Frequent texture reloads are annoying. What to do??

[normada 0]

>>Okay, I contacted Dell customer support and it's their take that my system won't support UDMA-5. Best it can muster is UDMA-2. While I don't ever accept Dell as the last word in anything, all other evidence points to the same conclusion<

[Guest baksteen33]

Hi Walt, it's starting to look like a neverending story!! Anyway, most 3 year-old computers should be UDMA100 capable. Even my 'ancient' i815EP (for P3s) is. Now, I don't know till which point the IAA, Intel's 'infs' or winXP-SP2 will 'automate' the necessary registry entries. I.e. you had SP-2 before you upgraded the bios. Fact is also, the mainboard's bios has to support 48-bit addressing. My guess here is, your board previously maybe didn't, but by now it -definitely- should. For your reference, here's a list of Asus mainboards which support 48-bit addressing and a mention since which bios version: http://www.asus.com/support/english/techre...thdd/index.aspxNote: The ones with the same or almost identical chipset as your's are the 'P4T' ones. For further verification, I downloaded the manual of the Asus P4T-E, which has the older version of the two i850 chipsets (the one without the 'E'), available here: http://www.asus.com/support/download/item....T-E&Type=LatestIt clearly states: UDMA100 support!! The following is just an idea on how to solve the remaining issues (please read through till the end before proceeding). Perhaps create a system restore point too? Here we go: - Check/obtain and connect 80-pin IDE cable(s). Also check whether your HDs are UDMA100 capable (those 120GB HDs you have should be, but just to play it safe). Do this either by the model number on an invoice/or what your bios says, or by the type indicated in the OS' 'Device Management'. If still unclear, a last resort is to remove them... I'm sorry you have to open your box... I also hope you can distinguish a 80-pin cable from a 40-pin one? - Optional, and again to play it safe, it might be a good idea to de-install the IAA beforehand (if you can?). - Now, before you go any further, the first thing you need to add, are the 'UltraUdma66' and 'EnableBigLba' registry entries (since SP-2 didn't do it for you). To become comfortable with the registry, the simpler one first; for 'EnableBigLba', i.e. do a search in MS' knowledgebase for '305098' (it's for win2k, but it's identical for XP). Hmmm, think I'm gonna take a short cut here... So, for your (and my) convenience, this copied and pasted from Axcel216's page: It's called: **********************************- UDMA66 All The Way**********************************You must be logged on as Administrator to be able to do all this.Note that this setting is NOT activated just by enabling the DMA item from: right-click on your My Computer icon -> click Properties -> Hardware tab -> Device Manager -> IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers item -> select Primary and/or Secondary IDE Channel Properties -> click Advanced Settings tab -> look under Transfer Mode for the "DMA if available" setting (you must also have "Ultra DMA Mode" active under Current Transfer Mode for this to work). Then you need to repeat these steps for ALL your other IDE Devices (drives) found here, numbered this way: Device 0, Device 1 etc. If you only have one IDE Device, select "None" for all others to decrease bootup time. Now reboot when done, so the change(s) can take effect.To activate the ATA/66 (UDMA/66) setting, you need to run Regedit and go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESystemCurrentControlSetControlClass{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}0000Note that the "0000" key above might show as "0001", "0002" and/or "0003" on your machine, depending on your particular hardware settings. Select the key(s) appropriate to your case.Right-click to create a new DWORD [REG_DWORD] Value, call it "EnableUDMA66" (no quotes), and type 1 in the Decimal box to enable ATA/66 (UDMA/66) support.To disable it, change the Decimal value to 0, or delete "EnableUDMA66" altogether. IMPORTANT: You also need to make sure the "EnableBigLba" DWORD [REG_DWORD] Value is turned ON under this Registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESystemCurrentControlSetServicesAtapiParameters If "EnableBigLba" is set to 0, run Regedit, right-click on it and modify the Decimal box to read 1.This requires 48-bit LBA (Logical Block Addressing) motherboard BIOS support! Reboot when done. A MUST: To properly enable the UDMA/66 setting you MUST have your ATA/66/100/133 capable drive(s) hooked up to a SEPARATE IDE channel, OTHER than the one your older (E)IDE fixed/CD/DVD/removable drive(s) [even if ATA/33 (UDMA/33) capable] are connected to (if any)! ***********************************On a personal note: According to the 'A MUST', you'ld ideally have 2 80-pin IDE-cables connected and splitted your 2 harddrives over both IDE channels during this 'operation'. Personally, I'm a bit sceptical about this, because it signifies everybody needs to have 2 HDs to properly enable UDMA... An alternative might be to have nothing attached to IDE-2? So, perhaps just disconnect your optical drives from the second IDE-channel whilst enabling UDMA? Afterwards and in your case, you can hook-up all drives as they were. Even if you go by the word this is very easy, specially case your drives are configured as 'Cable Select'. If configured as master and slave, you'll need to pay attention to which IDE-connectors they get attached. I deerly hope this isn't too complicated. - Finally, because your registry entries are now in place, you should now also be safe to re-install the IAA again. Done!! And perhaps Dell's support was blatantly mistaken on the issue..? Hope this helps, good luck, happy simming and kind regards Jaap PS: Btw, once you've done all of this, you can -almost- easily build a computer yourself!! When looking out for a new system Walt, IMHO, definitely consider an AMD64. The equation: More computing power @ a lower energy consumption and therefore typically less noise too...

