[Macboatmaster]

1. Please download these two itemes and run the programs.
Download TFC by OldTimer to your desktop

• Please double-click TFC.exe to run it. (Note: If you are running on Vista, right-click on the file and choose Run As Administrator).
• It will close all programs when run, so make sure you have saved all your work before you begin.
• Click the Start button to begin the process. Depending on how often you clean temp files, execution time should be anywhere from a few seconds to a minute or two. Let it run uninterrupted to completion.
• Once it's finished it should reboot your machine. If it does not, please manually reboot the machine yourself to ensure a complete clean.

Followed by this please.
http://www.atribune....id=25&Itemid=25
Please run ATF Cleaner clicking on the Main tab, and select ALL.
Please ensure that you have any saved passwords for websites email etc, as they will be deleted.
It does NOT effect Windows passwords.
This is an ideal utility to run once a week or so to clean your browser files.
When running regularly do not check PREFETCH as windows will simply rebuild it.
DO CHECK IT THIS TIME PLEASE - by select all.
Then if you use Firefox check that tab and do the same please.

Then please download and run this
NOTE the caution do not use any other offered program from Auslogics. Run ONLY the defrag please, not the defrag and optimize. You will see the choice when you click on the defrag button.
Download Auslogics defrag and run that. DO NOT PLEASE use any other offered program from Auslogics.
http://auslogics.com...defrag/download
Auslogics Defrag in my opinion is better because:
It does a more comprehensive job at Defragging
It will actually show you what it is doing

You can view a online log of the files that Auslogics defragged

Edited by Macboatmaster, 11 September 2011 - 05:40 PM.

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After completing my two previous posts please reboot and now go Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk Cleanup. After it has checked C drive a window willl open, it will show you against which entries there is data that can be cleaned. Please tell me what is reported and against which window. ONLY those that have data shown. The total amount of space to be gained will be shown below that window. I expect there may well be only data on Compress Old files. How much is there please.

After completing that please test the music.

If it still not right please do this.
To manually start Windows XP with a clean boot, follow these steps:
Step 1: Start the System Configuration Utility

• Click Start, click Run, type msconfig, and then click OK.
• The System Configuration Utility dialog box is displayed.

Step 2: Configure selective startup options

• In the System Configuration Utility dialog box, click the General tab, and then click Selective Startup.
• Click to clear the Process SYSTEM.INI File check box.
• Click to clear the Process WIN.INI File check box.
• Click to clear the Load Startup Items check box. Verify that Load System Services and Use Original BOOT.INI are checked.
• Click the Services tab.
• Click to select the Hide All Microsoft Services check box.
• Click Disable All, and then click OK.
• When you are prompted, click Restart to restart the computer.

Step 3: Log on to Windows

• If you are prompted, log on to Windows.
• When you receive the following message, click to select the Don't show this message or launch the System Configuration Utility when Windows start check box, and then click OK.
  
  Notes
• You have used the System Configuration Utility to make changes to the way Windows starts.
• The System Configuration Utility is currently in Diagnostic or Selective Startup mode, causing this message to be displayed and the utility to run every time Windows starts.
• This message can be checked in the small box - Do not show again.

PLEASE BE CAREFUL YOU FOLLOW THIS PROCEDURE EXACTLY.
Now try the music again please.

IMPORTANT - when using this and the computer reboots please check that your anti-virus and Firewall are still commissioned. You will probably have these shown on the right of the taskbar.

Edited by Macboatmaster, 11 September 2011 - 05:53 PM.

[Macboatmaster]

After completing my two previous posts please reboot and now go Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk Cleanup. After it has checked C drive a window willl open, it will show you against which entries there is data that can be cleaned. Please tell me what is reported and against which window. ONLY those that have data shown. The total amount of space to be gained will be shown below that window. I expect there may well be only data on Compress Old files. How much is there please.

After completing that please test the music.

If it still not right please do this.
To manually start Windows XP with a clean boot, follow these steps:
Step 1: Start the System Configuration Utility

• Click Start, click Run, type msconfig, and then click OK.
• The System Configuration Utility dialog box is displayed.

