Disable DMA for CD burner ?

[Rob Stow]

I let a trialware version of PowerDVD enable DMA for my CD burner.
Since then I can no longer burn CDs. I have managed to disable
DMA system wide, but I would much rather figure out how to do it
for just the CD burner. Any tips would be much appreciated.

I did a KB search, but
"Windows 2000" "disable DMA"
returns nothing while
"Windows 2000" disable DMA
returns so much garbage that I probably missed something relevant
while scanning over the search results.

 

[Rick]

I let a trialware version of PowerDVD enable DMA for my CD burner.
Since then I can no longer burn CDs. I have managed to disable
DMA system wide, but I would much rather figure out how to do it
for just the CD burner. Any tips would be much appreciated.

I did a KB search, but
"Windows 2000" "disable DMA"
returns nothing while
"Windows 2000" disable DMA
returns so much garbage that I probably missed something relevant
while scanning over the search results.

If you really want to do this, go into Control Panel/System/
Hardware/Device Manager and look under the primary and
secondary channels of the "IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers"
entry. Set the device to "PIO Only" and leave the others at
"DMA if available".

By the way, disabling DMA transfers is a really bad idea.
If for some strange reason your CD burner isn't compatible
with them you should replace it with one that is.

Rick

 

[Rob Stow]

If you really want to do this, go into Control Panel/System/
Hardware/Device Manager and look under the primary and
secondary channels of the "IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers"
entry. Set the device to "PIO Only" and leave the others at
"DMA if available".

By the way, disabling DMA transfers is a really bad idea.
If for some strange reason your CD burner isn't compatible
with them you should replace it with one that is.

For some reason, DMA worked fine with my drive with NT4
for both reading and writing, but with W2K it only works
with reading. The drive is a Sony CRX 140E.
The eventual plan is to replace it with a DVD burner, but
I keep finding other things I'd rather spend the money on.

 

[Rick]

For some reason, DMA worked fine with my drive with NT4
for both reading and writing, but with W2K it only works
with reading. The drive is a Sony CRX 140E.
The eventual plan is to replace it with a DVD burner, but
I keep finding other things I'd rather spend the money on.

If your system has a Via chipset make sure you've updated
to the latest "4 in 1" drivers.

There's no reason a Sony 140E shouldn't work using DMA
transfers. Check your cabling (try a different cable, or upgrade
to a better quality/80-pin cable if using one of the higher DMA
modes).

Rick

 

[Rob Stow]

If your system has a Via chipset make sure you've updated
to the latest "4 in 1" drivers.

nForce2, actually.

There's no reason a Sony 140E shouldn't work using DMA
transfers. Check your cabling (try a different cable, or upgrade
to a better quality/80-pin cable if using one of the higher DMA
modes).

Tried it last night, didn't make a difference.
I'll just have to live with booting NT4 to burn CDs
until I get around to upgrading to a DVD burner.

 

[Rob Stow]

nForce2, actually.


Tried it last night, didn't make a difference.
I'll just have to live with booting NT4 to burn CDs
until I get around to upgrading to a DVD burner.

I was overdue for a clean up, so I wiped my boot/system
partition and reinstalled everything from scratch.
Before installing SP4 I saved an image onto a CD - so
I know I was fine with SP2. As soon as I installed
SP4 I could no longer burn CDs anymore. So perhaps the
problem isn't DMA, but instead just SP4 and/or my old
Adaptec software.

 

[Rick]

I was overdue for a clean up, so I wiped my boot/system
partition and reinstalled everything from scratch.
Before installing SP4 I saved an image onto a CD - so
I know I was fine with SP2. As soon as I installed
SP4 I could no longer burn CDs anymore. So perhaps the
problem isn't DMA, but instead just SP4 and/or my old
Adaptec software.

Adaptec? You aren't loading ASPI32, are you?

Rick

 

[Rob Stow]

Adaptec? You aren't loading ASPI32, are you?

I eventually plan to do so, but I haven't done it yet.
The CD ripper I use (Exact Audio Copy) requires it, but
I haven't installed either EAC or ASPI32 yet.