Help! PIO mode instead of DMA on hard drive

B

Bobby

My PC has suddenly slowed down and after a little research I discovered that
my IDE connection is running in PIO mode instead of DMA.

This has caused a dramatic slow down on my system.

I tried to use control panel to change back to DMA but the "Use DMA if
available" setting is greyed-out so channel 0 (my main HD) is running in PIO
mode.

The drive is a Maxtor ATA 133, 120Gb, 8Mb cache flying machine (normally) --
but not any more. :-(

Any advice? I'm running XP Pro. And my system was fine until a few days ago
when I noticed that it took ages to boot and the HD light was on a lot of
the time.

Help! This happened once before (about 6 months ago) and I was due to do a
system rebuild which cured the problem. Do I have to re-install Windows
again?

Bobby
 
K

Kent_Diego

I tried to use control panel to change back to DMA but the "Use DMA if
available" setting is greyed-out so channel 0 (my main HD) is running in PIO
mode.
Click to expand...

This happened to me once. I uninstalled the harddrive from hardware device
manager and re-booted computer. The plug and play detected the harddrive and
re-installed drivers allowing DMA. If still a problem, check IDE cable,
harddrives jumper settings, and motherboard BIOS settings. Then try again.

-Kent
 
K

Kent_Diego

... I uninstalled the harddrive from hardware device
manager and re-booted computer.
Click to expand...
It may have been the IDE controller I deleted to fix, can't remember.
 
B

Bobby

Kent, you're a star. It was the IDE channel and I'm back with DMA5 - and my
PC is running like a bullet again. Thanks v much. I was just about to do a
re-install.

Jeez, PIO mode is really awful. Did we ever really use such crap hardware?

Cheers from Scotland.

Bobby
 
G

grahamilton

No way, a fellow countyman.


Bobby said:
Kent, you're a star. It was the IDE channel and I'm back with DMA5 - and my
PC is running like a bullet again. Thanks v much. I was just about to do a
re-install.

Jeez, PIO mode is really awful. Did we ever really use such crap hardware?

Cheers from Scotland.

Bobby
Click to expand...
 

Ask a Question

Want to reply to this thread or ask your own question?

You'll need to choose a username for the site, which only take a couple of moments. After that, you can post your question and our members will help you out.

Ask a Question

Similar Threads

Can't get HDD out of PIO into DMA 9
DMA and PIO 2
Hard disk PIO instead of DMA, why? 1
Another DMA -> PIO Hard Drive Question 3
hard drive stuck PIO mode 3
Hardware reports PIO instead of DMA on disks (asus a7n8x mobo, w2k) 4
Forcing DMA mode Primary IDE Hard Drive 2
re-enable DMA mode easily on a dvd drive? 2

Top