About Mikazo Tech Blog

My name is Mike, and this blog is my way of saving people time. If someone has a specific problem that I've encountered before, hopefully these posts will save them the extraneous Googling I had to go through to solve the same problem. Also, when I have something to say about technology today, I will post my thoughts here. If this blog has helped you out, even a little bit, vote on the poll below, or let me know by sending me an email. I'm always open to exchanging links with other blogs or websites that share a similar interest.

Friday, November 14, 2008

Speed Up Really Slow IDE Systems

A little known trick to try on an older Windows system with IDE hard drives (anything pre-2003) is as follows. If your computer is really really slow, it could be that the hard drive(s) are using the wrong transfer mode. To check, go to Start > Control Panel > System > Hardware > Device Manager > IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers. Right click on each IDE channel and select Properties. Go to the Advanced Settings tab, and make sure each transfer mode is set to "DMA if available". If the settings were set to PIO only, changing the transfer mode to DMA should significantly and noticeably improve system performance.
del.icio.us DiggIt! Reddit StumbleUpon Google Bookmarks Yahoo MyWeb Technorati Faves Slashdot it

Posted by Mikazo at 8:34 PM
Labels: , , , , , ,

1 comments:

PCLicious Video Tutorials said...

This works great! I use this method to fix slow CD / DVD burners as well, like in this tutorial:
Slow Burning DVD Drive, How To Fix In 4 Easy Steps

November 16, 2008 10:11 PM

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

Donate to Mikazo Tech Blog