Performance problem

Dan Dowd · From: Paducah, KY, R.I.P.

After installing my new hard drive I have a problem with the computer running slow and sometimes the mouse wont move after clicking on a item. I went to Control Panel then system properties and then performance. There are 3 messages. The first says" Compatibility mode paging reduces overall system performance. The next two are the same except for the drive letter C and D. It says Drive X is using an MS-DOS compatibility mode file system. My C drive is Master and D is Master slave.The help file for these error messages says there is caused by a driver not recognized by windows config .sys Anybody know how to fix this. Thanks

Jack Stoner · From: Kansas City, MO

Are both drives formatted for "FAT32"?? Sounds like one (or both) may be formatted for the older FAT16, which could cause a problem. This is only one possibility, but something to check.

Look at the device manager (in system properties) to see if there are any devices with problems (it will have a Yellow circle with an apostrophe in it). This may key you directly in to the problem.

Usually if an install program has changed the Config.Sys or Autoexec.Bat file they will rename the original file as .BAK or something to that nature (e.g. Config.Bak).
You can check and see if one of those files exist and compare it to the current files and that may tell you what was added or changed.

One other thing that may be causing a problem is DMA access. You may have to remove DMA access from the second drive (if is not configured that way now) in device manager. My daughter had a problem with slowdowns or hangups (took a long time to start windows) and one of the symptoms was the cursor would not move or it was jerky. Compaq's fix for that particular model of pc (it is a 4808) is to remove the hard drive DMA access (in the system properties panel). That fixed her problem and there was no apparent performance deterioration because the hard drive was not DMA.

Just a couple of things to look at. I've found that a lot of time Microsoft's error messages and suggested fixes are generic and the suggested fixes are not all that useful.
Microsoft's on-line support center data bases seem to be a better source of fixes for specific problems.

Dan Dowd · From: Paducah, KY, R.I.P.

Thanks Jack. I did see where the hard drive had a yellow ! by the hard drive driver. I removed the plugs from the d drive which was my original c drive and removed the 2nd drive from the BIOS. Also removed the jumper on the new c drive so it was not the master and just a drive. It works great now without the 2nd drive (was set as primary slave). I will try and tinker some more. I learn more from computer problems than I ever could reading a book about them. Something about first hand experience. Also taking advantage of the wealth of info folks like yourself have to offer on this forum. Thanks

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[This message was edited by Dan Dowd on 03 July 2000 at 06:37 AM.]

Jack Stoner · From: Kansas City, MO

Dan, even if you only have one hard drive connected, it's strap (jumper) should be set to master. There's only one drive so it is the "master" but it does affect the entire disk I/O bus.

Dan Dowd · From: Paducah, KY, R.I.P.

Jack , acording to the info from Western Digital's web site the drives are shipped with the jumper on pins 4-6 which they call Single neutral position. They also show a single standard installation with no jumpers at all. this is what I am using presently. It seems to be OK except I think I will need to reinstall my CD drives due to tje drive letters changing. Do you think I need to put the jumper on the pins 4-6. I used a program called First Aid, and it reported a bunch of errors, but since I changed things to my present setup there are no reported errors.

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