Question; IDE Controller

I have a Dell Dim. 3000 with Win. XP-Pro. I recently installed a 2nd hard drive (Maxtor 200 GB) to gain additional storage for my video capture device. When recording to this new drive the video and sound are choppy, however, ok when recording to original drive C:\. My Dell's primary IDE, which is contained in the motherboard, supports Ultra DMA Mode 2 only for device 0 and assigns PIO Mode for device 1. There are PCI type IDE controllers which I assume could support DMA for both devices, however, my Dell has only 3 PCI sockets available and all are in use.
My qusetions are as follows:

1. Is the PIO Mode on device 1 my video/audio recording problem?
2. Would a better PCI type controller solve this problem?
3. Is there an adaptor which can create (split) two PCI's from one?

 

You definitely need Ultra DMA for capturing video. Are you sure about the transfer modes supported? Ultra DMA 2 is slow. PIO mode is even slower. My PC bought 4 years ago supports Ultra DMA 6 (ATA133).

Some things to check:

Both hard drives should be connected to the same Primary IDE channel.
Go into Device Manager->IDE Controllers->Primary IDE Channel->Advanced and check that transfer mode is set to DMA for both devices.
Go into BIOS and check that the highest Ultra DMA mode is enabled (or set to Auto)

What are the specs of both hard drives? ATA100? or ATA133?

 

Thanks for reply! Both drives connected to primary. Both devices set for DMA If Available, DMA available on device 0, PIO only available for device 1. Ultra DMA 2 seems adaquate but PIO is not. Do you know the answer to my other questions?

2. Would a better PCI type controller solve this problem?
3. Is there an adaptor which can create (split) two PCI's from one?

I expect the answer to #2 is yes, but would it conflict with the existing motherboard circuit? The other problem is having only 3 PCI ports and all in use.

 

I'm sure you can solve the problem without a new PCI controller.

Find out the specs of your hard drives to see what transfer modes are supported. If you know the model number of the Maxtor you can key this in at http://www.maxtor.com/

When you installed the 2nd hard drive did you check the jumper settings on the back of both hard drives?

 

The transfer speed is the issue here, PIO is too slow for video capture and my controller does not provide anything other than PIO for a second drive. The jumpers are fine, I know the Maxtor drive supports high speed controller modes.

 

In that case I cannot help further with your other 2 questions. Logically I would have thought that an IDE controller capable of UDMA transfer could do it for all attached devices but I do not know if this is true.

I hope someone else has some ideas for you.