machine, the
> K7S5A recognizes the 80GB drive but not the 40GB.
>
> I checked the jumpers and they're properly set. I ensured that the cable
> had the master and slave plugged into the correct sockets. Next, I set the
> 7200.7 40GB to master and plugged it in all alone. (I later changed the
> jumper to cable select mode.) The K7S5A will not recognize the drive!
>
> I've reset the BIOS to defaults, turned off power management and tried to
> auto detect the drive. The K7S5A will not recognize the drive.
>
> Now, I've also got a 60GB Barracuda in the closet. So, I plugged it where
> the 40GB was. The 60GB works perfectly.
>
> Here's the weird part. I've got a 40GB 7200.7 at work, so I tried it too.
> It can't be detected either.
>
> Thanks for your help!
>
interesting. I could never get DMA to "stick on" with my Seagate
Barracuda 7200.7 80Gb (as a slave on the secondary channel). BIOS sees
it, OS installs it, then removes the DMA check mark (OK, I admit OS is
Me) Works OK (as a S L O W back up drive, problem maybe due to CDR on as
secondary master).

Trust me. Your drives will be slow on the K7S5A even when it doesn't share
a cable with the CDROM. My old Dell P2-500 kills the K7S5A on drive
throughput.

I know, I know. The solution to all my drive problems is real easy: go buy
a better motherboard. The cheap man always pays twice, I guess..

"Bruce Graham" <> wrote in message
news:. au...
> In article <fE%Lb.50253$JQ1.45659@pd7tw1no>, says...
> > How do I get the K7S5A to recognize 40GB Seagates?? 60 and 80GB models
work
> > great!
> >
> > I've got a K7S5A with 256MB RAM, Duron 1.3 and a 450-watt power supply.
No
> > overclocking, no fancy stuff. The machine has been working great with
my
> > Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 80GB drive for 6 months.
> >
> > Now, I wanted to backup my data so I plugged a new Seagate Barracuda
7200.7
> > 40GB drive onto the IDE channel as slave. When I start the machine, the
> > K7S5A recognizes the 80GB drive but not the 40GB.
> >
> > I checked the jumpers and they're properly set. I ensured that the
cable
> > had the master and slave plugged into the correct sockets. Next, I set
the
> > 7200.7 40GB to master and plugged it in all alone. (I later changed the
> > jumper to cable select mode.) The K7S5A will not recognize the drive!
> >
> > I've reset the BIOS to defaults, turned off power management and tried
to
> > auto detect the drive. The K7S5A will not recognize the drive.
> >
> > Now, I've also got a 60GB Barracuda in the closet. So, I plugged it
where
> > the 40GB was. The 60GB works perfectly.
> >
> > Here's the weird part. I've got a 40GB 7200.7 at work, so I tried it
too.
> > It can't be detected either.
> >
> > Thanks for your help!
> >
> interesting. I could never get DMA to "stick on" with my Seagate
> Barracuda 7200.7 80Gb (as a slave on the secondary channel). BIOS sees
> it, OS installs it, then removes the DMA check mark (OK, I admit OS is
> Me) Works OK (as a S L O W back up drive, problem maybe due to CDR on as
> secondary master).
>

My WD 40G 7200 RPM drive was just as fast on the k7s5a as benchmark
tests posted at web sites wherein such tests results can be found.
Further, the "comparable" numbers in Sisoft Sandra also showed the
drive benched in the neighborhood where it should. If your k7s5a has
a HD bandwidth problem, then your setup may need some inspection.
Frankly, a test like HDTach is, imho, one of the best mechanisms for
testing HD throughput.

BTW, Intel was known to "tweak" their chipset drivers to produce false
HD throughput test data (they did it with the TX chipset and maybe
others), don't know about the chipset in your Dell tho. I remember
doing an upgrade from a TX chipset mobo to a faster mobo a few years
back and was so disappointed to find out Wintune tests showed my newer
mobo had a slower HD interface. Turns out it was Intel's driver
playing tricks with the OS's drivers, maybe it was taking advantage of
the workings of the vcache driver with win9x.

