Re: DMA Revisited

Maverick wrote on 10/2/2003, 10:55 AM

This subject has been covered before and a search just proved my observations correct. Occasionally one has to select PIO mode then re-boot and select DMA & re-boot in W2K as there appears to be some kind of bug in selecting DMA mode.

Now, I have tried this up to 6 times (possibly more) but PIO mode is still selected although it does say DMA if available.

I have previouslyhad this drive (ATA133 7200 20GB) set to DMA and it is the bootable (HDD0) drive.

Can anyone offer any further ideas as to what I can do to get DMA enabled - what may I have overlooked?

Cheers

Comments

JakeHannam wrote on 10/2/2003, 3:10 PM

Possibly the battery on your motherboard not retaining CMOS settings?

Also, have you checked with your motherboard maker to see if there is a BIOS update? Sometimes, BIOS updates solve a number of problems.

Finally, assuming your battery is good and you have a current BIOS, if it is an Intel chipset (as opposed to AMD) on your motherboard, there is a utility that you can download (Intel Application Accelerator) from Intel that will set your hard drives to DMA if the motherboard and chipset support it.

Hope one of these helps!

Jake

Maverick wrote on 10/2/2003, 5:28 PM

No other BIOS problems and doubt if it could be the battery as MB is less than 2 years old.

I have the latest update of BIOS.

It's an AMD MB. Could there be some other BIOS setting that could have inadvertantly been changed?

John_Cline wrote on 10/2/2003, 9:15 PM

Win2k had an issue with ATA100 and ATA133 drives which was cured in Service Pack 3. Win2k is currently up to Service Pack v4.

What happened was that if Win2k saw an ATA100 or ATA133 drive hooked to either the master or slave on either IDE channel, it would default to PIO mode for both drives hooked up to that channel.

John

surfnturk wrote on 10/2/2003, 11:07 PM

I was having the same issue regarding staying in PIO mode. I suggested switching back and forth in order for DMA to stick. Then it stopped working for me also.
My final (latest) fix is updating the MOBO IDE drivers. I use a Gigabyte MOBO. I went to their web page and down loaded bus drivers. Installed and all is great now.
The trick is know what brand/type of MOBO you have. If you don't know for sure go find a program called "Belarc Adviser". It's here
http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html

Run this program and it will tell you EVERYTHING in your machine. Hardware, software, service pacs and your mothers maiden name.

Good luck

Maverick wrote on 10/3/2003, 5:06 PM

Thanks for all the suggestions.

I have SP4. I'll find out if there are any bus drivers for my MB (ABIT) and let you all know.