[Guest Waltm]

Once again thank you for all the guidance, Jaap (a you too, Ron!).Based upon your thoughts and the research I've done it is looking like my next step is to purchase some 80-pin cables and connect them (I'm assuming the ones I have now are 40-pin). However, overall I have to weigh the advantages of a 3-fold increase in data throughput against how much debugging I may have to do, and/or whether I'm ready to deal with potential HD read/write errors if things go south. :-eekIt's increasingly seeming to me that becoming UDMA-5-enabled is akin to joining a secret club. ;) -- WaltFlying FS9.1 at 1600x1200x32Intel Pentium 4, 2.0 GHzWindows XP Pro SP2Intel 82850 ChipsetIntel 82801BA (ICH2) Ultra ATA Controller512MB PC800 RDRAM,8100128MB ATI Radeon 9600 ProATI Catalyst Windows XP 4.11 video driverDirectX 9.0cViewSonic P95f+ 19 inch Ultrabrite CRT MonitorSound Blaster Audigy2 ZSCreative I-Trigue 2.1 3300 SpeakersMS ForceFeedback 2 joystick

[Guest baksteen33]

Right-on Walt!! Cables first, then a check of your HD's UDMA capabilities and you're set to set everything up. Once you've succeeded, you're a proud member of the 'real' UDMA5 club. ...And pssst... don't tell anybody... It's secret... Hehe The 48-bit thingy does two things: First it enables the use of larger than 137GB drives/partitions, second, it's required to set-up UDMA to the max. You wouldn't loose much if you left the 'EBL' and 'EU66' details aside. The biggest boost will arise from the proper cabling. Also, 100MB/s is relatively theoretical as there aren't any P-ATA HDs which are able to produce that kind of stream. Nevertheless, your ATA throughput will increase pretty dramatically. Those drives you have probably 'produce' around 40MB/s each. Because you're trying to enable it in the aftermaths, it's more difficult. If you'ld do a clean XP-SP2 install (in one go) on a 48-bit enable mainbaord, afaik, as soon as you apply the IAA, more or less everything falls nicely into place. It's one of the great features of SP-2. No more fiddling around. Afaik-2, even XP-SP1 wouldn't achieve this. The easy 'miracle-tool' is the IAA. It's a pity Intel doesn't offer such tools for all newer chipsets anymore... A final thought before I need to hit the pan (I'm a bit ill); before you dump that awesome RD-RAM system of yours, perhaps also consider a CPU-upgrade to max possible P4 Northwood (w/ 512kB cache). You should also be able to upgrade your RAM to 1GB. Although all the slots appear occupied, some are likely dummy modules (required on RD-systems as empty RAM-slots aren't allowed). Here you'll only have to specify the exact right type. RD-boards require very specific modules. Again all the best to you and kind regards Jaap