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Slow SATA performance on Mac Pro in XP/Bootcamp

MacProGuy said:
I'll have to try this... but yes, generally Registry (some) edits take effect immediately.

For instance, enabling "CoolBits" from nVidia in the Registry gives access to the overclocking menu in the stock nVidia software without a reboot, so I'm fairly confident this would work the same way.

The question is, why is it resetting it back upon reboot... it should stay that way...
Click to expand...

Sure, coolbits is just a key that the nvidia control panel looks at every time it is opened... but changing something related to hardware settings generally takes a reboot to take effect. I did read one other place that the DMA settings took effect immediately, I just found it hard to believe. If you search microsofts support site, almost everything involving changing the registry usually states at the end "Reboot for the settings to take effect".
 
eric2006 said:
Here is a method to set (without reboot) ultra DMA-6 data transfers with the internal SATA drive on a Mac Pro base config (no upgrde or options) with windows xp. Unfortunately this state is lost after reboot.

1) boot windows with HDD data transfer in PIO mode :mad:


2) launch regedit and open the following entry :(

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}\0002]

2) check the presence of the following values :eek:

"MatchingDeviceId"="primary_ide_channel"
"DriverDesc"="Primary IDE Channel"
"MasterDeviceType"=dword:00000001
"MasterDeviceTimingModeAllowed"=dword:ffffffff
"UserMasterDeviceTimingModeAllowed"=dword:ffffffff

3) Modify :confused:

"MasterDeviceTimingMode"=dword:00000010

to

"MasterDeviceTimingMode"=dword:ffffffff

this tels XP to select the best possible transfer mode: ie. ultra DMA-6. without reboot. ;)

Editing such values is known to be risky, might fail on your machine and require reinstallation of XP. :eek:

But it worked on my system. :D

A more persistent solution would be welcomed.:)
Click to expand...

This is not really turning on DMA mode... This is just tricking the property page for the driver setting window.

DMA mode is only set when the driver loads.

I have seen other articles which discuss this approach, but they always include a reboot step to engage the changes.
 
Wait, so this actually isn't enabling DMA access - it's just a hack to make it appear as if it's enabled? If so, that doesn't seem quite as useful... :rolleyes:
 
So the registry edit it not the answer yet.... Or can anyone verify it works?

I learned long ago only to play with the regedit if you are absolutly sure its going to fix a problem and more than one person has tried it, else I end up installing windows again.
 
I confirm that the registry edit only gives an impression that DMA is enabled, when looking in the device manager.

I tried HDtune and acknowledge that the disk transfer rate does not change.

I apologize for the wrong expectation. But I'm not giving up. I'll be more careful next time though.

:(

Eric
 
When I try to copy a large file from the superdrive in Boot Camp, XP goes all choppy. It's mostly noticable by the choppy mouse behaviour. According to task manager, one of the cores gets maxed out when I use the superdrive. Could this be attributed to the PIO problem? Anyone else noticing this or am I alone with this problem?
 
Despite the fact that Bootcamp Beta is clearly NOT SUPPORTED by Apple, did anyone contact them for this big issue ? Or maybe, did anyone had the opportunity to discuss this with a technical professionnal ?
 
Origin said:
Despite the fact that Bootcamp Beta is clearly NOT SUPPORTED by Apple, did anyone contact them for this big issue ? Or maybe, did anyone had the opportunity to discuss this with a technical professionnal ?
Click to expand...

I am a technical professional (although I don't work for Apple). I do realtime programming for both the Mac and PC platform for a company called Avid Technology. We are looking at the Mac Pro as a possible cross-platform development environment.
 
Tjort said:
When I try to copy a large file from the superdrive in Boot Camp, XP goes all choppy. It's mostly noticable by the choppy mouse behaviour. According to task manager, one of the cores gets maxed out when I use the superdrive. Could this be attributed to the PIO problem? Anyone else noticing this or am I alone with this problem?
Click to expand...


You're not alone. This is the nature of the hard drives being in PIO mode.
 
sirnh said:
I am a technical professional (although I don't work for Apple). I do realtime programming for both the Mac and PC platform for a company called Avid Technology. We are looking at the Mac Pro as a possible cross-platform development environment.
Click to expand...
Be quiet, they'll just try to put you at a disadvantage so that Final Cut can be a better product. :p
 
Man, I don't know what's worse.. waiting for this fix or waiting for my X1900XT BTO to ship.
 
FabioC said:
Man, I don't know what's worse.. waiting for this fix or waiting for my X1900XT BTO to ship.
Click to expand...

X1900XT........

