The settings are:
Primary IDE channel
Device 0, Transfer Mode set to DMA if available,
Current Transfer Mode set to Ultra DMA Mode 5
Device 1, Transfer Mode set to DMA if available,
Current Transfer Mode not applicable
Secondary IDE channel
Device 0, Transfer Mode set to DMA if available,
Current Transfer Mode set to PIO Mode
Device 1, Transfer Mode set to DMA if available,
Current Transfer Mode set to Ultra DMA Mode 2
It looks like the DMA mode has been activated on both drives.
My C: drive is 120 GB with about half free.
My F: drive is 200 GB with about 85% free.
We now are connected to cable internet instead of dial-up, so it's a constant connection, but that shouldn't matter if I don't open my browser. This is very frustrating. I can't capture anything without dropped frames any more.

> Secondary IDE channel

You didn’t say which drive on the Secondary IDE channel is your new hard drive but it should be the master device (i.e., Device 0). I see that Device 0 is set to PIO mode. I assume your hard drive is Device 1 (slave) because you said both are in DMA mode. Unfortunately, your nice fast hard drive in DMA mode is the slave to the slow device on the master channel in PIO mode. This may be your problem.

Swap your hard drive to Master and the other PIO mode device to Slave and I beleive the dropped frames will be gone.

~jr

I think JohnnyRoy has the right answer. However, if following his advice doesn't help, here's a link to the VASST FAQ on dropped frames:

Dropped Frames VASST FAQ

BEFORE BANGING YOUR HEAD, TRY MY SOLUTION FIRST!

I used to have the same problem multiple times, where my drives were reverting to PIO mode. None of your drives, be they CD, DVD or Hard drives should be running in PIO mode, unless they are either of a historical value, or Windows encountered errors 6 times, and reverted them to PIO.

OK, here is the first way to try and solve your problem:
1. Open the Registry Editor (Start>Run>Regedit).
2. Go to the following key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
3. Check the subkeys with values 0000, 0001, 0002 etc. You should be able to see MasterIdDataChecksum and/or SlaveIdDataChecksum.
4. DELETE MasterIdDataChecksum or SlaveIdDataChecksum anywhere you find them under 0000, 0001, 0002 etc.!
5. Close Registry Editor
6. RESTART your computer
After restarting, check the DMA modes on your drives again! They should all be enabled now. Now try capturing!

Second way is to uninstall the drive running in PIO mode, and restart Windows, where it's going to be automatically installed, and the DMA mode should become enabled, or you could enable it manually.

The first way should work, as it did so many times for me.
Do tell us if this helped!

I have never done anything with the registry settings before, so I'm nervous about deleting things in it. Is there some way to make a copy or backup of the items to be deleted in case it screws things up? I followed your instructions and this is what I saw:
Subkeys 0003,0004,0005. In 0004 was MasterIdDataCheckSum at 0x00018c28 (101416). In 0005 was MasterIdDataCheckSum at 0x0000d176 (53622) and SlaveIdDataCheckSum at 0x000204f4 (132340). I don't know what all this means, so I don't know what to do.
After typing all of the above information, I went into the device manager and did some more checking.
Primary channel is my C: drive set to DMA.
Secondary channel is Device 0 my DVD writer (set to PIO mode) and Device 1 my DVD-ROM set to DMA. Then under SCSI and RAID Controllers is WinXP Promise Ultra 100. Under that listing is my F: drive where I keep my video files. There is no Advanced Tab to check what transfer mode it is in. I don't have much experience with all of this, so any information would be helpful. I installed my new F: drive the same as when I had the first one (that went bad). I don't know why I didn't have any problems before, but now I do.

OK, just make 100% sure that you are in the right place!
Make sure that you are in the Class {4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}!
Then you just go into its branches that contain 4 digits in their names, which is usually 0000, 0001, 0002, and so on, increasing by 1.
When you click on those folders, you should see the REG_DWORDs named MasterIdDataCheckSum and/or SlaveIdDataCheckSum. I don't have them in my 0000 folder, but I have them in my 0001 and 0002 folders. You seem to have found them, although I am a bit confused that your folders are named that high (0003, 0004 and 0005), but this should still be OK.
Now, feel free to delete thos REG_DWORDs in each of those folders, by right-clicking on them, and selecting Delete!
After you close the Registry Editor, and restart your computer, all of your drives should be set to DMA, or at least you should be able to set them manually if it doesn't happen automatically!

