Any diagnostic tool for Samsung SATA?

JVM · Post by **JVM** » Mon Mar 29, 2004 6:56 am

EasyRaider wrote:About DDR333 vs. 400:

It's usually recommended to run with synchronous FSB and memory frequency. nForce(2) systems, and possibly others, will actually run slower if you set the memory to 400 with a 333 MHz FSB.

My DDR is 400 and I think my FSB is 333 (I'll check later) so you are saying I should have DDR set to 333? Right now I have it on Auto - maybe that's the safest setting?

I have an ATI card but probably is true for me as well.

Fabool · Post by **Fabool** » Tue Apr 27, 2004 2:46 am

The HUTIL DOES work for SATA drives!

I didn't try the one JVM sent me since I read that it didn't work, but today I thought I'd look into it and went to Samsung Korea's HDD page, downloaded their HUTIL (which lists SP1614C by the way) and it works!
I have an Intel motherboard (D865GLCLK) and one of the Samsung SP1614C models that does not have trouble displaying correct temperatures.

Here's the direct link if you don't want to search through the Korean pages; http://www.sec.co.kr/images/product/hdd ... reator.exe

I'm a happy man, the drive is now extremely quiet

Edit: Not so happy since the self diagnostic has found some "defects" in my drive during the random surface scan

Anyone know how serious these can be? I'm running the full surface scan now but it's sitting at 2.204%, probably because that's where the defect's at.

JVM · Post by **JVM** » Tue Apr 27, 2004 5:16 am

Fabool wrote:The HUTIL DOES work for SATA drives!

I didn't try the one JVM sent me since I read that it didn't work, but today I thought I'd look into it and went to Samsung Korea's HDD page, downloaded their HUTIL (which lists SP1614C by the way) and it works!
I have an Intel motherboard (D865GLCLK) and one of the Samsung SP1614C models that does not have trouble displaying correct temperatures.

Here's the direct link if you don't want to search through the Korean pages; http://www.sec.co.kr/images/product/hdd ... reator.exe

I'm a happy man, the drive is now extremely quiet

Edit: Not so happy since the self diagnostic has found some "defects" in my drive during the random surface scan Anyone know how serious these can be? I'm running the full surface scan now but it's sitting at 2.204%, probably because that's where the defect's at.

That's very interesting since the tech guy at Samsung said they contacted Korea and sent me the Hutil utility from Korea! I never tried it because the problem I was having disappeared and then read about all those who said it doesn't work and figured there was no need to bother - so I deleted it!

Anyway, thanks for posting the link.

dukla2000 · Post by **dukla2000** » Tue Apr 27, 2004 11:10 am

This is really puzzling.

The utility I got from JVM came in a zip file, the link Fabool posts is a self extracting zip. Both produce 2 files (hutil.exe and hutil119.cfg) and (although I didn't do a binary diff while I was in Win) both seem identical to me - same datestamp and sizes.

And NEITHER works for me

I boot win in DOS mode, fire hutil and it scans for a drive and finds no Samsung. I get version 1.19, but it only seems to be scanning the 4 IDE ports (Primary/Secondary, Master/Slave). Now I suspect my problem is my SP0812C is hanging off a Via 8237 and this utility has only been taught to scan for the Intel SATA controller?

Anyway - another curious thing is the statement by Fabool that the web page says it supports SATA (and the support desk that told JVM the same thing). Compared to this page (as of today) that still doesn't claim to support SATA.

I haven't ever managed to read a SMART temp from either of 2 SP0812Cs I have (on 2 different Via 8237 mobos) and figure I need to get into hutil and enable SMART. Except it seems I need to borrow time on an Intel SATA controller to do that

owain_thomas · Post by **owain_thomas** » Wed Apr 28, 2004 12:23 am

Yeah, this doesn't work for me either, fabool were you running it under windows? If so could you post a screen capture as I just get the same result as dukla, i.e. it scans the 4 IDE channels and says no drive found.

thanks
Owain

Fabool · Post by **Fabool** » Wed Apr 28, 2004 1:27 am

Nope, I ran it under DOS so I couldn't take any screenshots. Had to hookup a floppy drive to my desktop computer just so that I could do that.

