2D

I think so. I should have known better than to buy an Asus DVD drive. Really, who uses them, anyway? Time to try a Toshiba or Pioneer? 2D

Bah... I spoke too soon. The drive has now dropped itself back down to PIO mode again. In fact, I suspect that it never really was in DMA mode, despite what Windows indicated. Why? DVD playback drops frames. Maybe it's time to try another drive... 2D

Solved the problem: 1. Completely reinstalled Win2K, SP1 2. Did *not* install any Via drivers except the AGP driver 3. Did not install DirectX 8a (unlikely cause, but I'm being paranoid) Where does the culprit lie? I'm not sure. It could be the Via updated .INF file, which I also have not installed, although I doubt it. Corrupted BM drivers, as you mentioned? Possibly, although I'm not sure how. Corrupt registry? Seems also pretty possible. DMA is now enabled on the DVD drive. DVDs play, although it is dropping a few frames. However, it is an improvement. I just hope it stays this way and doesn't 'lose' it's DMA setting again. Thanks for all the assistance, 2D

Thank you, but as I mentioned earlier, I'm not using the Via bus master driver in Windows 2000. I'm using the Microsoft BM IDE driver for the Via chipset. This comes on the Windows 2000 CD. 2D

Thank you for the pointer to amdmb.com. However, I am aware of that thread, as I posted on it under the name DD. Given that the installation 'program' is Win2K itself, and not a 3rd party installation program, how do you propose I remove the MS BM IDE drivers for Via chipsets? Finally, I fear that doing so will cause Win2K to lose its reference to my IDE controllers. Whenever I've uninstalled the BM driver in the past, Win2K also removed the Device Manager references to my Primary and Secondary IDE controllers. 2D

Well, the Via Bus Master driver that I'm using is the one from Microsoft that Win2K installs by default. The Windows 2000 BM driver from Via is still undergoing Beta testing, therefore I'm not using it. So, in order to uninstall, I went into device manager, selected the device, then chose 'uninstall'. Then I rebooted. Of course, then as I suspected would happen, Win2K detects new hardware and adds the Microsoft BM driver right back in. Now, however, the results are slightly worse. Before this change, the properties under 'Secondary IDE Controller' were listed as 'Use DMA if available' with current mode set to 'PIO'. Now, after removing the BM driver and adding it back in, the 'Use DMA if available' selection is no longer available. Now PIO is the only choice. Running DMACHECK makes no difference. It still remains with PIO as the only choice. Editing the registry key to force DMA to be enabled also makes no difference...Win2K over-writes this on reboot. 2D

Well, I've tried using both DMACHECK.EXE and modifying the registry key. My DVD drive is listed on Scsi Port 1, Scsi Bus 0. I changed the value of "DMAEnabled" to 1. After rebooting, it reverts back to 0. 2D

Have you had heard of a lot of the DVD probs concerning this particular drive. I have read similar problems reported for: 1. My drive 2. The other Asus DVD drive (E612) 3. Pioneer DVD drives 4. Aopen drives 5. Creative drives If you search the ntcompatible archives on "dvd dma" you'll find lots of similar posts...with no resolution. If you have,or had, a 3dfx card Im betting thats your problem. But only if you havent reinstalled since the vid card change. I've never owned a 3dfx card. My current card is an ATI All-in-Wonder Radeon. Thanks, 2D

Sorry, I should have said that the Secondary was ATA 33/66, not ATA33 only. You're correct. The Iwill KK266 is similar to the A7V (actually, it's more similar to the A7V133). I'm not longer using the A7V. I mentioned the A7V only as a reference, as the problem occurred on to both the my old motherboard (A7) and my current one (KK266). To restate: The Primary IDE is 33/66/100. The Secondary IDE is 33/66. I definitely have the DVD drive hooked up to the Secondary channel. I can confirm this either by looking at the board or looking at Device Manager. I don't think it has anything to do with the connection, as the DVD drive was DMA enabled when I first installed Win2K on the KK266. It just loses its ability to remain DMA capable. Thanks, 2D [This message has been edited by 2D (edited 27 February 2001).]

