Re: Help

[Ray <maillists@sonictech.net>]

First of all, please consider using a more descriptive subject.  This list
gets hundreds of messages per day and you'll increase your chances of
actually finding someone who knows your particular issue.

On Thu, Feb 07, 2002 at 11:31:44AM -0800, yufufi wrote:
> Hi,
> I have a little problem with debian. Upto now I was
> using red-hat7.2 (and windows before that).
> While copying some data comp becomes unstable. If I'm
> listenin mp3 it stops. jumps.. Or while copying if I
> type I can't see the letters on the screen as quickly
> as it should be! Mouse pointer doesn't move smoothly
> while copying etc..
> Not only copying, for ex after installing a package it
> happens too.

This sounds like a classic case of your hard drive(s) not using DMA mode. 
Read up a bit on "hdparm" and try the following command:

hdparm  -u 1 -d 1 -m 16 -c 1 -W 1  /dev/hda

If that works out and survives some testing than you can change it to:

hdparm  -u 1 -d 1 -m 16 -c 1 -W 1 -k 1 -K 1 /dev/hda

The -k 1 and -K 1 tell Linux to keep your settings across bus resets.  You
do NOT want these set until you are sure the rest of your hdparm command is
OK for your particular hard drive/motherboard combo.  You can test the
performance of your disk drives using bonnie.

-- 
Ray