? Compaq Presario 1200 (12XL409) + Hitachi 60GB HDD ATA100 ?

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scott
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Hi everyone !

I got a brand new (03/2005) Hitachi Travelstar 7K60 (60GB / ATA100 / 7200RPM / 2"1/2) HDD on a damn old (1998) good Compaq Presario 1200 (12XL409) notebook.


The main problem is : the HDD works well but only in ATA33 mode and i want it to work in ATA100 mode (or even ATA66).

I tried almost everything, but nothing work (changing IDE cable, changing OS, changing VIA IDE drivers).

I think it because of the BIOS version : Phoenix Bios 4.0 r6.0 (almost eveything is shadowed in the Bios i have).
Phoenix Bios 4.0 r6.1 supports ATA100 as a new feature as it is said here : http://www.phoenix.com/en/Products/Core ... efault.htm
But no way to obtain it from IBM / Compaq website (i got the last Phoenix Bios version given by this website for my notebook).

If someone could help, suggest something or give me a way to make my HDD work faster, it would be very nice from him.

Thanks in advance.
scott

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Program:   eSupport.com BIOS Agent Version 3.42
BIOS Date: 11/27/01
BIOS Type: PhoenixBIOS 4.0 Release 6.0     
BIOS ID:   Unknown
OEM Sign-On: None
Chipset:   VIA 82C601 rev 5
Superio:   VIA 686 rev 34 found at port 7h
OS:        Win2000 SP4
CPU:       Pentium® III (0.18 µm) With 256 KB On-Die L2 Cache  996 MHz
BIOS ROM In Socket: Unknown
BIOS ROM Size:      Unknown
Memory Installed:   311 MB
Memory Maximum:     Unknown

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HD Tune: HTS726060M9AT00 Information

Firmware version : MH4OA68A
Serial number    :       MRH425M4HGE9YB
Capacity         : 55.9 GB (~60.0 GB)
Buffer size      : 7877 KB
Standard         : ATA/ATAPI-0
Supported mode   : UDMA Mode 5 (Ultra ATA/100)
Current mode     : UDMA Mode 2 (Ultra ATA/33)

S.M.A.R.T                    : yes
48-bit Address               : yes
Read Look-Ahead              : yes
Write Cache                  : yes
Host Protected Area          : yes
Device Configuration Overlay : yes
Automatic Acoustic Managment : yes
Power Managment              : yes
Advanced Power Managment     : yes
Power-up in Standby          : yes
Security Mode                : yes
Firmware Upgradable          : no
KachiWachi
The New Guy
Posts: 1451
Joined: Fri Mar 29, 2002 10:32 pm
Location: Pennsylvania, USA

VIA 686A/B is only ATA-66 capable.

Has the drive been limited to ATA-33 somehow?
scott
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KachiWachi wrote:VIA 686A/B is only ATA-66 capable.
Thanks for this info. So let's try ATA66 instead of ATA33.
KachiWachi wrote:Has the drive been limited to ATA-33 somehow?
NO. If i limit the HDD to ATA33 (with some Hitachi software for testing purpose), HD Tune tells that the supported mode is ATA33. If i restore everything to default (no ATA limitation), I only get ATA33 as current mode (and ATA100 as supported mode)...
Maybe it's due to Phoenix Bios limitations as i wrote before ?

Thanks again.
scott
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Location: Near Hannover (CEBIT) Germany
Contact:

http://www.lavalys.com/products/overvie ... n&pageid=1

Try this program to identify our chipset - either it's only capable of UDMA33 or the internal cabling allows only UDMA33 transfer speeds. Anyway - UDMA33 is fast enough for a 60GB HDD - it hardly exceeds 33MB/s.

Info:
686A = UDMA66
686B = UDMA100

Another Info: Supported and Current mode is only related to the capabilities of the HDD but not the IDE controller or the Notebook you use.
scott
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I get these info. with Everest but i don't understand if my chipset is a 686A or 686B one (it seems to be a something_else_A one).

But i don't know which UDMA (2/4/5) mode is finally supported ?
And why only ATA33 works ?
Another Info: Supported and Current mode is only related to the capabilities of the HDD but not the IDE controller or the Notebook you use.
I completely agree for "supported mode", but i thought that "current mode" was related to the IDE controller capabilities ?

Thanks again.
I hope, these posted info. will help you to help me.

scott

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--------[ Chipset  ]--------

  [ North Bridge: VIA VT8601 Apollo ProMedia / VT8601A Apollo PLE133 ]

    Propriétés du chipset North Bridge:
      North Bridge                                      VIA VT8601 Apollo ProMedia / VT8601A Apollo PLE133
      In-Order Queue Depth                              4
.../...
    Fabricant du chipset:
      Nom de l'entreprise                               VIA Technologies, Inc.
      Information sur le produit                        http://www.via.com.tw/en/products/chipsets
      Télécharger le pilote                             http://www.viaarena.com/?PageID=2
KachiWachi
The New Guy
Posts: 1451
Joined: Fri Mar 29, 2002 10:32 pm
Location: Pennsylvania, USA

You want the Southbridge info, not the Northbridge.

http://users.erols.com/chare/chipsets.htm shows both the 686A/B to be ATA-66 while the 8231 is ATA-100...perhaps the chart is incorrect...

