Cannot get PIO mode to switch to DMA mode. Please help!!

[Fastluck]

First off, I'm new to DVD burning so any advice you can give is much appreciated. I've been reading past articles within this site for help with my problem, but none of them have worked. Here goes...

I bought a "NEC 16X Double Layer DVD±RW Drive, Black, Model ND-3500A BK, OEM" from Newegg.com for $65.00. I installed it in a 3yr old HP Pavilion and when using DVD Shrink, it was taking 50 mins and longer to encode just one DVD (just the main movie and title). I started to think it was b/c my PC was just outdated. Well, I was planning on upgrading anyway to a newer PC, so I went ahead and bought a DELL a few weeks ago. I bought a DELL Dimension 3000 with the following specs:

Intel P4 HT (3.0 GHz)
512MB RAM
80GB Hard Drive
XP Home Edition
CD burner as top drive
(Not bad for an even 600 bucks and I got it under a week.)

I removed my NEC DVD burner from my old computer and installed it in the new DELL. Upon trying DVD Shrink, encoding is now taking 45 mins just for the main movie. I have read past articles in this site and noticed PIO should be set to DMA mode. Well, I went to My Computer, Properties, Hardware, Device Mgr, and first checked the Primary Controller settings and they read DMA mode if available, and the box below it, which you cannot change, titled Current Transfer Mode, read DMA Ultra mode 2 or something. Then I checked the Properties of the Secondary Controller and under the second block in this screen titled Device 1, I have the mode checked to DMA if available, but the box below it, which reads Current Transfer Mode, still reads PIO Mode. I've tried uninstalling the DVD burner, the CD burner first then the DVD burner, both burners, and nothing works upon reboot. I'm not very technical when it comes to computers, but I believe I hooked up the burner correctly. I have also got a problem with my audio being distorted when playing a DVD on the computer (don't know if that is a burner issue or not), but I'll ask that question later in another post. Could my problem with transfer speed be the DVD burner itself, did I hook it up wrong, or is something else going on I cannot see?? My friends burn DVDs in 8-15 mins and I'm stuck doing 1 in an hour. Please help!!

[killingspree]

hi and welcome to the forum,
this is a well known 'feature' of XP actually. as soon as you have a certain amount of read errors (and this amount is low, so it might be reached by just trying to rip one scratched DVD) XP automatically switches the drive back to PIO mode and keeps it there for good. but don't worry there's ways around this ;)

either you can uninstall the secondary ide bus in the device manager - the bus, not the drives themselves. upon restarting it will be reinstalled automatically and should be reset to DMA once again.

or, you can try this utility. it doesn't work 100% of all times, but close enough to give it a shot. it basically tinkers a bit with the registry to make XP forget it had set the drive to PIO mode...
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=43758

kr
steVe

[Fastluck]

Thx killingspree for the advice. I checked the link you noted in your reply for option 2, but when I clicked on the link that "la_Nce01" posted in his reply for the tool he wrote to overcome PIO problems, it directed me to a page that said "the page you are requesting is unavailabe". Any advice??

I'm currently at work, but when I get home tonight, I'll definitely try the 1st option. Tomorrow, I'll post the outcome.

Bill

[killingspree]

if you had just overflown the whole thread you would have noticed that on the last page there is a mirror link for the software...

[Fastluck]

yeah, stupid me only looked at the bottom-right of the page where it says, "previous thread or next thread". Somehow I totally overlooked the number of pages within the thread. Well, our IT guys here at my work have blocked me from viewing your mirrored link, so I'll check it when I get home. I'll keep you updated. Thx for not blasting me.

Bill

[Fastluck]

Either you can uninstall the secondary ide bus in the device manager - the bus, not the drives themselves. Upon restarting it will be reinstalled automatically and should be reset to DMA once again. Or, you can try this utility. it doesn't work 100% of all times, but close enough to give it a shot. it basically tinkers a bit with the registry to make XP forget it had set the drive to PIO mode...

I did like you said and uninstalled the Secondary IDE channel. Upon restart, I checked the device once it was reinstalled, and both Device 0 and 1 in the Secondary IDE channel were set to PIO Mode. I then selected both boxes for Device 0 and Device 1 to "DMA if available". I then restarted the PC again and opened the Device Mgr and Device 0 has a "Current Transfer Mode" of DMA Ultra 2 and Device 1 still has a "Current Transfer Mode" of PIO Only.

