HTPC having weird IO issues when recording/watching TV

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coder_t2

[H]ard|Gawd
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Dec 31, 2005
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Hey guys, I have a HTPC with a SSD for the OS drive and a 2TB 5400rpm HDD for storage. Typically this has worked perfect for me. However, today I am having issues with watching and recording TV at the same time. 2 shows are recording, and I am watching a TV Show. After a while, like 5 minutes, the hard drive gets too much IO, and the computer slows down greatly. Trying to figure out what is going on to prevent this from happening in the future. Automatic updates is scheduled to run early in the morning when the HTPC isn't in use, so I know it wasn't that. I don't WMC optimization on because I believe I read somewhere that it should be turned off if you have a SSD. Is this true? Anyways, any other ideas as to my HDD IO went through the roof? Normally it has no problem with this kind of load. Thanks.
 
Are you recording in HD? What are the full specs of your setup?
 
Yes I was recording in HD. But I have never had issues in the past. The only thing different now is that I have AHCI mode on.

Phenom II X4 3.2 GHZ
8GB Ram
60GB SSD for OS
2TB 5400RPM HDD for storage
Win7 64bit Professional
HVR 2250 TV Tuner
Blu-Ray Drive
Radeon 4250 IGP

Think that should about cover it.
 
I reinstalled the OS when I turned on AHCI.

Edit: A second thing to note is that after going to AHCI, my ripped DVDs take like 2 minutes start playing. Never had that problem before. Could there be something special I need to set for the drive? The SATA drivers are completely up to date...
 
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Well if running legacy mode worked better then use that. There's nothing inherent within the AHCI spec that is required for HTPC use. You can also try switching the mode to RAID to see if that makes a difference but overall if you run legacy and it works better then use that.
 
Well I thought AHCI was necessary for SSDs to work correctly. Also, AHCI "should" work better because the HDD can the use NCQ. Was just trying to see if there was something else that might be the problem.
 
Nope to get the best performance, hot swapping, etc it's recommended, but if you are having problems with it on then it might be best to leave it off. This is a HTPC we are talking about here not a power rig.
 
Do I have to do anything in windows if I switch it? I remember people saying that if you went from IDE to AHCI that you had to make some kind of change in Windows, unless you reinstalled the OS.
 
coder_t2 said:
Do I have to do anything in windows if I switch it? I remember people saying that if you went from IDE to AHCI that you had to make some kind of change in Windows, unless you reinstalled the OS.
Click to expand...

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Pciide\Start

change the start value to 0 reboot into BIOS and switch it to IDE. It should work. If it doesn't you can do a repair install with IDE set in BIOS.
 
Switching to IDE helps some, although ripped DVDs still take a while a load, compared to when I had a standard HDD as my OS drive.

Yep still having issue. Was recording one show and couldn't watch another recording. So annoying!!!! I wish I could figure this out.
 
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