Sorry for repeating some things here, but it's better to repeat and do it right, than to mess it up!

I understand your fear, and here is how to save that particular registry branch, in case things go bad:
1. Select the class folder {4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318} under CurrentCOntrolSet that we were talking about!
2. On the top of the Registry Editor window, select "Registry", then choose "Export Registry File...".
3. In the window that opens, you can specify the name of the backup file, and save it where you want (to a floppy?). At the bottom of that window, there is a choice to select between exporting the whole registry (All), or just the selected branch (Selected branch). Selected branch will make for a much smaller bakup file, it will be faster, and it will save only the part that you are changing.
4. Save (Duh! ;-) )
5. Now feel free to delete the mentioned REG_DWORDs!

And again, I assure that deleting the mentioned keys will DEFINITELY not mess anything up! I have deleted them bunches of times, and never had any issues because of that. It only made things better. Believe me, they are like friends that neither you, nor Windows will miss!

you know, I get dropped frames just from Vegas capture, never from anything else. I've captured uncompressed, huffy, mpeg-2, & wmv all from my ATI AIW card & a 3rd party analog capture card. I can capture a DV tape no problem in iuVCR. However, vidcap ALWAYS dropps frames. If those other apps & circumstances caused dropped frames then I could see it was a PIO, DMA, Spyware, etc. issue, but it's just vidcap.

I know it's not my drives, settings, etc. because it only happens in vidcap. the droped frames don't happen in the same spots eigther.

maybe some computers vidcap just doesn't like.

Just for the heck of it, why not download a free trial copy of ScenalyzerLive, and see if you can capture that way? Many of us here are very fond of this program and use it in place of VidCap. The user interface is a bit different, but the program is very powerful and can do far more than VidCap.

Or, try running vidcap as a stand alone app without starting Vegas. All you need to do is path to it in Windows explorer and launch the vidcap.exe file. Or, you can download the free WinDV capture app.

For the record, I have never had a problem with vidcap on three different sets of computer hardware that I have transferred my WinXP installation to. Also, it runs fine on my wife's laptop.

i tried vidcap as a standalong & from vegas. same results.

I don't capture DV normally (I do analog) so it wasn't THAT big of a deal. I got iuVCR because it does great analog capture & supports auto-stop when an analog scene ends (ie static). Very nice.

Hopefully in in 2006 I'll go all digital. Then I'll give ScenalyzerLive a try.

Guys, I agree with you on Scenalyzer, but let's focus on the actual problem he currently has. One of his drives is running in PIO mode, and I was telling him how to fix that. Recommending another super-cool video capture application won't do him any good! It's like telling to a bleeding person to drink Coca-Cola instead of Pepsi, because Coca-Cola tastes better (when it's clear that that person needs to stop bleeding, a bandage would be a more "logical course of action"; DUH!)!
So please refrain from adding more confusion to the problem, when it's clear what his problem is!

joejon, did you try the steps I have outlined for you? Does it work now? I (and the others here) would like to know.

"One of his drives is running in PIO mode"

You're right, this is a definite problem to be resolved first. If the IDE channel that this drive is plugged into is in the capture path, then this could be the whole problem. When an IDE device is running in the PIO mode, it sucks the other device on that channel down with it.

PIO = Programmed Input/Output. Every byte has to go through the processor for routing.

DMA = Direct Memory Access. The processor introduces the drive controller to the RAM, then steps out of the way.

Steve

I deleted the MasterIdCheckSum in both the 0004 and 0005 folders and also the SlaveIdCheckSum in the 0005 folder. It did seem to reset everything to DMA mode, but I'm still getting A LOT of dropped frames.
Here is the Device Manager info.
PCI bus, IDE, Primary Channel Device 0 is DMA Mode5 which is my C: hard drive; Secondary Channel Device0 is DMA Mode2 which is my DVD Writer and Device1 is DMA Mode2 which is my DVD-ROM. Then under Intel PCI Bridge, Win XP Ultra 100 IDE Controller is my F: hard drive. This is the drive that I have listed for my capture folders. There is no Advanced tab in the properties, so I don't know how to check what transfer mode this drive is set at. Anyway, I deleted the things you told me to and I still get the dropped frames. So what's the next step?

