FAST IO DISALLOWED on GSA-H62L

  • Thread starter Thread starter Adrian
  • Start date Start date
A

Adrian

Hi all,

I build a new Media Center PC and used an LG GSA-H62L as the DVD player -- I
picked it because it is SATA and I prefer thin cables to ribbons (PATA).
The problem is that DVD video playback is choppy/jittery on the machine.
After investigating the video drivers and the antivirus (removed them but the
problem did not go away), I tried to look under the hood using SysInternal's
ProcessMon to show file access. What I discovered is that every second read
request to the DVD drive is (possibly) rejected. One read gets a SUCCESS
status, but the next one results in FAST IO DISALLOWED. I'm not sure what
that means -- the status is not featured in the ProcessMon help file and
information on the web for it is scarce -- people ask what it could be rather
than explain it.
So, my questions are: what is it, why is it happenning and how can it be
remedied?
Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks.

Adrian
 
80 conductor cable being used? Is the drive connected to correct
connector? Is it set to use DMA in the IDE channel?

Adrian wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I build a new Media Center PC and used an LG GSA-H62L as the DVD player -- I
> picked it because it is SATA and I prefer thin cables to ribbons (PATA).
> The problem is that DVD video playback is choppy/jittery on the machine.
> After investigating the video drivers and the antivirus (removed them but the
> problem did not go away), I tried to look under the hood using SysInternal's
> ProcessMon to show file access. What I discovered is that every second read
> request to the DVD drive is (possibly) rejected. One read gets a SUCCESS
> status, but the next one results in FAST IO DISALLOWED. I'm not sure what
> that means -- the status is not featured in the ProcessMon help file and
> information on the web for it is scarce -- people ask what it could be rather
> than explain it.
> So, my questions are: what is it, why is it happenning and how can it be
> remedied?
> Any advice would be appreciated.
> Thanks.
>
> Adrian
 
"Bob I" wrote:

> 80 conductor cable being used? Is the drive connected to correct
> connector? Is it set to use DMA in the IDE channel?

None of the above. It is a SATA drive - it connects using a thin wire
instead of a 80 conductor "ribbon" cable.
Looked at the DMA settings in Device Manager and it is DMA 5 (if I'm not
mistaken).
Thanks.
 
Adrian wrote:
> "Bob I" wrote:
>
>
>>80 conductor cable being used? Is the drive connected to correct
>>connector? Is it set to use DMA in the IDE channel?
>
>
> None of the above. It is a SATA drive - it connects using a thin wire
> instead of a 80 conductor "ribbon" cable.
> Looked at the DMA settings in Device Manager and it is DMA 5 (if I'm not
> mistaken).
> Thanks.

Oh DUH, sorry I read it backwards, as you had picked PATA instead SATA.
Apologies for the mix up.
 
Get a different drive or exchange it for another.

Seriously. You will spend WAAYYY too much
time trying to get this to work. The drive is either:

a piece of crap (will never work well)
defective (exchange it)
incompatible in some obtuse way (which may take
much time to resolve)

Optical drives are all cheap, disposable junk
these days.

I would gladly pay $200 for an optical drive that
would last 5 years, but, alas, there are none to be
found...

"Adrian" <Adrian@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:9F570E6E-B963-4345-8E91-BEC5E7A6BBEB@microsoft.com...
> Hi all,
>
> I build a new Media Center PC and used an LG GSA-H62L as the DVD player -- I
> picked it because it is SATA and I prefer thin cables to ribbons (PATA).
> The problem is that DVD video playback is choppy/jittery on the machine.
> After investigating the video drivers and the antivirus (removed them but the
> problem did not go away), I tried to look under the hood using SysInternal's
> ProcessMon to show file access. What I discovered is that every second read
> request to the DVD drive is (possibly) rejected. One read gets a SUCCESS
> status, but the next one results in FAST IO DISALLOWED. I'm not sure what
> that means -- the status is not featured in the ProcessMon help file and
> information on the web for it is scarce -- people ask what it could be rather
> than explain it.
> So, my questions are: what is it, why is it happenning and how can it be
> remedied?
> Any advice would be appreciated.
> Thanks.
>
> Adrian
 
V Green wrote:
> Get a different drive or exchange it for another.
>
> Seriously. You will spend WAAYYY too much
> time trying to get this to work. The drive is either:
>
> a piece of crap (will never work well)
> defective (exchange it)
> incompatible in some obtuse way (which may take
> much time to resolve)
>
> Optical drives are all cheap, disposable junk
> these days.
>
> I would gladly pay $200 for an optical drive that
> would last 5 years, but, alas, there are none to be
> found...

http://forum.sysinternals.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=8745&PID=55717

"Fast IO = A means of reading or writing a cached file without going
through the work of generating I/O request packet (IRP)."

It would suggest that "Fast IO Disallowed" is a Microsoft software
response, rather than a hardware protocol (command set to storage device)
kind of thing. There is still the physical layer below that.

If I had to start somewhere, it would be by looking at the driver
choice being used for the chipset. Some motherboards allow
many choices (RAID, AHCI, vanilla) from the chipset maker,
as well as the ability to use the native Microsoft driver.
Some of those choices would support caching in the OS,
and some would not.

I don't know how one goes about tracing the actual commands
at the physical layer, as they are issued by the drivers.

