Just guessing
the cd/dvdrom is on the same channel as the hard drive/sata2ide adapter
somehow the sata2ide adapter is causing a timing conflict when in UDMA mode and this causes windows to downgrade the speed to PIO mode.
That's my guess.
based on the problem I had with a armada m700 using a SD2IDE & sata2ide adapter
Seems quality & firmware in those things does make a difference since It eventually did work ok with another sata2ide adapter.

weedeewee wrote on 2023-09-22, 13:42:

Just guessing the cd/dvdrom is on the same channel as the hard drive/sata2ide adapter somehow the sata2ide adapter is causing a […]
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Just guessing
the cd/dvdrom is on the same channel as the hard drive/sata2ide adapter
somehow the sata2ide adapter is causing a timing conflict when in UDMA mode and this causes windows to downgrade the speed to PIO mode.
That's my guess.
based on the problem I had with a armada m700 using a SD2IDE & sata2ide adapter
Seems quality & firmware in those things does make a difference since It eventually did work ok with another sata2ide adapter.

Thanks,
So, do you think I should get another adaptor?
Honestly I don't mind buying another one as long as I know that will work.

What if I disconnect the DVD drive?

There are other settings in the bios like if you think I should change anything to help:
MUlti-Sectore Transfers
LBA Mode Control
32bit I/O
Transfer Mode: Standard, Fast PIO 1,2,3,4, DMA1, DMA2
Ultra DMA Mode

verify if the dvdrom & hdd are on the same channel.
If they are, then removing the dvd drive, doing a new windows install and running the benchmark again should help . 🤞

weedeewee wrote on 2023-09-22, 14:09:

verify if the dvdrom & hdd are on the same channel.

Sorry for asking this, but how should I verify this?

look up both devices in windows 98 device manager. Sort by connection.
They should show up either both under something like primary IDE controller if they are both on the same channel.
If one is under primary, and the other is under secondary, then they are on separate channels.

or just unplug it

weedeewee wrote on 2023-09-22, 14:29:

look up both devices in windows 98 device manager. Sort by connection.
They should show up either both under something like primary IDE controller if they are both on the same channel.
If one is under primary, and the other is under secondary, then they are on separate channels.

I checked it out, it seems like there are two separate channels:

- PCI bus
...- ALi M5229 PCI Bus Master IDE Controller
... ...- Primary IDE controller (dual fifo)
... ... ...Generic IDE Disk Type01
... ...- Secondary IDE controller (dual fifo)
... ... ...Toshiba DVD-ROM SD...

how could there be two primary controllers? 😀

rasz_pl wrote on 2023-09-23, 06:07:

how could there be two primary controllers? 😀

Sorry, being a lazy ass person, forgot to change it to secondary when I copied that line =))))

I got the third adaptor and I'm getting the same speed.
Do you think those SSD PATA drives with SM2236 would be faster? They are pretty expensive, 50~70 bucks.
Is it possible to get better speed with them or should I try to find another hard drive? (Mission impossible)

is it that slow in pure dos?
is BIOS autodetect defaults to PIO0? or sets DMA?
what drive exactly did you plug into the converter?

rasz_pl wrote on 2023-09-26, 14:56:

is it that slow in pure dos?
is BIOS autodetect defaults to PIO0? or sets DMA?
what drive exactly did you plug into the converter?

Haven't tested it in dos, but I will give it a try and let you know the result.
The autodetect was set on UDMA, PIO4/DMA2, I changed them a lot with different values but the speed is just kept at 3MB/s.
I just need something around 10MB/s so the system won't freeze when copying or stutter audio when using the disk.

The drive is a Silicon Power Ace A55, SATA III.

Well after testing a lot of stuff, finally the problem is solved!
Now I can reach 90MB/s on sequence, and 19MB/s on random read and write.

The problem? The disk was 256GB (more than 128GB), randomly used a 64GB one and everything is working perfectly.
I limited the 256GB disk to about 100GB in bios, but apparently, that wasn't working very well and was causing the speed bottleneck.

I say it was Silicon Power Ace A55 having trouble with Jmicron converter and not the size issue

rasz_pl wrote on 2023-10-04, 17:08:

I say it was Silicon Power Ace A55 having trouble with Jmicron converter and not the size issue

I don't think so, after testing with other SSD, I bought the same Silicon Power A55 Sata III but 128GB and got near 100MB/s speed. This the disk that I'm using to now to install my stuff on.

maybe different firmware revision? I ran JM20330 with 256-512GB ssds no problem

rasz_pl wrote on 2023-10-04, 21:11:

maybe different firmware revision? I ran JM20330 with 256-512GB ssds no problem

No, I'm not saying there was a problem with JM20330, I tested it with 256GB SSD and it worked well on another computer, my laptop however, has a very limited bios, I think anything with more than 137GB will freak it out.

ah got ya