Why? Because my OS X performance isn't suffering at all with the hard drives but my video performance could be better with the X1900XT :)
 
From Tobyg in another thread (https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/225913/):

In my experience, if I put the HD as 'master', I could get UDMA 5 speeds. This was fast, but not as fast as it should be or as fast as SATA would be. If I put the HD in as 'slave' I would get UDMA0, which was not fast. If I put the HD on 'master' and the optical drive on 'slave', oSX would no longer eject the tray by hitting the 'eject' key.
Click to expand...

I am interested in workarounds for this until Apple fixes it (they will).

Toby, did you try shift+eject when you had the optical drive on slave? You probably did but I want to make sure.

I assume the eject icon in OS X finder windows and right clicking worked on the drive icon?

I am going to buy this machine for dual-OS use and while this may not be optimum, buying a cheap drive and using it in the optical spot would work fine for me if it was reasonable in speed while this gets fixed.
 
G5guy said:
From Tobyg in another thread (https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/225913/):



I am interested in workarounds for this until Apple fixes it (they will).

Toby, did you try shift+eject when you had the optical drive on slave? You probably did but I want to make sure.

I assume the eject icon in OS X finder windows and right clicking worked on the drive icon?

I am going to buy this machine for dual-OS use and while this may not be optimum, buying a cheap drive and using it in the optical spot would work fine for me if it was reasonable in speed while this gets fixed.
Click to expand...

Yes I tried every method of ejecting. I even added the eject item to the menu, that did nothing. Very strange.

When I put two optical drives in, the menu eject item changed to "Eject Lower Super Drive" and "Eject Upper Super Drive" or something...

PATA speeds are reasonable, if you put the HD as master and optical as slave. In OSX you can continue to eject any media in the drive by right clicking on the icon of the media and saying eject... it's just you can't open the tray when there is no media in the drive with F12 or the Eject menu item. For that I went to a shell and typed 'drutil eject'

And a quick note... I won't be monitoring these threads much anymore. Returned the Mac Pro today. I'll check back in a month or two or when Leopard comes out to see if the problems have been fixed.
 
orbitalpunk said:
did you take the 10% restocking fee hit?
Click to expand...

I sure did. But I figure I'll wait for them to sort out the problems, and buy a Mac Pro when Leopard comes out. At that point, I'd only be out $120 if you factor in the $130 leopard would cost me when it comes out anyway.
 
tobyg said:
Yes I tried every method of ejecting. I even added the eject item to the menu, that did nothing. Very strange.

When I put two optical drives in, the menu eject item changed to "Eject Lower Super Drive" and "Eject Upper Super Drive" or something...

PATA speeds are reasonable, if you put the HD as master and optical as slave. In OSX you can continue to eject any media in the drive by right clicking on the icon of the media and saying eject... it's just you can't open the tray when there is no media in the drive with F12 or the Eject menu item. For that I went to a shell and typed 'drutil eject'

And a quick note... I won't be monitoring these threads much anymore. Returned the Mac Pro today. I'll check back in a month or two or when Leopard comes out to see if the problems have been fixed.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info. I have read many of your posts on the various forums and I know you tried hard to resolve the issue. Too bad Apple is quiet on this as they might have saved some sales.

I will hold off ordering my Mac Pro until they get this fixed as well. Since mine will be loaded with 4gb ram and the quadro card for CAD work, I want to be sure it is right as well. I need a machine soon to bring into a large corporation (almost all Dell) for consulting work. Bringing an Apple in would be fun. ;)

Makes you wonder how many units Apple is missing out on due to this issue!
 
G5guy said:
Makes you wonder how many units Apple is missing out on due to this issue!
Click to expand...

Well, at least 75-100 from the company I work for.... they opted out due to poor windows performance :(

Now they are purchasing Dell's......
 
CyberPrey said:
Well, at least 75-100 from the company I work for.... they opted out due to poor windows performance :(

Now they are purchasing Dell's......
Click to expand...


Ouch! I hope an Apple sales rep was involved so they hammer the Devs to fix the problem. That kind of unit quantity usually gets special treatment from my experience.
 
G5guy said:
Ouch! I hope an Apple sales rep was involved so they hammer the Devs to fix the problem. That kind of unit quantity usually gets special treatment from my experience.
Click to expand...

Actually, there was. I got to talk with him breifly. I had mentioned that I had a Mac Pro, and I was also not to impressed with the windows performance. The rep was actually fairly smart on the hardware side of things, and I feel that Apple will get this ironed out... However, I don't know about a timeframe.....

I also... heh he... managed to slip him the URL of the forums here so that he could see that there are many many many people affected by this...
 
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