Paul

>
> "Adrian" <Adrian@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:9F570E6E-B963-4345-8E91-BEC5E7A6BBEB@microsoft.com...
>> Hi all,
>>
>> I build a new Media Center PC and used an LG GSA-H62L as the DVD player -- I
>> picked it because it is SATA and I prefer thin cables to ribbons (PATA).
>> The problem is that DVD video playback is choppy/jittery on the machine.
>> After investigating the video drivers and the antivirus (removed them but the
>> problem did not go away), I tried to look under the hood using SysInternal's
>> ProcessMon to show file access. What I discovered is that every second read
>> request to the DVD drive is (possibly) rejected. One read gets a SUCCESS
>> status, but the next one results in FAST IO DISALLOWED. I'm not sure what
>> that means -- the status is not featured in the ProcessMon help file and
>> information on the web for it is scarce -- people ask what it could be rather
>> than explain it.
>> So, my questions are: what is it, why is it happenning and how can it be
>> remedied?
>> Any advice would be appreciated.
>> Thanks.
>>
>> Adrian
>
>
 
"V Green" wrote:

> Get a different drive or exchange it for another.
> The drive is either:
> a piece of crap (will never work well)
> defective (exchange it)
> incompatible in some obtuse way (which may take
> much time to resolve)
>
> Optical drives are all cheap, disposable junk
> these days.
>
> I would gladly pay $200 for an optical drive that
> would last 5 years, but, alas, there are none to be
> found...

I tend to agree with you to a certain point - they are cheap. But what do
you do when you reach the 5th or 6th drive w/o finding one that really works?
If you bought them from one of those discount stores that asks for 15%
restocking fee you have either spent 15%x6 for nothing or an impressive
collection of optical drives :-)
 

> http://forum.sysinternals.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=8745&PID=55717
>
> "Fast IO = A means of reading or writing a cached file without going
> through the work of generating I/O request packet (IRP)."
>
> It would suggest that "Fast IO Disallowed" is a Microsoft software
> response, rather than a hardware protocol (command set to storage device)
> kind of thing. There is still the physical layer below that.
>
> If I had to start somewhere, it would be by looking at the driver
> choice being used for the chipset. Some motherboards allow
> many choices (RAID, AHCI, vanilla) from the chipset maker,
> as well as the ability to use the native Microsoft driver.
> Some of those choices would support caching in the OS,
> and some would not.
>
> I don't know how one goes about tracing the actual commands
> at the physical layer, as they are issued by the drivers.
>
> Paul

Thaks Paul. I also read the stuff on SysInternals but did not know where to
start. I will take your advice and try to refresh the chipset drivers. I'll
keep you posted on the progress.

Adrian
 
Re: How did this get here?

<adrian c> wrote in message news:20071212943371adi@gmx.de...
>I created this thread ONLY on a Microsoft XP forum.
>
> EggHeadCafe - .NET Developer Portal of Choice
> http://www.eggheadcafe.com


Please note:
This is NOT a chat room and You are NOT posting to a forum run by
Eggheadcafe - you are actually posting to a global Usenet Newsgroup. You
will get a far better experience if you use a newsreader and subscribe to
these groups directly, rather than through Eggheadcafe.

If you must stay with Egghheadcafe then please follow Usenet custom by
quoting the post you are replying to, and replying to the thread.

Thank you.
 
Re: How did this get here?

"Gordon" wrote:

> Please note:
> This is NOT a chat room and You are NOT posting to a forum run by
> Eggheadcafe - you are actually posting to a global Usenet Newsgroup. You
> will get a far better experience if you use a newsreader and subscribe to
> these groups directly, rather than through Eggheadcafe.
>
> If you must stay with Egghheadcafe then please follow Usenet custom by
> quoting the post you are replying to, and replying to the thread.
>
> Thank you.
>

Sorry Gordon,
It's a misunderstanding - I noticed this thread on Eggheadcafe and posted my
comment there not knowing that Eggheadcafe offers a "window" to the entire
forum. I thought it was a "one-way street" and what was posted there would
not make it back here.
 
I finally got around to updating the chipset drivers and the FAST IO
DISALLOWED seems to have disappeared from ProcessMon's list. However, the
choppy video is still there, so I have to investigate further. Thanks again.

> > If I had to start somewhere, it would be by looking at the driver
> > choice being used for the chipset. Some motherboards allow
> > many choices (RAID, AHCI, vanilla) from the chipset maker,
> > as well as the ability to use the native Microsoft driver.
> > Some of those choices would support caching in the OS,
> > and some would not.
> >
> > I don't know how one goes about tracing the actual commands
> > at the physical layer, as they are issued by the drivers.
> >
> > Paul
>
 
Re: How did this get here?

"Adrian" <Adrian@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:83A08E99-6BD0-4C6A-AD3C-4F9D3E3CB0D4@microsoft.com...
>
>
> "Gordon" wrote:
>
>> Please note:
>> This is NOT a chat room and You are NOT posting to a forum run by
>> Eggheadcafe - you are actually posting to a global Usenet Newsgroup. You
>> will get a far better experience if you use a newsreader and subscribe to
>> these groups directly, rather than through Eggheadcafe.
>>
>> If you must stay with Egghheadcafe then please follow Usenet custom by
>> quoting the post you are replying to, and replying to the thread.
>>
>> Thank you.
>>
>
> Sorry Gordon,
> It's a misunderstanding - I noticed this thread on Eggheadcafe and posted
> my
> comment there not knowing that Eggheadcafe offers a "window" to the entire
> forum. I thought it was a "one-way street" and what was posted there would
> not make it back here.


That's OK - it's a problem with EggHead - we get lots of "orphaned" posts in
the MS groups not related to any thread. I've tried telling the people who
run egghead this but they either won't or can't understand about their
piggybacking onto the MS news groups...
 
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