CDROM And DVD DMA Mode

[Bernd]

My System consists of a TYAN Thunder HESL mainboard with
ServerWorks HESL Chipset. There are two Intel PIII 1MHz
CPUs installed and 1GB of Memory. I use a TEAC DV-516E
DVD-ROM drive connected to the primary IDE channel on the
mainboard and a TEAC CD552RW CD-RW connected to the
secondary IDE channel of the standard IDE ATA/ATAPI-
Controller. Though the system bios tells me at bootup
that UDMA-mode is enabled fpr these drives the hardware-
manager tells me that PIO-Mode is running.
I have selected DMA if available in the extended setup of
the controller, but it shows me actual transfer-mode PIO-
mode. How can I get DMA-mode???

 

[Hans-Georg Michna]

My System consists of a TYAN Thunder HESL mainboard with
ServerWorks HESL Chipset. There are two Intel PIII 1MHz
CPUs installed and 1GB of Memory. I use a TEAC DV-516E
DVD-ROM drive connected to the primary IDE channel on the
mainboard and a TEAC CD552RW CD-RW connected to the
secondary IDE channel of the standard IDE ATA/ATAPI-
Controller. Though the system bios tells me at bootup
that UDMA-mode is enabled fpr these drives the hardware-
manager tells me that PIO-Mode is running.
I have selected DMA if available in the extended setup of
the controller, but it shows me actual transfer-mode PIO-
mode. How can I get DMA-mode???

Bernd,

be careful that the DVD-ROM drive doesn't hinder hard disk
access. I would be leery of attaching any CD-ROM or DVD drive to
the same channel where there's already a hard disk. It may work
though. At least I would test hard disk performance and
processor load during heavy hard disk access with and without
the CD/DVD drive attached.

Unfortunately that's not an answer to your question. I remember
that there used to be a setting in the registry to force DMA,
but I don't remember the details.

What types of drives are these? Too cheap perhaps? Have you
tried swapping one for a different one? Are your master-slave
jumpers set properly?

Hans-Georg