When I ran the HUTIL it scanned the IDE channels and immediately after that proceeded to scan the SATA channels where it found my SP1614C. It must be a compatibility issue with SATA controllers other than Intel.

luggage · Post by **luggage** » Wed Apr 28, 2004 1:35 pm

OffTopic? (tried to search... really

)

This also seems to be the case with the pata drives (a SP0802N and a IV60Gb) hooked up to the onboard Promise 100 controller (UIDE? *) on my old Asus A7V.
The Hutil.zip only finds the old ibm "deathstar" drive that should be asleep on IDE(0).
Now I'm contenplating trying the hutil for sata but I really doubt it will help me.
Anyone have any familiarity with hutil and these older motherboards?

*lists as a scsi controller in the device manager and in bios boot menu...

[edit]I dont have any trouble at all getting smart data and temp in windows since the controller "wakes up" during normal boot - only with the hutil bootdisk the promise controller isn't even activated it seems.

JVM · Post by **JVM** » Wed Apr 28, 2004 1:57 pm

owain_thomas wrote:Yeah, this doesn't work for me either, fabool were you running it under windows? If so could you post a screen capture as I just get the same result as dukla, i.e. it scans the 4 IDE channels and says no drive found.

thanks
Owain

You don't run the hutil utility in Windows! You must run it from a floppy boot disk. When I gave you the Hutil zip file, I included a link to the web page giving instructions on how to use the utility Pata version - same instructions apply to SATA version.

JVM · Post by **JVM** » Wed Apr 28, 2004 2:00 pm

dukla2000 wrote:This is really puzzling.

The utility I got from JVM came in a zip file, the link Fabool posts is a self extracting zip. Both produce 2 files (hutil.exe and hutil119.cfg) and (although I didn't do a binary diff while I was in Win) both seem identical to me - same datestamp and sizes.

And NEITHER works for me I boot win in DOS mode, fire hutil and it scans for a drive and finds no Samsung. I get version 1.19, but it only seems to be scanning the 4 IDE ports (Primary/Secondary, Master/Slave). Now I suspect my problem is my SP0812C is hanging off a Via 8237 and this utility has only been taught to scan for the Intel SATA controller?

Anyway - another curious thing is the statement by Fabool that the web page says it supports SATA (and the support desk that told JVM the same thing). Compared to this page (as of today) that still doesn't claim to support SATA.

I haven't ever managed to read a SMART temp from either of 2 SP0812Cs I have (on 2 different Via 8237 mobos) and figure I need to get into hutil and enable SMART. Except it seems I need to borrow time on an Intel SATA controller to do that

You don't have to enable SMART. You can check that with the Hitachi Feature Tool. I checked my SP0812C with the Hitachi Feature Tool and SMART was enabled. The problem with reading the temperature is either the sensor or the controller, or perhaps sensor or motherboard is a better fit...?

bomba · Post by **bomba** » Thu Apr 29, 2004 7:26 am

dukla2000 wrote:Now I suspect my problem is my SP0812C is hanging off a Via 8237 and this utility has only been taught to scan for the Intel SATA controller?

Does your SATA drive show up in DOS? If not, perhaps a PCI SATA controller would allow you to use the Samsung utility. Or pull the HD, change the accoustic setting using another PC with Intel SATA then re-install it in your PC. Check out this thread.

On a very loosely related issue, I used to have (2) 120GB PATA drives in RAID 0 connected to a VIA 6410 EIDE RAID controller onboard my ASUS P4P800dlx mobo. The RAID array never seemed fast to me and did not enable SMART HD monitoring. One day while Google-ing the Net to see if there was a way to monitor HD temps of my VIA 6410 connected drives I found a thread on the VIA Arena Forums that indicated that VIA 6410 RAID 0 arrays were actually slower than a non-RAID config using the on-board ICH5 EIDE controller. Hmm, none of the performance benefits of RAID 0 with all the data loss risks! I since stopped using the 6410, opting for a 2-drive non-RAID ICH5 EIDE configuration.