Regarding the questions: Brian Frank asked a good question. Remember that ATA66 and ATA100 are disabled by default in Windows 2000. The Primary IDE channel is my only ATA100 channel. It is only running at ATA33 right now. However, I don't mind this, as my HD's maximum sustained transfer rate is <33MB/s. Running my HD at ATA 33 doesn't worry me. Besides Asus CD-ROM are not firmware upgradeable. I don't know about the CD-ROM, but the Asus DVD player is firmware upgradable. You can find the firmware here: http://perso.club-internet.fr/farzeno/firmware/ In any case, upgrading the firmware made no difference. What motherboard do you have and does it have one or 2 controllers?/b] I have an Iwill KK266. This uses a Via KT133A Northbridge and a Via 686B Southbridge. This motherboard supports ATA100. It has two IDE controllers. My previous motherboard was an Asus A7V. This used a KT133 Northbridge and a Via 686A Southbridge. My old motherboard supported only ATA66. Both motherboards exhibited this problem, so I doubt it is related to ATA100. Which are ATA100 enabled? The Primary IDE channel is ATA66/100 capable. The Secondary IDE channel is only ATA33. Did you also enable it for your hard disc with the Maxtor sofware? No, because my HD is not ATA100 capable. My HD is working without any problems. Did you use the Microsoft HotFix for ATA100? No, because I don't have any ATA 100 devices. Also, the problem does not occur on the Primary channel (the ATA100-capable channel). The problem occurs on the Secondary channel, which is only ATA33. Does your controller firmware allow ATA100? The IDE controller is ATA100 capable on the Primary channel. There are no problems on the Primary channel. The HD on that channel is working fine. Did you install the latest motherboard BIOS? The BIOS is dated January, 2001. No newer BIOS is available yet. Also, on my last motherboard(Asus A7V), I went through 3 revisions of BIOS. The problem was never solved. The BIOS recognizes the DVD-ROM drive correctly, as being UDMA2 capable. It is Windows which is not recognizing the drive correctly. Go to Start and Run Regedit. First make a backup of your Registry (export). Then check the contents of H_Key_LocalMachine, System, CurrentControlSet, Control, Class, {4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-008002BE10318}, 0000. Read the Driverdesc line, is it Intel82371 AB/EB... written there and do you also have DWORD "EnableUDMA66" present? Then check 0001 and all following entries. The first are the controllers, the rest are the primary and secondary IDE channels. The Driverdesc line in the 0000 sub-hive says: VIA Bus Master IDE Controller There is no DWORD key that says EnableUDMA66. In fact, there are no DWORDs in the 0000 sub-hive at all. There are also no keys named "EnableUDMA66" in the 0001 and 0002 hives. This might be a difference between Intel chipset motherboards and Via chipset motherboards. There are various other DWORD keys with names like "MasterDeviceType" and "MasterDeviceTimingMode", and "MasterDeviceTimingModeAllowed". Of course, these are hexadecimal values, so I would only be able to make educated guesses as to the current configuration. The ATA100 Command Controller should be the only one with "EnableUDMA66" activated (1). There is no "EnabledUDMA66" key on my system, not in 0000, 0001, or 0002. This key might be Intel chipset specific. Finally, I don't think this problem is Via specific, as according to the archives here, people have received these problems on old BX chipsets, as well. If you have any more ideas, please let me know. Thank you, 2D

I just tried the ASPI drivers. After rebooting after the ASPI install, there is no change in my ability to enable DMA. I'm running my DVD drive my Secondary IDE channel, which is only ATA 33. 2D [This message has been edited by 2D (edited 27 February 2001).]

Thank you for the tip. I'll give it a try. However, how is that going to help Win2K enable DMA? 2D

I thought I would ask for fellow opinions on this. It's been driving me nuts for months. By the way, before I describe the problem, I should let you know that I've searched the forums and archives at http://www.ntcompatible.com and http://www.storagereview.com. This problem seems to be somewhat common, yet nobody seems to have a permanent solution. The problem I described also occurred on old A7V. Hence, it is not particular to the Iwill board. Also, I have read about this problem occuring on motherboards that use Intel chipsets as well as Via chipsets. Additional Environment Information beyond what is in my signature: Primary IDE Master: Diamond Max Plus 40 Primary IDE Slave: None Secondary IDE Master: Asus E608 DVD-ROM Secondary Slave: None The Problem: My DVD drive won't stay DMA enabled, no matter what I try. Win2K IDE Properties for Secondary IDE Master: Use DMA if available Current Mode for Secondary IDE Master: PIO Mode BIOS settings for Secondary IDE Master: Auto When I first set up the system, everything was hunky dory. For the first week, my DVD drive was showing up as being DMA enabled in Device Manager. The drive does support UDMA 2. Then, for no apparent reason that I can tell, the DVD drive drops down to PIO Mode. I have changed nothing in the BIOS. I have not changed any device drivers. Why is the DMA setting relevant? Many DVD software decoders won't work unless DMA is enabled. Hence, now that I've dropped down to PIO Mode, I can no longer play DVDs. Things I've tried: Moving the DVD drive to another plug on the IDE cable. Result: nada Changing the Bios to PNP Yes. Result: zippo (I changed it back to No after this didn't work) Removing the DVD-drive from the system. Let Win2K reboot without the device present Now add the drive back: Result: bzzzt Trying a different IDE cable: Result: waah-waah Flashing the DVD-ROM Bios: Result: The problem went away for a while, but then came back. Trying the 4.28 Bus Master drivers: Result: All the expected 4.28 problems, and no resolution for my problems. I ripped the 4.28s out after that. Now running 4.25. Some final notes: Others on alternative forums also report this problem with Pioneer, Aopen, and possibly Creative drives, too. So the problem does not appear unique to Asus's DVD drives. Windows 2000 boots faster now that the DVD is in PIO mode. I find this interesting, almost as if before, when DMA was working, it would spend a long time during boot up trying to decide if the DVD was DMA enabled or not. I'm convinced at this point that W2K has some problems with DMA and DVD. I checked the SP2 fix list and saw nothing relevant. I'd rather not get a SCSI DVD if I don't have to... Please help. This is driving me crazy. 2D