Pioneer DVR-104 - problems using it with DMA transfers?

[jwexqm]

My machine specs:-

Pioneer DVR-104 using DMA transfers
AMD 760MP (dual CPU) mobo
Windows XP
Nero 5.5.9.0

Every time I start a DVD-R burn or simulation with this setup, Nero complains with a "communication error" and stalls for a while before aborting.

Changing the burner to use PIO transfers allows the simulation to progress without problems albeit with characteristically high CPU utilisation.

Has anyone else seen this? Is it restricted to the AMD IDE controller or does anyone have an example of it happening on other brands?

James

[Mazze]

Try changing the drive around as slave/master on the secondary/primary IDE channel. Search the forum for more info.

[jwexqm]

as a follow-up to my own post I have just spent a few hours trying out all sorts of combinations of master/slave on both channels and experimented with cable select.

I flashed my system BIOS, downgraded the IDE controller driver to the WinXP default one, updated it to a slightly newer one than I was using before but still nothing worked.

I then took the drive out, put it in an old P3 with a VIA-based ABIT VT6X4 and it worked fine first time.

I can only conclude that this drive doesn't work with the AMD 760 chipset's IDE controller.

Which brings me onto a question...
I'd like to put the burner in a firewire / USB2 box anyway which would do away with the issues I've got here. Has anyone actually done this and had any success burning from the popular software?

[Mazze]

You could try my final solution to the problem wich was to put it on an external IDE controller, that worked in my case. I'm using a Promise Ultra100 TX2 that I already had in my computer. It shouldn't be to expensive maybe 30-40$

http://www.promise.com/product/subsys_detail_eng.asp?pid=11&fid=3

Good Luck

[sarahjh69]

one of the nero releases can't burn dvds in one mode............

2 out of 3 of these work.....one doesn't
dvd-rom iso
dvd-rom udf
dvd-rom udf/iso

change your file format and try again!!!!!!!!!!!!

[HomerJ]

James,

There are a few know issues with the A104 and DMA set. Check out this thread for more details :-

http://www.dvdoctor.net/cgi-bin/ubb/Forum6/HTML/001278.html

You don't say what the precise error message is, so check out this site as well :-

http://www.pioneeraus.com.au/multimedia/dvd/dvd-r_faq.htm

Hope that helps some.

HomerJ :)

[sarahjh69]

also
WinXP is sh@t for burning
actually its sh#t for everything

Use winME, totally stable, no silly burning problems

[HomerJ]

sarahjh69


I must take exception to your rather scathing remark on XP, ever since I upgraded from 98SE I have found it to be very stable. It does help if you do your homework before choosing the various components for your PC, but in general it's first class.

As for ME, let me think, that release didn't last very long at all did it ?????

HomerJ
;)

[jwexqm]

Frist, thanks for all the feedback...

I eventually got a mail back from Pioneer tech who confirmed that some IDE controller hardware has trouble with communicating with the drive using UDMA. His suggestions were
a) the PIO workaround and
b) using a UDMA-33 cable (as has been suggested here and elsewhere)

A further option which I suggest people investigate if they are encountering this problem is to change the DMA mode of the IDE controller in the system BIOS. In most cases IDE devices are set up to be 'auto' detected. I found that if I explicitly capped the DMA mode for the Pioneer to DMA-0 or DMA-1 then the issue seemed to improve. I haven't really tested this very well yet but I'm encouraged so far. Speculating further, I'm wondering if this is achieving something similar to connecting the drive with a UDMA-33 cable.

[HomerJ]

James,

Well done for persevering. It looks like you have just about reached the end of the trail.



HomerJ

[sarahjh69]

Homer

I have had endless problems with winXP since upgrading all
4 of my PCs from winME. It is totally rubbish at almost everything.
But lets just highlight a problem similar to our friends above....
My last Pc with XP still installed, had it removed last week because
of DMA problems that were incurable with my DVD-rom player.
It was using PIO mode 4 on a Liteon 133, causing 100% cpu usage
when reading dvd-rw. All the use DMA where available were selected....XP just
won't use DMA properly. I put on winME and DMA was easily switched on
giving a 33% CPU usage when copying from dvd at 16x.

jwexqm
I suspect all your DMA mode problems will go away if you switch
to winME (or maybe win2000). XP has far too many problems with
DMA

[tjh011]

I have the A03 and cant get it to run DMA with either 2000 or XP, so I think its a hardware issue for me. I would run anything besides ME, I think that OS is worthless.

[HomerJ]

I guess this is one of those things where we are going to have to agree to disagree.

While I have no personal experience with ME, I have XP running on both my laptop and desktop. For both machines, I find the OS very stable (unlike 98SE).

Another important issue to consider of course, is the motherboard used. I have used Aopen in the past, but am currently using ASUS (P4S533 with SIS645DX chipset).

I won't say XP is brilliant at all things (in fact since upgrading and re installing XP I'm having a few problems with IE 6, but that's another story).

Happy burning.

HomerJ :)

[omol]

Guys, if you have problem with DMA in XP/Win2K, check your IDE cable. Search MS knowledge base then you will know this is a feature NOT a bug. XP/Win2K will fall back to non-DMA IDE transfer if DMA transfer failed for 6 times (if i remember correctly). WinToys OS like 98/ME does not have such safeguard feature.

regards,
omol