Dell Optiplex SATA DMA? choppy sound

javajunkie · #1 11-06-2007, 02:40 AM

Hello, I followed up on another Dell thread about choppy sound, but I'm starting this new thread to seek feedback from users who have hardware similar to mine.

I have a Dell Optiplex GX620 running XP Pro SP2. Everything, including sound, has been running great for the last two years. The only problem I've had is occasional disk space issues on the boot volume due to larger hibernation files, etc., on a small C partition.

But the other day the sound in all my audio apps started getting choppy and "slooow" sometimes, as if someone was slowing a scratchy record down occasionally.

The next time I turned the machine on, it took way to long to start up - the blue traveling bars kept stopping and starting until I did a hard power off and booted into Save Mode. I couldn't find any problems and it booted normally after that. But the sound was bad. Not only did music programs sound bad, but systems sounds were also occasionally distorted and choppy.

This happened two days in a row.

Yesterday I tried uninstalling the sound driver. I thought I'd fixed it, but the choppiness crept back. Today when I turned on the machine I ran into a new problem. I saw a flashing prompt and then:

A disk error occurred.
Press ctrl-alt-del to restart.

I tried this a couple of times, and got this:

Windows could not start because the following file is missing of corrupt: \windows\system32\config\system

I followed instructions to press "r" to fix the problem from my SP2 install disk. That seemed to solve the boot problem, but the choppy sound remains.

In the interest full disclosure, one other unusual thing happened prior to my slow boot problem. I had two USB drives connected via the two front USB ports. Instead of disconnecting properly first ("Safely remove hardware") I simply shut down.

When I booted the next day without the USB drives connected I experienced the first slow start session. I doubt this is any kind of issue, but maybe it's worth mentioning.

I did a search for the sound problem, and found a thread in this forum:

http://www.softwaretipsandtricks.com...on-3000-a.html

It's a different Dell, and the solution seems to apply to DMA settings for the Secondary IDE channel. I hope the poster will understand my copying some of his post here:

-----------
For repeated DMA errors.

Windows XP will turn off DMA mode for a device after encountering certain errors during data transfer operations. If more that six DMA transfer timeouts occur, Windows will turn off DMA and use only PIO mode on that device.

In this case, the user cannot turn on DMA for this device. The only option for the user who wants to enable DMA mode is to uninstall and reinstall the device.

Windows XP downgrades the Ultra DMA transfer mode after receiving more than six CRC errors. Whenever possible, the operating system will step down one UDMA mode at a time (from UDMA mode 4 to UDMA mode 3, and so on).
------------

His solution was as follows:

So I uninstalled the Secondary IDE channel and rebooted. Windows XP reinstalled the IDE drivers and redetected the Cd-rom drives. The drives came back to UDMA Mode 2 with no choppy sound anymore!

My system has two SATA internal drives, but no secondary IDE.

Here's what I see under IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers in my Device Manager:

Intel(R) 82801 GB Serial ATA storage controllers 27C0
Intel(R) 82801 GB Ultra ATA storage controllers 27DF
Primary IDE Channel
Primary IDE Channel

The Primaries are already set to DMA, but there is now way to check such a status or change it for the SATA items. So, this makes me wonder if the suggested solution will work in my case.

Of course I can try it (uninstalling the SATA drivers), but I'm uncertain about doing this for the boot drive, which I guess is the "27C0" item. But what about the Primary IDE's? I don't remember if my system is capable of running ATA drives as well as SATA.

I have already uninstalled the audio driver, rebooted, noted the automatic reinstallation, but no change in the audio problem.

Alternatively, can I reinstall from the Dell Windows XP2 disk over my existing installation to reset "DMA" or whatever may have caused corruption? I've never done this, so I'm not sure if this will leave my other software settings and app installs intact.

Help very much appreciated.

javajunkie · #2 11-06-2007, 11:50 PM

OK, first, sorry for typos above - I went into safe mode, not save mode!

I've since tried a system restore (as far back as I could), but it didn't help.

This morning I was confronted by another bad system file (system32\ntoskrnl.exe).

Maybe my hard resets caused the system file problems?

Question is, should I just keep dealing with other potential file problems, or just bite the bullet and do a windows restore (with all the likely app reinstalls that will follow). Supposedly, a windows restore would also fix the sound problem.

But I'm still curious how to fix this sound problem on my GX620 with Sata.

JJ

snowmonkey · #3 11-07-2007, 12:47 PM

Hey javajunkie,

Any issue related to "ntoskrnl.exe" is potentioanlly serious.....I would strongley suggest to save all your data very quickley......and do the unthinkable

reformat and reinstall...

Cheers

javajunkie · #4 11-07-2007, 10:05 PM

Point taken, snowmonkey,

It's been a perfect storm of peculiar problems here.

Since that last startup problem (file replaced from the Windows install CD) I ran Avast, etc., and found no problems other than changed system files. The computer has rebooted and cold-booted several times since then with no problems. So, who knows?

I finally bit the bullet and uninstalled the drivers for my serial and ultra ATA controllers:

Intel(R) 82801 GB Serial ATA storage controllers 27C0
Intel(R) 82801 GB Ultra ATA storage controllers 27DF

First I tried the Ultra one, thinking it might be for the 2nd drive. It didn't fix the sound, and noticed that my DVD drives were temporarily unavailable - I suppose I know what that controller is for now.

Then I tried the Serial one. Happily the computer restarted without incident and reinstalled the driver.

Since then the sound problem is largely gone. I've only heard a couple of minor glitches. Things are 99.95% back to normal.

I hope it stays that way!

As far as the sound issue then, I think it is safe to say that parkk's suggestion in the Dimension 3000 sound thread ...

http://www.softwaretipsandtricks.com...tml#post143422

applies to my system as well with SATA drives. Thanks to Parkk, and thanks to you for your suggestions.

I'll post an update if anything changes, and still consider a system reinstall in case my system is still screwed.

JJ

tanuj_chadha · #5 11-08-2007, 03:50 AM

If you are facing an issue with the kernell/system 32 file then run a repair utility of windows XP. when you are in command prompt type in chkdsk /r
& when the test is done write fixboot. If that doesnot resolve the issue then you would have to do a system re-install. And never hard restart your system. If the issue is still not resolved then try calling dell technical support they should be able to help you.

javajunkie · #6 11-08-2007, 11:57 PM

Thank you, tanuj_chadha, point taken.

At the time I had no reason to believe that Windows would ever get past the moving blue bars, so I didn't think I had any alternative. Maybe, if I'd waited ten to thirty minutes or so, an error message allowing me to ctrl-alt-del or shut off would have come up, or Windows would have fixed itself. I don't know.

Luckily, after responding to prompts for my Windows CD, the file problems do seem to be fixed. No problems booting today, for instance, and the sound if fine.