Problem with DMA Mode...

[temo 0]

I've selected the option 'Dma mode if available' but when i reboot the change does not occur. I know for a fact my hardware is supported in this feature, is there any way for me to force dma enabled?...or perhaps did i screw up a registry entry.

[temo 0]

well the cdrom drive is in dma mode now, but the harddrive refuses to budge.

[GHackmann 0]

How are your IDE drives hooked up? Because of the way IDE is designed, if you have more than one drive on the same channel (i.e. one drive as master and one as slave on the same cable) then they can only work at the lowest common denominator. So, even if your hard drive is DMA66, if it's on the same cable as a standard IDE drive, then you're not going to get DMA and it's going to work at lower than 66 Mbps.

 

Windows 2000 especially gets confused about this. I was having loads of problems with DMA before I found out that my CD-RW drive was EIDE, not DMA33 as I thought before. Sometimes the DMA setting would disappear, and my DVD-ROM drive (which was on the same channel) would always throw fits if I paused a movie in the middle, and it would do random things like take a minute (!) to spin up a disc. (Fortunately, my KA7-100 motherboard has 4 IDE channels, so I was able to move the CD-RW drive to its own channel, and my problems disappeared.) Only one drive recognizing the change is a symptom of incorrectly mixing IDE types on one channel.

 

Also, some motherboards won't recognize DMA66 hard drive drives as DMA if they only have DMA33 controllers. If this is the case, then look for a jumper on the back of the drive or a software program off of the drive manufacturer's Web site to switch from DMA66 to DMA33.

[temo 0]

I'll elaborate a bit.

 

My harddrive (maxtor 40gb) is on the main ide channel by itself, and the cdrom drive (yamaha 8x cdr) is on the secondary one. I'm using Windows 2000(SP1), with a Duron and an abit KT7.

[GHackmann 0]

Stupid question: are you using a DMA66 cable? (You can tell if it's a DMA66 cable if the connectors are blue on the end instead of black.) DMA66 drives need a special cable (an electrical insulation thing or something) or they can act goofy, like refusing to run in DMA mode.

[CrazyKillerMan 0]

http://www.tweak3d.net/tweak/win2kmem/2.shtml

 

 

go here......download the reg file to enable dma66 or edit the reg and presto.....i had same prob....it worked for me and i have my cdrom on primary with my hd....also a maxtor.

Tell me if it werks for yah!

 

[This message has been edited by CrazyKillerMan (edited 30 October 2000).]