The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    Dell Inspiron 1520, Line 6 USB issue & HD speed?

    Discussion in 'Dell' started by jaymzof78, Feb 5, 2009.

  1. jaymzof78

    jaymzof78 Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    14
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    Hi,

    I have a 1520, 2Ghz Duo, 2.5 Gb Ram, running XP.....I also have a Line6 Guitarport USB audio interface. When I use this the audio often drops out a lot, especially when acessing the hard drive - what can I do about this? - it's a 5400RPM drive - will upgrading to a 7200RPM improve things? It seems something is effecting the USB data stream.

    The hard drive I have is a WDC WD1200BEVS-75UST 120GB

    Also, is the drive running in SATA mode - when using HD tune it says:
    Standard: ATA/ATAPI-8 - SATA I
    Supported: UDMA Mode 6 / ATA/133
    Active: UDMA MODE 5 ATA/100

    This means it's not in SATA mode right? So not getting the 1.5Gb mode? How do I change this? I've got XP home.

    Any help would be great!

    PS....How much would a Dell Inspiron 9100 3.2 GHz, 1GB Ram, 80Gb HD 7200, be worth now, (with Radeon 9800 Graphics)?

    ;)
     
    jaymzof78, Feb 5, 2009
    #1
  2. jaymzof78

    jaymzof78 Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    14
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    Anyone got any advice here?

    :eek:
     
    jaymzof78, Feb 10, 2009
    #2
  3. SteveJonesy

    SteveJonesy Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    50
    Messages:
    689
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    Chances are you seeing DPC latency problems which is caused by unsympathetic drivers causing latency spikes. Download DPC Latency Checker and see if you are having a problem with DPC Latency spikes.
    Then you'll have to start finding the culprit - disable wireless band A (if Broadcomm (Dell) wireless card - Intel cards dont seem to have this problem), LAN, etc one at a time and see if it affects the spikes. If you search this forum you'll find many posts which may help to narrow down the driver and get a more useful DPC Latency result.

    Update your drivers too - I only use Dell drivers for anything I really have to (Sigmatel Audio, Webcam) but for Nvidia graphics, Intel WLAN, Intel Storage Manager (ie AHCI SATA drivers) I get the latest manufacturers drivers.
     
    SteveJonesy, Feb 10, 2009
    #3
  4. jaymzof78

    jaymzof78 Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    14
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    Hi thanks for that - it turns out it's the dell wireless 1490 mini card drivers causing the issues - I have the latest drivers from dell......is there an alternative driver that I could try - maybe from broadcom....couldn't find anything there though??

    Cheerz.
     
    jaymzof78, Feb 11, 2009
    #4
  5. SteveJonesy

    SteveJonesy Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    50
    Messages:
    689
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    Disabling band A in the hardware properties sometimes helps. There are many posts around the forum concerning DPC Latency and the Broadcomm drivers and which work best. I have the Intel 4965 so haven't had to deal with it.
     
    SteveJonesy, Feb 11, 2009
    #5