--
Best regards,
Kyle
"James" <> wrote in message
news:xWDMb.73018$X%5.61300@pd7tw2no...
| Trust me. Your drives will be slow on the K7S5A even when it
doesn't share
| a cable with the CDROM. My old Dell P2-500 kills the K7S5A on drive
| throughput.
|
| I know, I know. The solution to all my drive problems is real easy:
go buy
| a better motherboard. The cheap man always pays twice, I guess..
|
| "Bruce Graham" <> wrote in message
| news:. au...
| > In article <fE%Lb.50253$JQ1.45659@pd7tw1no>,
says...
| > > How do I get the K7S5A to recognize 40GB Seagates?? 60 and 80GB
models
| work
| > > great!
| > >
| > > I've got a K7S5A with 256MB RAM, Duron 1.3 and a 450-watt power
supply.
| No
| > > overclocking, no fancy stuff. The machine has been working
great with
| my
| > > Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 80GB drive for 6 months.
| > >
| > > Now, I wanted to backup my data so I plugged a new Seagate
Barracuda
| 7200.7
| > > 40GB drive onto the IDE channel as slave. When I start the
machine, the
| > > K7S5A recognizes the 80GB drive but not the 40GB.
| > >
| > > I checked the jumpers and they're properly set. I ensured that
the
| cable
| > > had the master and slave plugged into the correct sockets.
Next, I set
| the
| > > 7200.7 40GB to master and plugged it in all alone. (I later
changed the
| > > jumper to cable select mode.) The K7S5A will not recognize the
drive!
| > >
| > > I've reset the BIOS to defaults, turned off power management and
tried
| to
| > > auto detect the drive. The K7S5A will not recognize the drive.
| > >
| > > Now, I've also got a 60GB Barracuda in the closet. So, I
plugged it
| where
| > > the 40GB was. The 60GB works perfectly.
| > >
| > > Here's the weird part. I've got a 40GB 7200.7 at work, so I
tried it
| too.
| > > It can't be detected either.
| > >
| > > Thanks for your help!
| > >
| > interesting. I could never get DMA to "stick on" with my Seagate
| > Barracuda 7200.7 80Gb (as a slave on the secondary channel). BIOS
sees
| > it, OS installs it, then removes the DMA check mark (OK, I admit
OS is
| > Me) Works OK (as a S L O W back up drive, problem maybe due to CDR
on as
| > secondary master).
| >
|
|

On Mon, 12 Jan 2004 21:01:17 GMT, "James" <> wrote:

>Trust me. Your drives will be slow on the K7S5A even when it doesn't share
>a cable with the CDROM. My old Dell P2-500 kills the K7S5A on drive
>throughput.

Here is some old info I have.

================================================== ============
I was having a problem with my new Western Digital 7200 RPM 40 Gig hard dive
running slow in Windows XP. I downloaded and installed the file below and that
fixed it. On a older version of Sandra my hard drive benchmarked at around
4,000. That is very very slow. After installing the file below my hard drive
benchmarks at 28,000!
http://download.msi.com.tw/support/dvr_exe/SiSide41.exe
P.S. I also found what appears to be a newer version of the file above but I
have not tested it. Here is the link:
http://download.msi.com.tw/support/dvr_exe/SiSide47.exe

My Hard drive would not go into DMA mode, it was stuck in PIO mode. I tried a
few different things to get it into DMA mode but nothing worked. PIO mode is
the reason I was getting very slow hard drive benchmarks. Once I install the
SISise.exe file my hard drive went into Ultra DMA Mode 5. That is why I saw
such a great improvement in hard drive benchmark scores.

