Dont understand this dropping in read speed from SATA drive. When i first got this system, HdTach showed
the average read as 120MB. Apps would be on-screen before i could release the mouse button and i was a
happy camper.
A few months later, the average read had dropped to 70MB. It now stands at 54.5MB. I shudder to run
HdTach again! There is no one point in time (or change) that i can point to and say the speed started
dropping here, unfortunately.

I have the OEM CD's but a re-install of WinXP (clean - format C:, etc) resulted in no change in speed. The
OEM CD's has a single folder named SATA, it has 2 sub-folders (named App and Driver). Clicking on the
Setup in the App folder gives an error msg saying not compatable (i suspect this is for RAID only).
Clicking on the .inf file in driver folder appears to do nothing (screen blinks
one time, thats it.
So I purchased the full Windows XP Home with SP2 and did another clean install, no change. When i tried
doing the F6 key, nothing happened. Supposedly, Intel has build the SATA drivers into the MB chipset but
re-installing the latest chipset (from Intel site) resulted in no change.

The system is a gateway in name only now as everything except the MB and LAN card has been replaced
(new power supply, graphics card, sound card, monitor, and added a new SATA HD).

System Description: NON-RAID
WinXP Home (SP2)
Wasp Motherboard Chipset 875P
3.0GHZ 800MHz FSB P4 NORTHWOOD HYPER THREADING PROCESSOR
550W Power supply
Memory: 1024MB Memory Module
160GB SATA Hard Drive
200GB SATA Hard Drive
30 in LCD Westinghouse HDTV\PC Compatable
128MB NVIDIA 6600GT Graphics Card
DVD-RAM/-R/-RW/CDRW Recorder
TDK CD-RW: 52/24/48
Creative Audigy 2 ZS Sound Card w/front panel
Boston Acoustics BA7900 5.1 Speakers (5 + Boombox)
Multifunction PS2 Keyboard
Logitec USB Optical Mouse
Panasonic 3.5 Floppy ID Drive
120Gig External Hard Drive (Smartdrive).

Info:
BIOS: Advanced:
ATA/IDE Config - Enhanced
HD Pre-delay - Disabled
Intel RAID Technology - Disabled
SATA Port 0 - ST3160023AS
SATA Port-1 - ST3200822AS
Pata Primary Master - DVD-Ram
Pata Primary Slave - not detected
Pata Secondary Master - CD-RW
Pata Secondary Slave - not detected

Device Manager:
Disk Drives\Properties\Driver = Microsoft
Driver details = IDE\DISKST3160023AS

Disk Drives\Properties\Driver = Microsoft
Driver details = IDE\DISKST3200822AS

IDE ATA/Atapi Controllers:
Intel(R) 82801EB Ultra ATA Storage controller
Driver = Intel
Driver Details = PCI/VEN_8086&DEV_24D1&SUBSYS_2023107B&REV_02\3&267A616A&0&FA

Intel(R) 82801EB Ultra ATA Storage controller
Driver = Intel
Driver Details = PCI/VEN_8086&DEV_24DB&SUBSYS_2023107B&REV_02\3&267A616A&0&F9

I dont think that the system is using the SATA controller/driver/interfaces properly but how can i tell since
everything i see is saying IDE or ATA?
Somewhere, somehow i'm missing something but i dont know what.
Anyway, i've been searching for 6 months off and on to see if there is an answer to why this speed drop and
what i can do to get it back to the initial 120MB. So far, no luck. I hate to take the sys to a shop and have
it fixed, its more fun to try and figure it out but this one has me stumped.

Hopefully someone at this forum will have some advice\pointers\answers\etc.
savagcl

I'm having a similar problem... I'm thinking that the SATA Controller drivers aren't installed correctly, but I haven't found anything that proves this is the problem solidly, and I'm not sure how to install them if that is the problem?

I guess no one is interested, based on the reply amount.

savagcl