Did you read the "dropped frame FAQ" at the VASST site? I gave you a link in my last post (above). I spent a lot of time writing that FAQ, and it contains just about everything that is commonly recommended to eliminate dropped frames. If your disk is not in DMA mode, it WILL drop frames. I am surprised that this didn't fix the problem. Next stop will be to look for background processes that are interfering with the data flow.

However, anything I post here will just repeat what I already wrote in the FAQ.

First, do you have any software that can test the speed of your hard drives? If you have Nero Burning ROM, you could use its speed test.

Second, try connecting your second hard drive as a master on primary channel! That should solve your problem temporarily, although a better solution is to keep your hard drives on separate channels, rather than mix them, because they are both high speed devices, and therefore may clog the cable they use together.
Here is exactly what your temporary setup should look like:
Primary Master - Your current hard drive (C: drive)
Primary Slave - Your DVD-Writer
Secondary Master - The other drive (Curently F:, will probably be something else)
Secondary Slave - Your DVD-ROM

This should fix the problem of dropped frames for now.
In order to help you fix the issue you have with current setup, I need to know more about your system.
The first things I need to know are your motherboard (Make and model) and your Ultra 100 IDE Controller (if you have an IDE controller card installed).
But first configure your drives as I told you, and tell me if that has solved the problem with dropped frames.
Then give me your system description, most importantly the exact motherboard model!
I keep thinking that either you don't have the right drivers for your IDE controller, or that you need to set its speed in BIOS. Another possibility is a bad IDE cable.

Yes I did. I defragmented. I did the MDCONFIG thing and unchecked and so on all the ones that the link said was safe to do so. I deleted the registry entries as posted (by someone else) and my primary and secondary channels now show they are in DMA mode. As I said before, my F: hard drive is listed in Device Manager under Intel PCI Bridge, WinXP Ultra IDE Controller and there is no Adv. tab which displays the transfer mode, so I can't check it that way. I did try to find the Application Accelerator utility you talk about, but the only Intel folder I can find is the Intel Network Adaptors and it does not have that file in that folder. I can not find the "Transfer Mode Limit" anywhere.

The Application Accelerator utility is only found on Dell computers.

OK, the first first thing (not a typo) that really needs to be done to make sure your problem is coming from your hard drive and/or its controller, and not from the whole system or someplace else is for you to set your C: drive as the video capture drive!
Try that, and let's see if you get dropped frames, and if it at least greatly reduces the number of dropped frames!

I do have a Dell computer, but I can't find that utility how you listed to do so. I also did change my capture drive to my C: drive to test it and it seemed to capture fine. So the problem is not with the program, but with my F: drive. How do I check the transfer mode on that one and where do I find that utility?

The Application Accelerator utility (Or Intel Application Accelerator utility?) is Intel's tool, I think. So it should be available from Intel.
I am using Windows 2000, and I haven't found a way to see the transfer mode on additional IDE controllers (I have a SATA and a RAID controller on the motherboard itself).

So, now that we have established that your system is fine, the next step is to see if your hard drive is fine (which I believe it is), by connecting that hard drive to your onboard IDE controller (either as a Primary Slave, or Secondary Master). Then you can see if you get dropped frames when you designate it as a video capture drive, and you should also test it with Nero.

I am now pretty certain it has something to do with your IDE adapter card or additional IDE onboard controller.
Could you tell me the exact model of your computer, if you can't tell us the motherboard make and model?
Also, if you have a PCI IDE controller card, you should list its make and model!

If you can't find either one of those, you should download the free program called Everest, which allows you to see almost any information about your computer, like CPU temperature, memory settings, make and model of each component (including motherboard).

I'm not very good with this stuff so I'll list what I can.
Under IDE controllers it lists Intel 82801BA Ultra ATA Controller, Primary IDE Channel, Secondary IDE Channel. This is where my C: drive and DVD drives are listed.
Under SCSI & RAID controllers it lists WinXP Promise Ultra 100 TX2 IDE Controller (location is PCI slot 1). This is where my F: drive is listed. It is a Western Digital 200GB SCSI device. This is the drive giving me the problems.
I have a DELL 8250.
I downloaded the app. acceleration utility, but it only lists the drives under IDE controllers and not the drive under SCSI controllers, so it didn't help.

Of course the Application Acceleration is not going to help.
OK, I got enough information about your components. The last question is: Did you get this card with the Western Digital drive, or did you purchase it separately?