So my conclusion is check in the Drvice Manager under IDE Controllers and if
your IDE Channels are in PIO mode and DMA mode will not "stick" then using the
SIS drivers listed above may indeed help. But if you are already in DMA mode
the SIS drivers will not help much if any. The old saying "If it ain't broke
don't fix it" applies.

"Ava Keech" <> wrote in message
news:...
> On Mon, 12 Jan 2004 21:01:17 GMT, "James" <> wrote:
>
> >Trust me. Your drives will be slow on the K7S5A even when it doesn't
share
> >a cable with the CDROM. My old Dell P2-500 kills the K7S5A on drive
> >throughput.
>
> Here is some old info I have.
>
> ================================================== ============
> I was having a problem with my new Western Digital 7200 RPM 40 Gig hard
dive
> running slow in Windows XP. I downloaded and installed the file below and
that
> fixed it. On a older version of Sandra my hard drive benchmarked at
around
> 4,000. That is very very slow. After installing the file below my hard
drive
> benchmarks at 28,000!
> http://download.msi.com.tw/support/dvr_exe/SiSide41.exe
> P.S. I also found what appears to be a newer version of the file above
but I
> have not tested it. Here is the link:
> http://download.msi.com.tw/support/dvr_exe/SiSide47.exe
>
> My Hard drive would not go into DMA mode, it was stuck in PIO mode. I
tried a
> few different things to get it into DMA mode but nothing worked. PIO mode
is
> the reason I was getting very slow hard drive benchmarks. Once I install
the
> SISise.exe file my hard drive went into Ultra DMA Mode 5. That is why I
saw
> such a great improvement in hard drive benchmark scores.
>
> So my conclusion is check in the Drvice Manager under IDE Controllers and
if
> your IDE Channels are in PIO mode and DMA mode will not "stick" then
using the
> SIS drivers listed above may indeed help. But if you are already in DMA
mode
> the SIS drivers will not help much if any. The old saying "If it ain't
broke
> don't fix it" applies.

I have always found the K7S5A to return poor IDE benchmarks. I have just
benchmarked 7 systems on 2 differnet LANs with a mixture of SIS, ALI and VIA
chipsetted boards. All are running with various 40gb. UDMA 100 HDDs, Seagate
WD and Maxtor. DMA is enabled on all. Latest manufacturers chipset drivers
installed on all. Benchmarks vary from 18,000 to 21,000 (K7S5a) up to
27,100. That's a lot of difference! Ironically, the slowest HDD machines
have the fastest CPUs (T bred 2400 and 2200) and the fastest has the slowest
CPU (Duron 1800). Also, both of the slow machines are running Win 2K NTFS as
opposed to the others which are Win 98SE with FAT32. I've never been able to
explain it fully. Anyone care to comment?
>

