On Thu, 2005-12-22 at 14:25 -0500, Pat Robertson wrote:
> Just had the pleasure of experiencing what it was like to have an IDE system
> in 1993. My cable modem was crapping out and it messed up a bunch of
> downloads to the point that the rar files (from a massive 1080P feed sample)
> had enough CRC errors that it flagged Windows XP to downgrade the PATA disk
> to PIO mode!!! It was set so that the option to revert it back to DMA mode
> was greyed out in the device manager and only a registry change will fix.
> For a while I thought it must have been some clever vileware or virus as
> opening any file on this disk took forever and transfering a CD image from a
> 74GB raptor to the PATA took hours and over 80% CPU utilization, lol.
Fun. I have seen this under Linux with errors (removable trays for
PATA), hdparm under linux will tell you what is going on, etc. DMA mode
makes a hell of a diff.
> I wonder when windows downgrades to PIO, if it is PIO mode 0 or if it uses
> whatever max PIO a disk is tagged to use.
>
> This normally happens to CD/DVD drives with a scratched disk that will
> generate enough CRC errors. First time I've seen it on a disk that wasnt
> physically damaged.
>
> On a side note - those with cable modems should make sure you have something
> recent. I thought all DOCIS2 were the same until I replaced my RCA freebie
> from Cox with a motorola 5000 series surfboard. My download speeds jumped
> x5. My downstream is over 15Mb/s with 2.5Mb up. Cox is litterally giving
> away fractional T3 speeds for pennies.
>
Not fractional T3, time slices of a fractional T3, they will get very
very upset if you use it 24/7 or even 8/7.
Harry
