Windows XP HDD stuck in PIO mode instead of DMA

13 Jan 2006 16:29

Was at a client yesterday and run into a laptop with its HDD stuck in PIO mode. Actually it was the second identical (HP) laptop to suffer from the problem. Luckily I still recalled the appropriate keywords for solving the problem.

The easiest way of fixing the problem is opening up the registry key:

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

And going through the sub keys (0001, 0002 etc. -- actually the HP laptops had keys starting from 0003 for some reason). You can identify the correct channel by the DriverDesc value. Once you've located the correct sub key, you should see a MasterIdDataChecksum or SlaveIdDataChecksum entry. Just delete it. If you see a MasterDeviceTimingModeAllowed (which was the case with the laptops), you might also want to reset it to 0xFFFFFFFF to make sure Windows re-checks the device timing properly.

That's it. One Windows problem down, half a million to go.

Just don't get me started on F-Secure ...

List of my blog entries

• Routing between LAN and VPN behind NAT (02 Mar 2009)
• Power consumption of common home electronics devices (19 Nov 2007)
• Downloads more accessible to users with firewalls (25 Jun 2007)
• More download capacity added (28 Feb 2007)
• Fixed problems with blog image scaling functions (20 Jan 2007)
• Further problems with the DB server (updated) (13 Jan 2007)
• Yesterday's problems with the site (12 Jan 2007)
• Bypassing lock code on Nokia phones (27 Dec 2006)
• iptables and vsftpd with ssl (25 Sep 2006)
• Replying to feedback mail (24 Jan 2006)
• Problems with Windows Update (07 Jan 2006)
• auditd causing crond (cron) and sshd (ssh) to lock up (06 Jan 2006)
• Squeezebox under the microscope (25 Nov 2005)
• And so it begins... (10 Nov 2005)

User comments

• by tonib95 @ 01 Feb 2008 20:24

  What do you do when the reg keys come back after reboot.
  I need the answer please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  tonib95

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