VIA PLE133 (PM601)
[VT8601]
[VT8231]
Trident Blade3D AGP

686A -
AMD 750
Apollo Pro133
Apollo Pro133A
KT-133
KT-133A
KX-133
MVP4

686B -
AMD 760
ATI IGP 320
KL-133
KL-133A
KLE133
KT-133E

8231 -
KM-133
PL-133
PL-133T
PLE133 (PM601)
PLE133T
PM-133

You can test your actual HDD transfer rate using HDTach -> http://www.simplisoftware.com/Public/in ... est=HdTach
scott
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KachiWachi wrote:You want the Southbridge info, not the Northbridge.
I got none Southbridge info in the MotherBoard/Chipset part of Everest :(
(I even don't know where i can found it / can you tell me ?). Sorry i'm a newbe.

HD Tach gives me a Burst rate of 23.3MB (is it very bad ?).
you can see the report here: http://sc0tt.free.fr/temp/notsorted/hdtach.gif

I'm still not sure of UDMA66 capabilities of my MotherBoard ?!

Thanks once again.
scott

Some more infos. from Everest if it helps :

Code: Select all

--------[ Carte mère ]--------

    Propriétés de la carte mère:
      Identifiant de la carte mère                      <DMI>
      Nom de la carte mère                              Compaq Presario 12XL409 470009-699

    Propriétés du bus principal:
      Type du bus                                       Intel GTL+
      Largeur du bus                                    64 bits
      Horloge réelle                                    133 MHz
      Horloge effective                                 133 MHz
      Bande passante                                    1067 Mo/s

    Propriétés du bus mémoire:
      Type du bus                                       SDR SDRAM
      Largeur du bus                                    64 bits
      Horloge réelle                                    100 MHz
      Horloge effective                                 100 MHz
      Bande passante                                    800 Mo/s

    Propriétés du bus chipset:
      Type du bus                                       PCI
      Largeur du bus                                    32 bits
      Horloge réelle                                    33 MHz
      Horloge effective                                 33 MHz
      Bande passante                                    133 Mo/s

    Fabricant de la carte mère:
      Nom de l'entreprise                               Hewlett-Packard Company
      Information sur le produit                        http://www.compaq.com
      Télécharger le BIOS                               http://support.hp.com

Code: Select all

--------[ Chipset ]--------

  [ North Bridge: VIA VT8601 Apollo ProMedia / VT8601A Apollo PLE133 ]

    Propriétés du chipset North Bridge:
      North Bridge                                      VIA VT8601 Apollo ProMedia / VT8601A Apollo PLE133
      In-Order Queue Depth                              4

    Contrôleur mémoire:
      Bank Interleave                                   4-way

    Performances mémoire:
      CAS Latency (CL)                                  2T
      RAS To CAS Delay (tRCD)                           2T
      RAS Precharge (tRP)                               2T
      RAS Active Time (tRAS)                            5T

    Slots mémoire:
      Slot DRAM nº1                                     64 Mo  (SDRAM)
      Slot DRAM nº2                                     256 Mo  (SDRAM)

    Contrôleur graphique intégré:
      Type du contrôleur graphique                      Trident CyberBlade
      État du contrôleur graphique                      Activé
      Taille du frame buffer graphique                  8 Mo

    Contrôleur AGP:
      Version AGP                                       2.00
      État AGP                                          Activé
      Périphérique AGP                                  Trident CyberBlade-i1 AGP
      Taille de la fenêtre AGP                          64 Mo
      Vitesses AGP gérées par ce système                1x, 2x
      Vitesse AGP actuelle                              2x
      Fast-Write                                        Non géré
      Side Band Addressing                              Géré, Activé

    Fabricant du chipset:
      Nom de l'entreprise                               VIA Technologies, Inc.
      Information sur le produit                        http://www.via.com.tw/en/products/chipsets
      Télécharger le pilote                             http://www.viaarena.com/?PageID=2
KachiWachi
The New Guy
Posts: 1451
Joined: Fri Mar 29, 2002 10:32 pm
Location: Pennsylvania, USA

In Everest, choose Motherboard, then Chipset. On the right pane, you should see both the North and South Bridges in the top pane. Click on the South Bridge to show it's info.

If there is no info there, post this as a bug over at the Lavalys Forum, so Fiery can fix it up. ( http://www.lavalys.com/forum/index.php? )

I'd say 20.4MB/s (Average) is about UDMA-33. 16.7MB/s would be PIO-4/MWDMA-2, so you are at least getting that...
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