Step 2: Configure selective startup options

• In the System Configuration Utility dialog box, click the General tab, and then click Selective Startup.
• Click to clear the Process SYSTEM.INI File check box.
• Click to clear the Process WIN.INI File check box.
• Click to clear the Load Startup Items check box. Verify that Load System Services and Use Original BOOT.INI are checked.
• Click the Services tab.
• Click to select the Hide All Microsoft Services check box.
• Click Disable All, and then click OK.
• When you are prompted, click Restart to restart the computer.

Step 3: Log on to Windows

• If you are prompted, log on to Windows.
• When you receive the following message, click to select the Don't show this message or launch the System Configuration Utility when Windows start check box, and then click OK.
  
  Notes
• You have used the System Configuration Utility to make changes to the way Windows starts.
• The System Configuration Utility is currently in Diagnostic or Selective Startup mode, causing this message to be displayed and the utility to run every time Windows starts.
• This message can be checked in the small box - Do not show again.

PLEASE BE CAREFUL YOU FOLLOW THIS PROCEDURE EXACTLY.
Now try the music again please.

IMPORTANT - when using this and the computer reboots please check that your anti-virus and Firewall are still commissioned. You will probably have these shown on the right of the taskbar.

Edited by Macboatmaster, 11 September 2011 - 05:53 PM.

[LAFitz]

All programs you named are now uninstalled and the hard drive is definitely not compressed. I will now proceed to the next steps. Again thanks so much for your guidance.

FYI, I attempted to enable DMA through the BIOS but could find nothing there to do so...

Laurie

[Macboatmaster]

OK I will wait for you to complete.
By the way, you do not need to unistall it but I also notice you have CCleaner.
An excellent program in itself, but we no longer recommend it in GeekstoGo, becuase of the registry cleaner aspect.
We now generally recommend TFC and the ATF I sent you.
If you do at anytime use CCleaner our advice is NOT to use the registry aspect.

I am still looking at the BIOS and the HiJack.

I have actually asked for a colleague who is an expert on hardware matters to have a look at the DMA/PIO issue for me. He is not online tonight, but if he comes in on the thread you will know why.

[LAFitz]

Arrrrgh! The problem remains. After going through the steps and procedures you named exactly, not only did the 5-tone Windows start up stutter and drag, but the mp3 I tried to play was in slow motion as the system remains stuck in PIO. I'm anxious to hear from your hardware expert about this issue; although I don't know much about these things, I have learned enough to conclude that my inability to enable DMA is at the very heart of the issue.

As for the cleaning procures you recommended and that I carried out exactly, the last Disk Cleanup produced only the following: Temporary Internet Files - 8kb,
Web Client/Publisher Temp Files - 32kb
Compress Old Files - 32kb

Sadly,

Laurie

[Macboatmaster]

That colleague is not available at the moment please try this.
It is more or less what you did before but NOTE please the important second reboot.
Right click on my computer...then properties..

Click on the ...Hardware tab then the ...Device Manager... click the + beside IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers .... right click on each Primary and Secondary IDE channel choose ...Properties... click...Advanced Settings... tab. and list what you find as the Current Transfer Mode. for each device listed for each channel...
if any are in PIO mode...
EXAMPLE ..the Primary IDE channel shows its in PIO mode

Right click on the Primary IDE channel and choose ...Uninstall.......Accept the change...then reboot let Windows reinstall the channel and the devices assigned to it ...IMPORTANT.. then reboot again

[LAFitz]

No cigar! Just completed the uninstall of the Primary Channel by rebooting twice...but the dang machine remains stuck in PIO. Was I supposed to see a message bubble telling me "New hardware found"? If so, it did not appear so I don't even know if the uninstall actually occurred other than via the "Reboot now" message.

By the way, I do have the System & Recovery Disks for the OS. Could there be something on them having to do with DMA?

So now where do we go?

Laurie

[Macboatmaster]

Yes , the image is what you should see and then you reboot and the message on the taskbar will be found new hardware etc

The repair reinstall is unlikely I think to achieve this as the problem is more likely a hardware issue, the usual cause is a faulty hard disk, but there does not at this stage appear to be any sign of that.
It could be a fault on the motherboard, or possibly but not likely the ram, which we will check next.
OR it could be registry corruption of the registry key that controls the IDE DMA mode.
That latter would involve editing the registry.