"Mr. Slow" <> wrote in message
news:bu18nn$ng1$...
>
> "Ava Keech" <> wrote in message
> news:...
> > On Mon, 12 Jan 2004 21:01:17 GMT, "James" <> wrote:
> >
> > >Trust me. Your drives will be slow on the K7S5A even when it doesn't
> share
> > >a cable with the CDROM. My old Dell P2-500 kills the K7S5A on drive
> > >throughput.
> >
> > Here is some old info I have.
> >
> > ================================================== ============
> > I was having a problem with my new Western Digital 7200 RPM 40 Gig hard
> dive
> > running slow in Windows XP. I downloaded and installed the file below
and
> that
> > fixed it. On a older version of Sandra my hard drive benchmarked at
> around
> > 4,000. That is very very slow. After installing the file below my hard
> drive
> > benchmarks at 28,000!
> > http://download.msi.com.tw/support/dvr_exe/SiSide41.exe
> > P.S. I also found what appears to be a newer version of the file above
> but I
> > have not tested it. Here is the link:
> > http://download.msi.com.tw/support/dvr_exe/SiSide47.exe
> >
> > My Hard drive would not go into DMA mode, it was stuck in PIO mode. I
> tried a
> > few different things to get it into DMA mode but nothing worked. PIO
mode
> is
> > the reason I was getting very slow hard drive benchmarks. Once I
install
> the
> > SISise.exe file my hard drive went into Ultra DMA Mode 5. That is why I
> saw
> > such a great improvement in hard drive benchmark scores.
> >
> > So my conclusion is check in the Drvice Manager under IDE Controllers
and
> if
> > your IDE Channels are in PIO mode and DMA mode will not "stick" then
> using the
> > SIS drivers listed above may indeed help. But if you are already in DMA
> mode
> > the SIS drivers will not help much if any. The old saying "If it ain't
> broke
> > don't fix it" applies.
>
> I have always found the K7S5A to return poor IDE benchmarks. I have just
> benchmarked 7 systems on 2 differnet LANs with a mixture of SIS, ALI and
VIA
> chipsetted boards. All are running with various 40gb. UDMA 100 HDDs,
Seagate
> WD and Maxtor. DMA is enabled on all. Latest manufacturers chipset drivers
> installed on all. Benchmarks vary from 18,000 to 21,000 (K7S5a) up to
> 27,100. That's a lot of difference! Ironically, the slowest HDD machines
> have the fastest CPUs (T bred 2400 and 2200) and the fastest has the
slowest
> CPU (Duron 1800). Also, both of the slow machines are running Win 2K NTFS
as
> opposed to the others which are Win 98SE with FAT32. I've never been able
to
> explain it fully. Anyone care to comment?

All benchmarks are done with SiSoft Sandra 2004.
> >
>
>

"Mr. Slow" <> wrote in
message news:bu18nn$ng1$...
|
| "Ava Keech" <> wrote in message
| news:...
| > On Mon, 12 Jan 2004 21:01:17 GMT, "James" <> wrote:
| >
| > >Trust me. Your drives will be slow on the K7S5A even when it
doesn't
| share
| > >a cable with the CDROM. My old Dell P2-500 kills the K7S5A on
drive
| > >throughput.
| >
| > Here is some old info I have.
| >
| > ================================================== ============
| > I was having a problem with my new Western Digital 7200 RPM 40 Gig
hard
| dive
| > running slow in Windows XP. I downloaded and installed the file
below and
| that
| > fixed it. On a older version of Sandra my hard drive benchmarked
at
| around
| > 4,000. That is very very slow. After installing the file below
my hard
| drive
| > benchmarks at 28,000!
| > http://download.msi.com.tw/support/dvr_exe/SiSide41.exe
| > P.S. I also found what appears to be a newer version of the file
above
| but I
| > have not tested it. Here is the link:
| > http://download.msi.com.tw/support/dvr_exe/SiSide47.exe
| >
| > My Hard drive would not go into DMA mode, it was stuck in PIO
mode. I
| tried a
| > few different things to get it into DMA mode but nothing worked.
PIO mode
| is
| > the reason I was getting very slow hard drive benchmarks. Once I
install
| the
| > SISise.exe file my hard drive went into Ultra DMA Mode 5. That is
why I
| saw
| > such a great improvement in hard drive benchmark scores.
| >
| > So my conclusion is check in the Drvice Manager under IDE
Controllers and
| if
| > your IDE Channels are in PIO mode and DMA mode will not "stick"
then
| using the
| > SIS drivers listed above may indeed help. But if you are already
in DMA
| mode
| > the SIS drivers will not help much if any. The old saying "If it
ain't
| broke
| > don't fix it" applies.
|
| I have always found the K7S5A to return poor IDE benchmarks. I have
just
| benchmarked 7 systems on 2 differnet LANs with a mixture of SIS, ALI
and VIA
| chipsetted boards. All are running with various 40gb. UDMA 100 HDDs,
Seagate
| WD and Maxtor. DMA is enabled on all. Latest manufacturers chipset
drivers
| installed on all. Benchmarks vary from 18,000 to 21,000 (K7S5a) up
to
| 27,100. That's a lot of difference! Ironically, the slowest HDD
machines
| have the fastest CPUs (T bred 2400 and 2200) and the fastest has the
slowest
| CPU (Duron 1800). Also, both of the slow machines are running Win 2K
NTFS as
| opposed to the others which are Win 98SE with FAT32. I've never been
able to
| explain it fully. Anyone care to comment?
| >
|

