DVD won't stay in DMA mode

[Nil]

One hard disc attached to the motherboard's SATA port, and one DVD/CD
burner attached to the regular IDE port. Every so often, I check and
discover that the DVD drive's controller has "fallen back" from DMA
mode to PIO. I get it back to DMA mode by deleting that errant Primary
IDE Channel from Device Manager and letting Windows redetect it.
Eventually, though (days, weeks, I haven't figured the pattern out
yet), it lapses back to PIO.

Can anyone suggest what might be causing it and perhaps a cure?

- Samsung 18X DVD+-R DVD Burner IDE Model SH-S182M/BEBN
- Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500KS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA
- ASUS P5L-VM 1394 motherboard
- Windows XP Pro, SP2

 

[Guest]

Among other possible fixes, try replacing the drive cable (use
good quality 80 conductor UDMA cable, not 40 conductor).

 

[Nil]

Among other possible fixes, try replacing the drive cable (use
good quality 80 conductor UDMA cable, not 40 conductor).

Good idea - I hadn't considered that. That will be an easy test to
make. Thank you.

 

[ASI Industries]

It could be that Starforce cd/dvd protection software is installed on your
system via any paid software installed!
http://tinyurl.com/fj2p5

 

[Nil]

It could be that Starforce cd/dvd protection software is installed
on your system via any paid software installed!
http://www.glop.org/starforce/remove.php

I've never heard of that one before. I see no sign of it on my system
(unfortunately, in a way, since that might have been The Answer), but
I'll watch out for it in the future.

 

[NOT Billy]

One hard disc attached to the motherboard's SATA port, and one DVD/CD
burner attached to the regular IDE port. Every so often, I check and
discover that the DVD drive's controller has "fallen back" from DMA
mode to PIO. I get it back to DMA mode by deleting that errant Primary
IDE Channel from Device Manager and letting Windows redetect it.
Eventually, though (days, weeks, I haven't figured the pattern out
yet), it lapses back to PIO.

Can anyone suggest what might be causing it and perhaps a cure?

Yeah, if you have errors reading with the dvd, windows automatically
downshifts your dvd drive to PIO mode. DVDFabdecrypter, which has a
free version you can download, has a nice button in the settings
section to "reset DMA". Saves you a bunch of time. Helps with
troublesome scratched disks that won't read right.

Another example of microsoft never fixing it's problems even though
it has had all the time in the world and all the resources to do so.

 

[JAD]

Yeah, if you have errors reading with the dvd, windows automatically
downshifts your dvd drive to PIO mode. DVDFabdecrypter, which has a
free version you can download, has a nice button in the settings
section to "reset DMA". Saves you a bunch of time. Helps with
troublesome scratched disks that won't read right.

Another example of microsoft never fixing it's problems even though
it has had all the time in the world and all the resources to do so.

That would be a drive problem NOT windows or MS.

 

[Nil]

That would be a drive problem NOT windows or MS.

Would it? Sounds more like a media problem to me. Shouldn't both the
drive and the OS be able to deal with that gracefully?

I actually have another occasional problem with this drive. Sometimes
after burning a CD using Nero, the process gets stuck at last stage
before verification. The drive makes scraping noises and I have to kill
Nero. The drive continues to make noises and won't eject the disc until
I reboot. The CD burn is always OK on later inspection.

I'm wondering now if this is related to my DMA/PIO problem. If it
happens again, I'll be paying attention.