Drive Switches to PIO Mode

Hi,

I have a  WD20EZRX-00DC0B0 (SATA) drive that keeps switching to PIO mode.  I can switch it back to dma 6 by deleting the driver and a couple reboots.  I’ve been trying to find a pattern.  The system event atapi error ID is 9 – timeout.  This seems to be reletively common.

I get the error in the middle of the night without running applications or during the day running many applications.  I’ve got indexing turned off, nothing scheduled.  Changed cables and reconnected to a different SATA slot with no change.  

My system is:  Windows XP x64 Pro, AMD FX-4100, 16 GB sys mem, Geforce GTX 460 Driver 310.70 (12/26/2012) Rosewill Bronze 1000w PS and Gigabyte GA-970A-DS3 rev 1.1 motherboard.

One thing (among many) I don’t understand is the driver (Microsoft) is dated 10/1/2002 version 5.2.3790.1830.  I’ve tried the “Update Driver” Internet search and I get back “could not find a better match…” message.  Seams a bit strange that a 2002 driver would be the best match for a sata 3 drive.

I know there’s a chance the drive could be failing, though it’s only a couple months old.  I’m awaiting a second drive I planned to use as a backup and that most likely will tell me if the current drive is defective.

Any suggestions?

Hello Mate,

Run the WD DLG tool if possible write zeroes to the drive, otherwise I think the drive is faulty.

Thanks Awopero!  I’ll have to pass on that since it’s my OS drive.  As soon as I receive a new drive in a couple days, I’ll do an image copy, verify it, and then run that test.

Well, I received the new drive and did an image copy.  I’m getting the feeling the problem isn’t with the hard drive – it passed the integrity tests and I’ve yet to see it error on a chkdsk.  I haven’t run the wd diag yet until I’m satisfied the new drive is good.

In fact, I haven’t seen an atapi error since yesterday afternoon  after I disabled a program called Zentimo, which manages removable (USB) devices.  I had noticed a lot of events from that application just prior to the atapi errors.