Performance Problems w/Second Hard Drive? XPS T600r, ATA/EIDE Drive

Question

I have a Dell Dimension XPS T600r purchased in 2001.  Relevant specs are 256k RAM, Bios A09, NTFS Partition.  Am attempting to simply add a second hard drive (first is 20GB, second would add another 60GB).  Maxtor 3.5 inch ATA/EIDE internal hard drive w/Ultra ATA interface cable.   I have the drive installed, and attached it to the 'Dr2' interface (i.e. the gray 'slave' interface) of the data cable already in the system (i.e. I did not use the new Ultra ATA interface cable).  In Bios (Phoenix, A09), setup is recognizing both drives, and both are set to 'Auto'.  Accordingly, the original drive is configured to 'Master', and the new drive is configured to 'slave'.   Problem is that it is taking me about 10-15 minutes to boot up - the computer gets completely hung up at the front end (when the Dell symbol first occupies the screen).  I had heard I might have performance issues using a second drive, but this is beyond the pale.  I had hoped to minimize any performance issues by keeping only data files ('word' documents, digital photos, etc.) on the new drive.   Any suggestions?  Thank you in advance.

Majestic · Answer

First, make sure the drive are jumpered for Cable Select.  That setting works best with the XPS T model.   Secondly, I would use the new ribbon cable in replace of the original.   Thirdly, if you still encounter a boot lag then clear the NVRAM.  It is not uncommon after a hardware change for the system to have difficulty detecting new hardware thus causing the lag.  By clearing the NVRAM the system will take a fesh inventory of all the installed hardware.  To clear the NVRAM just do this.....   With the machine unplugged from the wall remove the battery from the motherboard.  Then with the machine still unplugged press the On button for several seconds to dissipate any remaining electrical charge on the motherboard.  Then re-install the battery, plug the machine back into the wall and see if it will boot normally.  Click here for information on how to remove the battery from your model's on-line User Guide.

tjhall23 · Answer

Thank you very much - will try this and keep my fingers crossed.  Thanks again!

tjhall23 · Answer

OK, so I now have the second drive installed (and it is recognized), but I am still experiencing boot lag. Both hard drives are configured "cable select." I also tried clearing NVRAM.

It takes about 3 minutes to boot, and rather than booting all the way, boot stops at an intermediate screen that shows a few system parameters, has the Dell logo condensed in the upper right, and gives me a choice between entering setup (Del) or "resuming" (Esc).

On the upside, I am not experiencing slow system performance, contrary to what the Dell rep told me I would if I tried to use two hard drives.

Any suggestions? Is my only option to copy all contents of my old drive (which is only 20GB) to my new drive (which is much larger) and use my new drive as my only drive? Or, can I have two drives and somehow rectify this long boot time?

Majestic · Answer

If you are getting the 'press DEL - ESC' option at boot up then there is a hardware problem somewhere.  When this happens, check the diagnostic lights on the rear of the system to see if they will indicate an error code which can help pin point the problem.  If the diagnostic lights are of no help then try disconnecting the hard drives one at a time to see if the boot time improves. When you try disconnecting the Master hard drive then use a floppy boot disk to boot the system and make sure the floppy drive is the first boot device.  This will give you an indication if either hard drive is causing the boot delay.  You could also disconnect both hard drives and then see how the system boots to a floppy or bootable CD.  If the system lags with the hard drives disconnected then there is another hardware item at fault.

tjhall23 · Answer

Majestic, thanks again for all of your advice - very much appreciated.

tjhall23 · Answer

Thought you might want to know -- the boot lag issue and "bios" issue described above turned out to be the result of a wireless mouse plugged into a USB port that did not support hi-speed USB. This had never caused a problem before (the wireless mouse "base" had been plugged into this port for over a year), but the combination of events involving the hard drives somehow triggered the problem. On a hunch, I switched the mouse to a different USB port, and everything worked.

By the way, I recommend going "cable select" if you install two hard drives into the Dell SPS T600r - if anyone out there is still using this machine and faces this issue.

Majestic · Answer

You are more than welcome.    Glad to hear you were able to resolve the problem and thanks for posting back with an update.

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