HDD usage slows pc to crawl..
 

Just looking for some general imput on this, which may not even be a problem but thought id ask anyways.

AMD1300 on an Asus A7V
512MB Ram
pri channel
WD 40GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache
IBM 40GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache
sec channel
Pioneer A06
WinXP Pro
4.51 Via Chipset Drivers
NAV 2k4

HDTach shows each drive averages about 45MB/s throughput at 4ish percent CPU.

symptoms are this, creating a DVD at 4x (5MB/s) my system pretty much becomes unusable until the burn is done (ie it takes internet explorer 8-10 seconds to open)....or copying files from another computer to mine just slows my system down to a crawl again, very unresponsive etc. CPU stays around 4%.

Question...is it normal for a drive to kill a system like this you think? CPU doesnt appear to be a factor, granted im only running a 100FSB, my IDE runs at DMA5 (100mb) with hard drives as fast as they are im just fishing to know if its just time to put this to bed and upgrade the system or is there something im missing...

Thanks for any imput all :D

What are you drive configurations on Primary and Secondary?

Are you running the dense ATA-100/133 cables?

Under "My Computer", "Properties", "Hardware", "Device Manager","IDE/ATAPI Controllers","Primary and Secondary" are they running DMA modes?

What is the cache size that you have set for your DVD burner? If you can 100MB would be helpful.

-SF

Primary channel I listed as

Mas = WD
Sla = IBM

Secondary

Mas = Pioneer.

DMA is set to = DMA if available.

Cache size I set for my burner, not sure where you mean...only cache I know for the Pioneer is 2MB onboard. Where under WinXP can I set a cache for my burner?

Your burning software will have a cache setting that uses your RAM as a cache. That cache will write the data to the memory, that memory will be xported to the IDE channel via DMA to the burner.

Try help on your DVD burning program for 'cache'.

-SF

Gotcha on program cache, thats set now to higher but testing it I notice no difference, and just straight file copy from other computers wont be affected. Thanks for that tip though.

Have you done a good defrag?

I would reccomment PerfectDisk, using SmartPlace defragmentation.


-SF

I had the same issue and still do on one of my computers.
AMD Athlon 850Mhz
512 MB Memory
40 GB HDD
8x/4x/32x CD Burner
HP Pavilion

When I would butn CD's I cold nothing done on my computer so I got used to it and when I would make a CD I would close every program, shut off the monitor and go do something else until its done, then restart. It's a bitch but life ain't perfect.
Although this doesn't occur on my laptop at all:
Intel Centrino 1.3GHz
512MB Memory
80 GB HDD

I've had similar issues, but the CPU usage stats you provide disagree with me.

Have you tried removing the harddisk and burner from the device manager, and let windows add them on a new reboot? In my case, that solved a problem with DMA, which may (or may not) be your problem too. The "use DMA if available" is not a good indication here - if Windows thinks it's unavailable, it won't use DMA. Focus on the Pioneer with your investigation here.

In fact, I have the exact same DVD burner, without said issues. But then I have a P4 2.6c and a WD raptor harddisk. I used to have this problem with a Philips 52x cd burner, and solved it as mentioned. I use Nero 6 as burning program, by the way. Looking at your hardware, I'd say this should *not* be happening at all, period.

I use Diskeeper 8 frequently.

Dragonlich, I did what you suggested, and removed the devices from hardware manager. Now burning a DVD at least shows my CPU spiked at 90ish percent while burning, and as you said that should indicate a DMA issue. I too am Using Nero6, latest version. Ill look more into the DMA side of things where this may be happening. Thanks

Sidenote, I showed my HDTach results above and have typically found that if DMA is disabled, 3-5MB/s with 90% cpu is the result. I am complete opposite of that which to me says im getting full DMA advantage.