I use this Silicon Image sil3112A based SATA RAID PCI card in my system, not for my main drives, but to gain hot plug/swap ability for a removable HD (ASUS BIOS does not support SATA hot plugging with the ICH5 controller). I haven't checked to see if I can change accoustic management thru the controller but can try it this evening on request. Note that the removable drive is a Maxtor PATA drive in a Kingwin KPF-101 PATA mobile rack. I modded the mobile rack by hardwiring the power to a Rockethead PATA-SATA converter so that power to the converter is switched off when the key is turned to unlock the drive in the mobile rack. Works like a champ.

SpyderCat · Post by **SpyderCat** » Thu Apr 29, 2004 9:27 am

dukla2000 wrote:This is really puzzling.
......
And NEITHER works for me I boot win in DOS mode, fire hutil and it scans for a drive and finds no Samsung. I get version 1.19, but it only seems to be scanning the 4 IDE ports (Primary/Secondary, Master/Slave). Now I suspect my problem is my SP0812C is hanging off a Via 8237 and this utility has only been taught to scan for the Intel SATA controller?
.............

Attrackted to this thread by the lastest post, I downloaded a newer Hutil.exe than I had. This one is from feb. 12th 2004.
Hutil didn't detect my 2 SP1614Cs connected to the MSI K8T NEO FIS2R board.

Then build a new floppy disk to use the Hitachi Feature Tool, and presto !
Now the Hitachi Feature Tools could set AAM on both SP1614Cs.

Haven't found any tool yet to monitor the HD temps though.

Regards, Han.

dukla2000 · Post by **dukla2000** » Thu Apr 29, 2004 12:13 pm

OK - built myself a Hitachi Feature Tool diskette, added hutil to it, plugged a floppy drive back into the mobo and:

JVM wrote:
Schroinx wrote:Have you tried the Hitachi Drive Fitness Test software? You can still do the SMART test. Well, I could.
I checked with the Hitachi tool and SMART is enabled.

Hitachi tool says my SMART is disabled or not supported! BTW - my SP0812C firmware is SU100-27. But yes the Hitachi tool could set the AAM - doing the test I found only 1 'step' in audibility around a setting of 202.

bomba wrote:Does your SATA drive show up in DOS?

Yes and no (what a silly answer)! Curiously enough exiting the Hitachi tool to PC DOS 7 no c: drive is visible. But booting from a Win98 startup floppy (DOS mode only) the c: partition is visible fine.

SpyderCat wrote:Haven't found any tool yet to monitor the HD temps though.

Me neither - fundamental problem (at least in my case) is discovering that SMART is disabled. (I do have it enabled in BIOS but suspect this is a hdd firmware problem.) If I ever have access to someone with another SATA controller I may just try borrow their system with my hutil floppy for 5 minutes to see if hutil will enable it!

And BTW SpyderCat, welcome back. It's been a while since (I saw) you last post!

SpyderCat · Post by **SpyderCat** » Thu Apr 29, 2004 12:33 pm

dukla2000 wrote:And BTW SpyderCat, welcome back. It's been a while since (I saw) you last post!

Hi Chris,

Wasn't gone, just didn't post.
I've a ducted Zalman 7000A CU now, on a AMD64, and I'll post some pics soon.

dukla2000 · Post by **dukla2000** » Thu Apr 29, 2004 2:26 pm

bomba wrote:Check out this thread.

Sorry bomba - meant to mention in my earlier post I did check that thread @ ViaArena. I have never worried about my write speed (my read speed is just peachy with HDTach in Win or hdparm in Linux) and have no real way to test it as it is the only hdd I have in this system. But as per this review at TBreak I assume that ViaArena problem is not 8237 generic.