Confirm that this is what you wer seeing on my image when you reset the IDE Primary channel - please.

[Macboatmaster]

Lets now check the ram
Please download this and run the CD.
It is an ISO image so you will require the ISO burner provided with the download.
...run memtest...

1. http://www.memtest.o...6 -4.20.iso.zip
2. Unzip downloaded file
3. Inside, you'll find memtest86+-4.20 iso
4. Download, and install ImgBurn: http://www.imgburn.com/
5. Insert blank CD into your CD drive.
6. Open ImgBurn, and click on Write image file to disc
7. Click on Browse for a file... icon:



8. Locate memtest86+-2.11.iso file, and click Open button.
9. Click on ImgBurn green arrow to start burning bootable memtest86 CD:



10. Once the CD is created, boot from it, and memtest will automatically start to run. You may have to change the boot sequence in your BIOS to make it work right.

To change Boot Sequence in your BIOS
Reboot the system and at the first post screen (where it is counting up memory) start tapping the DEL button
This will enter you into the Bios\Cmos area.
Find the Advanced area and click Enter
Look for Boot Sequence or Boot Options and highlight that click Enter
Now highlight the first drive and follow the directions on the bottom of the screen on how to modify it and change it to CDrom.
Change the second drive to the C or Main Drive
Once that is done then click F10 to Save and Exit
You will prompted to enter Y to verify Save and Exit. Click Y and the system will now reboot with the new settings.

The running program will look something like this depending on the size and number of ram modules installed:




It's recommended to run 5-6 passes. Each pass contains very same 8 tests.

This will show the progress of the test. It can take a while. Be patient, or leave it running overnight.



The following image is the test results area:



The most important item here is the “errors” line. If you see ANY errors, even one, most likely, you have bad RAM.

[LAFitz]

Confirmed: Attached is my own screenshot.

Attached Thumbnails

• 

[LAFitz]

Ok...did I do something wrong? I ran the memtest and saw a screen similar to the one you showed...with no Errors thank heavens...but I wasn't watching when it ended thereby shutting down the computer. Is there a log of the results somewhere that I can pass on to you? And by 5 or 6 passes, are you saying that I should run it again? I'm a little confused here.

Laurie

[Macboatmaster]

Re Memtest
It should not shut down the computer it keeps running until you shut down
The tests are all the same
Each pass consists of 8 tests.
It is recommended to run five or six passes.
The three images of the memtest on my post show that

For further info see this
http://www.geekstogo...sing-memtest86/


NOTE Please go back to my post 32 I suggested a clean boot just in case the problem was another service etc running not primarily the DMA/PIO issue. Please restart in Normal boot as here.

Steps to configure Windows to use a Normal startup state
After you used the clean boot to resolve your problem, you can follow these steps to configure Windows XP to start normally.

• Click Start, and then click Run.
• Type msconfig, and then click OK.
  The System Configuration Utility dialog box is displayed.
• Click the General tab, click Normal Startup - load all device drivers and services, and then click OK.
• When you are prompted, click Restart to restart the computer.

AND then run the Memtest again.

Edited by Macboatmaster, 12 September 2011 - 12:59 PM.

[Ztruker]

Some thoughts on fixing the DMA/PIO problem:

On way is to run a Visual Basic Script to reset all available IDE components from PIO to DMA mode. This should give you a good performance improvement if you have been running in PIO mode.

Open a note pad window. Copy all the data from the following code box into it. Save as "ForceDMAMode.vbs" to your Desktop (enclose in double quotes so notepad won't tack .txt to the end).