I also tried the utility, but got the German message others were getting. Still no luck. Any suggestions??

Bill

[killingspree]

maybe the device is set to PIO mode in bios?!

about the german error message: have you deleted the mentioned registry key??

kr
steVe

[Fastluck]

from killingspree: how to get to BIOs
to change the registry key: hit start > run and type "regedit" without the quotes, then hit F3 and type "dmafix" to search for the registry key... once you find it, just select and delete it.

to enter the bios, hit F1 or 'del' during startup (right at the beginning). a menu will appear where you can change a lot of fundamental settings and somewhere in there you can disable the DMA mode for your drives... i can't tell you the exact location, but you should be able to find it. just do not change anything else...

the usual warnings apply. if you do something wrong in regedit or bios you can seriously screw up your windows installation and in a bad case it can force you to completely reinstall windows.

-Thanks for the info. I'll try this tonight or tomorrow and post the outcome when I try it.

Bill

[Fastluck]

from killingspree: how to get to BIOs

to change the registry key: hit start > run and type "regedit" without the quotes, then hit F3 and type "dmafix" to search for the registry key... once you find it, just select and delete it.

to enter the bios, hit F1 or 'del' during startup (right at the beginning). a menu will appear where you can change a lot of fundamental settings and somewhere in there you can disable the DMA mode for your drives...


Okay, I did the following like Jhughe90 said to do in a previous post. See below:

Locate HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
Choose 001 or 002 depending on if it's on the Primary or Secondary channel. Delete the MasterIdDataCheckSum and SlaveIdDataCheckSum registry values. Actually it doesn't matter which or where, as long as you delete one of them. Upon the next reboot XP will reinitialize the DMA settings and you should be back to normal.


But, still no luck. Then I went into BIOs and disabled DMA. Yet still no luck. Could it possibly be the driver itself?? When I had this burner in an older computer, it was taking forever to encode a DVD just like it's doing now.

Another problem: Ever since I installed this burner and try to simply play a DVD, the audio is very distorted. When I use DVD Shrink, the small box at the bottom left that shows the movie, has the audio distorted too. Therefore I cannot burn a DVD b/c it will have distorted audio on the disc. Is this problem linked with the DMA/PIO problems I'm having, or is something else I need to ask in a completely seperate post??

Bill

[stef24]

i got a smilar problem, also with a dell running xp. sometimes reading a disc, playing audio, writing dvd results in my system being ground down to a halt. very very annoying

unable to make changes via bios or the OS. but i will check the solutions offered higher up in this thread.

[Fastluck]

I have some questions listed below relating to my problem, so bare with me.

I read this article provided by Mircosoft,
DMA for Devices in XP (http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/storage/IDE-DMA.mspx), and had a question:

In the article it states,

For ATA or ATAPI devices that do not work properly in DMA mode. Compatibility testing at Microsoft has shown that enabling DMA on certain drives could cause data corruption or reduced system stability. There is no way for the user to enable DMA on these devices...

and also,

...All CRC and timeout errors are logged in the system event log. These types of errors could be caused by improper mounting or improper cabling (for example, 40-pin instead of 80-pin cable). Or such errors could indicate imminent hardware failure, for example, in a hard drive or chipset.

This being said, is situation #1 my problem, situation #2 my problem, or is it neither??

Also, how do I know if I have hooked up a 40-pin or an 80-pin cable to my Drive and how do I view my "System Event Log"??

I wasn't sure if these could be possibilities for the reason I'm unable to switch my DVD burner to DMA.

Any adivce is much appreciated!!

Bill

[stef24]

use caution, MS is always quick to blame their bugs on third party hardware. its the easiest solution for them

[Surf]

Hi Fastluck,

If I am not mistaken, you DON'T need 80wires cable for cd or dvd rom or burners. This kind of cable is for harddrivews with ata66, 100, 133 specs. How you can tell? I am afraid you have to have one of each(40 & 80) to be able to visually see the difference.