You just explained it. Any benchmark that is file system oriented
will reveal that NTFS partitions are slower than fat32 partitions.
With my k7s5a setup (WD 40G 7200 HD, Thunderbird 1400 CPU), a Sandra
benchmark of the fat32 partition would yield about a 24,000 result (a
decent and expectable result), while a benchmark of the NTFS drive
would yield about 14,000 to 16,000 (best as I can recall). Further,
win98 benchmarks will tend to be a bit faster than win2k/XP benchmarks
due to the nature of the OS and how the OS works internally. Comparing
one brand HD to another with all the other factors thrown in
(different chipsets, different cpu speeds, different OS's, different
file systems) means none of your results are reliable comparisons.
Finally, as a wise old owl once said, mixing apples with oranges (when
benchmark testing) gives you fruit salad.
--
Best regards,
Kyle

"Kyle Brant" <> wrote in message
news:bu1hcu$co7f2$...
>
> "Mr. Slow" <> wrote in
> message news:bu18nn$ng1$...
> |
> | "Ava Keech" <> wrote in message
> | news:...
> | > On Mon, 12 Jan 2004 21:01:17 GMT, "James" <> wrote:
> | >
> | > >Trust me. Your drives will be slow on the K7S5A even when it
> doesn't
> | share
> | > >a cable with the CDROM. My old Dell P2-500 kills the K7S5A on
> drive
> | > >throughput.
> | >
> | > Here is some old info I have.
> | >
> | > ================================================== ============
> | > I was having a problem with my new Western Digital 7200 RPM 40 Gig
> hard
> | dive
> | > running slow in Windows XP. I downloaded and installed the file
> below and
> | that
> | > fixed it. On a older version of Sandra my hard drive benchmarked
> at
> | around
> | > 4,000. That is very very slow. After installing the file below
> my hard
> | drive
> | > benchmarks at 28,000!
> | > http://download.msi.com.tw/support/dvr_exe/SiSide41.exe
> | > P.S. I also found what appears to be a newer version of the file
> above
> | but I
> | > have not tested it. Here is the link:
> | > http://download.msi.com.tw/support/dvr_exe/SiSide47.exe
> | >
> | > My Hard drive would not go into DMA mode, it was stuck in PIO
> mode. I
> | tried a
> | > few different things to get it into DMA mode but nothing worked.
> PIO mode
> | is
> | > the reason I was getting very slow hard drive benchmarks. Once I
> install
> | the
> | > SISise.exe file my hard drive went into Ultra DMA Mode 5. That is
> why I
> | saw
> | > such a great improvement in hard drive benchmark scores.
> | >
> | > So my conclusion is check in the Drvice Manager under IDE
> Controllers and
> | if
> | > your IDE Channels are in PIO mode and DMA mode will not "stick"
> then
> | using the
> | > SIS drivers listed above may indeed help. But if you are already
> in DMA
> | mode
> | > the SIS drivers will not help much if any. The old saying "If it
> ain't
> | broke
> | > don't fix it" applies.
> |
> | I have always found the K7S5A to return poor IDE benchmarks. I have
> just
> | benchmarked 7 systems on 2 differnet LANs with a mixture of SIS, ALI
> and VIA
> | chipsetted boards. All are running with various 40gb. UDMA 100 HDDs,
> Seagate
> | WD and Maxtor. DMA is enabled on all. Latest manufacturers chipset
> drivers
> | installed on all. Benchmarks vary from 18,000 to 21,000 (K7S5a) up
> to
> | 27,100. That's a lot of difference! Ironically, the slowest HDD
> machines
> | have the fastest CPUs (T bred 2400 and 2200) and the fastest has the
> slowest
> | CPU (Duron 1800). Also, both of the slow machines are running Win 2K
> NTFS as
> | opposed to the others which are Win 98SE with FAT32. I've never been
> able to
> | explain it fully. Anyone care to comment?
> | >
> |
>
> You just explained it. Any benchmark that is file system oriented
> will reveal that NTFS partitions are slower than fat32 partitions.
> With my k7s5a setup (WD 40G 7200 HD, Thunderbird 1400 CPU), a Sandra
> benchmark of the fat32 partition would yield about a 24,000 result (a
> decent and expectable result), while a benchmark of the NTFS drive
> would yield about 14,000 to 16,000 (best as I can recall). Further,
> win98 benchmarks will tend to be a bit faster than win2k/XP benchmarks
> due to the nature of the OS and how the OS works internally. Comparing
> one brand HD to another with all the other factors thrown in
> (different chipsets, different cpu speeds, different OS's, different
> file systems) means none of your results are reliable comparisons.
> Finally, as a wise old owl once said, mixing apples with oranges (when
> benchmark testing) gives you fruit salad.
> --
> Best regards,
> Kyle

