Old Dell 9300: HD Transfer Speed down to 2.5 MB/sec after some Windows Updates?

Old Dell 9300: HD Transfer Speed down to 2.5 MB/sec after some Windows Updates?

This was an old laptop that I kept for my mother to use for her once a blue moon usage. Big screen and convenient.

Off late I had some data on it that I wanted to have so I transferred a bunch through USB to external 2.5" HDD as well as via Ethernet network.

Speeds were 15-18 MBps.

Then while it was on the network it kind of wanted to update the OS with patches. So I let it do that.

The next time I tried a Network or USB Transfer the speeds crawled to 2.5 MBPS.

I figured something was wrong with USB since XP updates.

But today I ran HD Tune and it shows HDD Max & Avg speed at 2.4 Mbps.

What happened? Why is it croaking slow now?

 

[quote name="gabiz_ro" url="/t/238437/old-dell-9300-hd-transfer-speed-down-to-2-5-mb-sec-after-some-windows-updates#post_3274654"]Maybe HDD stuck in PIO mode
Check this
IDE ATA and ATAPI disks use PIO mode after multiple time-out or CRC errors occur[/quote]

Thanks. That was the issue and no one was able to point it out. I did the WORKAROUND in the article.

I wonder if there is a QuickFix without having to install a full service pack?

 

HD Tune Benchmark after the fix:

Min: 7.2
Max 43.9
Avg: 32.1
AT: 16.0ms
Burst: 51.6
CPU Usage: 3.5%