If you open the case you'll see that there are 2 connectors from the motherboard to the harddrive and to the cd/dvd/roms. You may want to have the harddrive all by itself, that is, without any cd or dvd burner attached. Use the 2nd connector for them, the dvd burner as the master and the cd burner as the slave.

I would re-visit the bios settings, turn on the udma, you did save your settings upon exit?

If no success beyond the above, then you may want to dust out your rolodex and seek more adept puter friends or pro help. It's really really really really hard to solve your dilemma without hands on. I can understand the frustration you must be going by now.

[Fastluck]

Surf, thx for the advice, and yeah, you have no idea how frustrating this is!! I know about 10 other people that burn DVDs on a regular basis and they all can do 1 DVD under 20 mins. It's killing me not to be able to do this!!

This weekend, I'll remove the DVD burner from Secondary and make it the Primary Drive and the CD burner the Secondary Drive and try that.

I'll also go back into bios and turn on UDMA settings.

I'll post the outcome later.

Bill

[Fastluck]

A co-worker of mine suggested I check and make sure the jumpers are in the right place on both drives. He said he was having the same problem I was, and he checked his jumpers and they were set to Master on both Drives. Well, when I move the DVD burner to the top position and make it the Master Drive and the CD Burner the Slave, I'm going to check and make sure my jumpers are in the correct places. Maybe this will solve my problem!!!

I'll post the outcome soon.

Bill

[Surf]

"Please God, I hope that is THE problem." :D

I forgot to bring to your awareness fastluck, you have IRQ(interrupt) conflict problem, audio is not working right. You have to take care of that as well, though it may not hamper the burning....

[Fastluck]

I forgot to bring to your awareness fastluck, you have IRQ(interrupt) conflict problem, audio is not working right. You have to take care of that as well, though it may not hamper the burning....


Hey Surf, I don't mean to sound stupid, but could you explain that in Laymen's terms. I've never heard of IRQ.

By correcting my jumpers, you don't think this will correct my audio distortion problem??

Bill

[Surf]

Ooops. IRQ/interrupt problem is mentioned especially about your audio(card) function, not necessarily to the burners.

Correcting the jumpers may just fix the burners issue, not the audio. Your audio(card) is currently setup in such a way that is (example) disturbing the printer's memory address or whatever. You may be able to detect at start>accessories>system tools>system information.

Here's a sure shot for you Fastluck: your 80gig is woefully small if you plan to do a bit of burning. So how about going to your local friendliest puter store and buy another harddrive, don't bargain and pay a lil extra and they'll solve your probs in a jiffy !!:p

[Fastluck]

Well, when I get a chance I'll look at: start>accessories>system tools>system information.

Now tell me this, what will I be looking for when I get to the System Information page?

And I have not actually gotten an actual "error message" per say, it's just that my audio is very distorted when I try to play a DVD. Not sure if you thought I was getting an actual error message or not.

Bill

[Fastluck]

A week or so ago I did the following:
I went into BIOs and turned the UDMA settings "OFF" and saved it then exited it. I checked my device and still my Transfer Rate said "PIO Only". I went into BIOs again turned "ON" UDMA, saved it and exited. I checked my devices and still Transfer rate read "PIO Only".

Well, I went home last night to move the DVD burner to the Master position and my CD burner to the Slave position (and check and make sure my jumpers were in the correct place) hoping this would solve my problem, but right before I did it, I thought, "Why not try something else first." I went back into BIOs just like I mentioned above, did like I said and guess what, it worked THIS TIME!!! My Transfer rate reads "Ultra DMA Mode 2". WhooooWhoooo!! I FEEL LIKE A NEW PERSON!! I was actually able to burn a DVD in under 20mins! I thought to myself, the air seems fresher, the sun seems brighter. My wife said last night she could even see a sparkle in my eyes. Wow, I woke up this morning and couldn't wait to check it again. I got up and went back to the computer just to make sure I wasn't dreaming. What a glorious sight for sore eyes! It hadn't changed! And to top it off, (like that wasn't already enough) my audio now works!!!!!! YEAH!!! I can actually burn a DVD and retain excellent audio!! Wow, I feel like it's Christmas moring.

Well, enough about how I feel, thanks for all your input everyone. I wouldn't have been able to fix it with out all of your help.

Thanks again

Bill