Fruit salad indeed Kyle but I have always felt that Win 98 based systems are
quicker than those based on Win 2K and you have confirmed this. For me, Win
98 is the better OS; a devil I know perhaps especially while MS are
continuing support for 98SE.
>

In article <bu18pf$92t$>,
lid says...
>
> "Mr. Slow" <> wrote in message
> news:bu18nn$ng1$...
> >
> > "Ava Keech" <> wrote in message
> > news:...
> > > On Mon, 12 Jan 2004 21:01:17 GMT, "James" <> wrote:
> > >
> > > >Trust me. Your drives will be slow on the K7S5A even when it doesn't
> > share
> > > >a cable with the CDROM. My old Dell P2-500 kills the K7S5A on drive
> > > >throughput.
> > >
> > > Here is some old info I have.
> > >
> > > ================================================== ============
> > > I was having a problem with my new Western Digital 7200 RPM 40 Gig hard
> > dive
> > > running slow in Windows XP. I downloaded and installed the file below
> and
> > that
> > > fixed it. On a older version of Sandra my hard drive benchmarked at
> > around
> > > 4,000. That is very very slow. After installing the file below my hard
> > drive
> > > benchmarks at 28,000!
> > > http://download.msi.com.tw/support/dvr_exe/SiSide41.exe
> > > P.S. I also found what appears to be a newer version of the file above
> > but I
> > > have not tested it. Here is the link:
> > > http://download.msi.com.tw/support/dvr_exe/SiSide47.exe
> > >
> > > My Hard drive would not go into DMA mode, it was stuck in PIO mode. I
> > tried a
> > > few different things to get it into DMA mode but nothing worked. PIO
> mode
> > is
> > > the reason I was getting very slow hard drive benchmarks. Once I
> install
> > the
> > > SISise.exe file my hard drive went into Ultra DMA Mode 5. That is why I
> > saw
> > > such a great improvement in hard drive benchmark scores.
> > >
> > > So my conclusion is check in the Drvice Manager under IDE Controllers
> and
> > if
> > > your IDE Channels are in PIO mode and DMA mode will not "stick" then
> > using the
> > > SIS drivers listed above may indeed help. But if you are already in DMA

My hardrive SiSoft scores for the Seagate 40Gbyte primary master were OK.
It is just my secondary slave 80Gbyte that is slow. I had
previously googled and downloaded the SiS driver but did not install due
to FEAR - a healthy emotion when it comes to file systems which are
partially unbacked up. When I get around to burning some more backup CDs
I will try SiSide47.exe as suggested in this thread. Thanks for the
interesting thread.

Bruce Graham