' Visual Basic Script program to reset the DMA status of all ATA drives' Copyright © 2006 Hans-Georg Michna' Version 2007-04-04' Works in Windows XP, probably also in Windows 2000 and NT.' Does no harm if Windows version is incompatible.If MsgBox("This program will now reset the DMA status of all ATA drives with Windows drivers." _  & vbNewline & "Windows will redetect the status after the next reboot, therefore this procedure" _  & vbNewline & "should be harmless.", _    vbOkCancel, "Program start message") _  = vbOk ThenRegPath = "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}\"ValueName1Master = "MasterIdDataChecksum"ValueName1Slave = "SlaveIdDataChecksum"ValueName2Master = "UserMasterDeviceTimingModeAllowed"ValueName2Slave = "UserSlaveDeviceTimingModeAllowed"ValueName3 = "ResetErrorCountersOnSuccess"MessageText = "The following ATA channels have been reset:"MessageTextLen0 = Len(MessageText)ConsecutiveMisses = 0Set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")For i = 0 to 999  RegSubPath = Right("000" & i, 4) & "\"  ' Master  Err.Clear  On Error Resume Next  WshShell.RegRead RegPath & RegSubPath & ValueName1Master  errMaster = Err.Number  On Error Goto 0  If errMaster = 0 Then    On Error Resume Next    WshShell.RegDelete RegPath & RegSubPath & ValueName1Master    WshShell.RegDelete RegPath & RegSubPath & ValueName2Master    On Error Goto 0    MessageText = MessageText & vbNewLine & "Master"  End If  ' Slave  Err.Clear  On Error Resume Next  WshShell.RegRead RegPath & RegSubPath & ValueName1Slave  errSlave = Err.Number  On Error Goto 0  If errSlave = 0 Then    On Error Resume Next    WshShell.RegDelete RegPath & RegSubPath & ValueName1Slave    WshShell.RegDelete RegPath & RegSubPath & ValueName2Slave    On Error Goto 0    If errMaster = 0 Then      MessageText = MessageText & " and "    Else      MessageText = MessageText & vbNewLine    End If    MessageText = MessageText & "Slave"  End If  If errMaster = 0 Or errSlave = 0 Then    On Error Resume Next    WshShell.RegWrite RegPath & RegSubPath & ValueName3, 1, "REG_DWORD"    On Error Goto 0    ChannelName = "unnamed channel " & Left(RegSubPath, 4)    On Error Resume Next    ChannelName = WshShell.RegRead(RegPath & RegSubPath & "DriverDesc")    On Error Goto 0    MessageText = MessageText & " of " & ChannelName & ";"    ConsecutiveMisses = 0  Else    ConsecutiveMisses = ConsecutiveMisses + 1    If ConsecutiveMisses >= 32 Then Exit For ' Don't search unnecessarily long.  End IfNext ' iIf Len(MessageText) <= MessageTextLen0 Then  MessageText = "No resettable ATA channels with Windows drivers found. Nothing changed."Else  MessageText = MessageText & vbNewline _    & "Please reboot now to reset and redetect the DMA status."End IfMsgBox MessageText, vbOkOnly, "Program finished normally"End If ' MsgBox(...) = vbOk' End of Visual Basic Script program

Once it's saved to your computer, open Windows Explorer and navigate to where you saved it and double click on it. Click OK as necessary to run it.

Another way is as follows:

Open Device Manager by right clicking on My Computer and selecting Properties. Click on the Hardware tab then click on the Device Manager button.

In Device Manager, expand IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers. Right click on the Primary IDE channel, click Properties, then the Advanced Settings tab.

Current Transfer Mode will be listed there for any device connected to the channel.

Repeat for Secondary IDE channel.

If any are running in PIO mode, select DMA if available from the Transfer Mode drop down selection box. Click OK then close out the remaining windows.

Reboot and see if that makes any difference.

[LAFitz]

Hey Mac,

I reverted to normal start up and then booted into the memtest...but got the same result. It processes the tests until sometime after 73% the last time I looked and then shuts down the computer. So now what?

Laurie

[LAFitz]

Thanks for weighing in here Ztruker. I created and ran the vbs script as per your instructions but the Primary Channel remains stuck in PIO. I didn't bother to follow your alternative method however since I've already done so a half dozen times with no luck. And I've already tried toggling between DMA and PIO as well as uninstalling the Channel. Nothing seems to be able to budge it out of PIO.

Laurie