New hardrives

[andycardiff]

I have a PCG-K215Z Laptop. I have upgraded the original noisy/getting faulty hardrive from the original60gb(4200rpm) to an 80gb(5400rpm). I am experiencing problems, sluggish processing, items being dragged accross the screen appear to ghost or shudder. Ram upgraded to 1gb. E-support were of no use regarding this matter. Any suggestions for Bios or driver updates. there are none on the sony website for this problem.
thanks for any help
andy.

[Blencogo]

Hi Andy,

Could be all sorts of things but the first likely problem may be that the drive is not using DMA (Direct Memory Access) which would mean all data having to go through the processor and slowing data transfer down.

Start -> Right-Click My Computer -> Properties -> Hardware -> Device Manager

Expand IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers.
Double-click on Primary IDE Channel -> Advanced Settings.
Make sure ALL devices have "DMA if Available" selected and check that the Current Transfer Mode is "Ultra DMA Mode 4/5/6".
If any device (Especially Device 0 - your HDD) is set to PIO mode then this is your problem.
Go Back and highlight Primary IDE Channel and right-click on it.
Select Uninstall and OK. You must uninstall - disabling is not enough.
Reboot your Vaio to reload the drivers and reset DMA.

[andycardiff]

Hi thanks for the quick advice.
The DMA is already set at "5" as per instructions. I did an uninstall just in case and rebooted twice for the re-install
What i have noticed is that SVCHOST.EXE or SVCHOST is using a lot of the cpu when browsing the internet or using a programme.The cooling fan thinks it's working as a hairdryer for Vidal Sasoon as it seems to be working overtime. I have ran several reg programmes to resolve it and ensured there is no spyware or viruses using AVG, NORTON, ADAWARE, etc etc.
After boot up and the hardrive is idle, the cpu goes upto 100% with SVCHOST using it all.
I have re-installed the recovery cd formatting the drive and updated all the drivers from sony with Service pack 2 etc.
Any further suggestions are welcome
cheers
andy.