Inspiron 9300: Harddrive and DVD-drive performance issues

zeruel · 10-08-2005, 11:50 PM

Hi all.

I have a Dell Inspiron 9300 with FC4 currently installed.
I'm finding out that getting the hardware to work is a nightmare.
I have read and followed through many guides posted online on various sites, but could never solve the performance problems (DMA issues) with my 7200rpm harddrive and DVD writer.

It's just ridiculous that I'm getting about 3MB/s read speed on a harddrive with listed average read speed of 27.5 MB/s.
Also, even after recompiling the kernel many times following every single guides/suggestions I found, I could not enable DMA for the DVD writer.

I'm currently using kernel version 2.6.13

If anyone could please post a step-by-step solution for these two problems, I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks!

zd_sha · 10-09-2005, 05:25 AM

I got the similar problem with Dell D510 (not solved yet

).
The chipset is Intel 915GM, kernel 2.6.13 seems don't support
it fully now, the dma problem still there.
I have another Laptop -- Acer Ferrari 4005, the chipset is
ATI's X200, after recompile the kernel with ATIIXP support,
DMA of the hardisk is open automatically.
So I think the problem is the kernel not support 915GM/IDE
part. Although there're a lot of drivers seems to support
the graphics part of the chipset, the IDE/DMA problem remains.

nowhere.elysium · 10-09-2005, 05:39 AM

i've read elsewhere that this is to do with the way that the drives are set up; the hard disk is sata, and the optical drive is ide, but the computer tells itself that the hard disk is master on the same channel as the optical drive. odd, huh? i found an answer to it somewhere. i'll post it in a couple of minutes (when i've found it again)

there's a few suggestions here

zeruel · 10-09-2005, 11:55 AM

nowhere // Thanks for the link... were you able to get your harddrive and dvd drive working using the patches on this site?

zd_sha · 10-09-2005, 11:09 PM

I am not sure about the SATA disk. But when you configure the kernel 2.6.13, you'll find a option for
enable "SATA support", maybe you can try it.

For IDE driver I've found a way to walk around the
dma problem. Use SCSI emulation with your
kernel will solve the hd performance problem.
I guess for SATA disk it will be also ok when you
correctly configure your kernel.

nowhere.elysium · 10-10-2005, 04:24 AM

well, you ask if i've got it sorted; i'm still waiting for the damn thing to be delivered! i've been researching all over the web for the past week, and i think that i've found the links to sort pretty much everything, barring the sd card reader. most of what i'm looking for is the inspiron 6000, though.

zeruel · 10-10-2005, 11:23 AM

Thanks again for that link!

With some trial-and-error and modifications, I finally got everything working with SCSI emulation.
hard drive works fine at 45MB/s read speed. (as /dev/sda)
dvd drive works fine at 12MB/s read speed. (as /dev/scd0)

One thing to note:
Using the patches were good, but NOT the dot_config file.

Compiling the kernel with the posted dot_config file screwed up the mouse for some reason (among other things, including wireless).

I had to make my own .config file, enabling the scsi parameters and disabling the ide ones. It took some work but eventually got it all going.

nowhere.elysium · 10-11-2005, 10:25 AM

One thing to note:
Using the patches were good, but NOT the dot_config file.

really? cheers for the heads-up on that one.
heh. when i *finally* recieve this inspiron 6000 i'd better be able to get it up and running in under a day, what with all the links that i've been doleing out to other people

FFS... third edit. bloody internet explorer.

sodding job.