XP Won't Use DMA With My Hard Drive

[Frank J. Lhota]

My family computer is a bit sluggish when running XP, and I have isolated
what I think is causing this sluggishness.

First of all, a little backgroung. There are two data protocols that XP can
use to transfer data between the OS and a device: PIO and DMA. The DMA
protocol is the faster technique for moving large amounts of data, and hence
the preferred protocol for mass storage devices such as hard drives. PIO is
generally used when the amount of data transferred is small, DMA is not
supported, or when DMA proves to be unreliable.

The problem: XP is *not* using DMA to transfer data to and from my hard
drive, even though I am positive that the drive (a Western Digital WD1600JB)
supports it. The result is speed similar to a slug dipped in liquid
nitrogen. If I could only persuade XP that its fears of using DMA with this
drive are unfounded, I might be able to get this PC running at a decent
clip. But XP does not make that easy; any advice as to how I can do this? Is
there any "tweak" tool that can do this for me?

--
"All things extant in this world,
Gods of Heaven, gods of Earth,
Let everything be as it should be;
Thus shall it be!"
- Magical chant from "Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi"

"Drizzle, Drazzle, Drozzle, Drome,
Time for this one to come home!"
- Mr. Lizard from "Tooter Turtle"

 

[philo]

The problem: XP is *not* using DMA to transfer data to and from my hard
drive, even though I am positive that the drive (a Western Digital
WD1600JB) supports it. The result is speed similar to a slug dipped in
liquid nitrogen. If I could only persuade XP that its fears of using DMA
with this drive are unfounded, I might be able to get this PC running at a
decent clip. But XP does not make that easy; any advice as to how I can do
this? Is there any "tweak" tool that can do this for me?

do you have the correct drivers installed for your motherboard...
many chipsets require other than the generic windows drivers...

 

[Frank J. Lhota]

do you have the correct drivers installed for your motherboard...
many chipsets require other than the generic windows drivers...

My IDE ATA/ADAPI controller is listed as:

Intel(R) 82801BA Ultra ATA Storage Controller - 244B

The three driver files used by this device are all MS file: atapi.sys,
intelide.sys and pciidex.sys. AFAIC the Intel site does not list any other
drivers for this chip.

--
"All things extant in this world,
Gods of Heaven, gods of Earth,
Let everything be as it should be;
Thus shall it be!"
- Magical chant from "Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi"

"Drizzle, Drazzle, Drozzle, Drome,
Time for this one to come home!"
- Mr. Lizard from "Tooter Turtle"

 

[Jim]

My family computer is a bit sluggish when running XP, and I have isolated
what I think is causing this sluggishness.

First of all, a little backgroung. There are two data protocols that XP
can use to transfer data between the OS and a device: PIO and DMA. The DMA
protocol is the faster technique for moving large amounts of data, and
hence the preferred protocol for mass storage devices such as hard drives.
PIO is generally used when the amount of data transferred is small, DMA is
not supported, or when DMA proves to be unreliable.

The problem: XP is *not* using DMA to transfer data to and from my hard
drive, even though I am positive that the drive (a Western Digital
WD1600JB) supports it. The result is speed similar to a slug dipped in
liquid nitrogen. If I could only persuade XP that its fears of using DMA
with this drive are unfounded, I might be able to get this PC running at a
decent clip. But XP does not make that easy; any advice as to how I can do
this? Is there any "tweak" tool that can do this for me?

--
"All things extant in this world,
Gods of Heaven, gods of Earth,
Let everything be as it should be;
Thus shall it be!"
- Magical chant from "Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi"

"Drizzle, Drazzle, Drozzle, Drome,
Time for this one to come home!"
- Mr. Lizard from "Tooter Turtle"

The most common cause of the problem is excessive error rate sometime in the
past on the affected drive. Once XP notices the error rate, it reverts to
PIO mode and will not return to DMA by itself.

What you must do is:
1. Access hardware management from the control panel.
2. Determine which disk has the problem and which IDE channel it is using.
Make sure that it has the Use DMA if Possible entry enabled.
3. Delete the driver for the IDE channel This is not the driver which
controls the disk; instead it is the driver for the channel.
4. Restart the computer. Deleting the driver will force XP to recover the
driver from the \i386 folder.
This is the only way to reset the error count.

By the way, another cause of this problem is the result of disabling the IDE
channel in the BIOS.
Jim
5. Things should be back to normal.

 

[Fitz]

Here's a link that should help. I used the Re-enable DMA using Registry
Editor with no problems.

http://winhlp.com/WxDMA.htm

Fitz

 

[Yves Leclerc]

My IDE ATA/ADAPI controller is listed as:

Intel(R) 82801BA Ultra ATA Storage Controller - 244B

The three driver files used by this device are all MS file: atapi.sys,
intelide.sys and pciidex.sys. AFAIC the Intel site does not list any other
drivers for this chip.

Locate, download and install the Intel Application Accelerator software. This
should be the enhance DMA drivers.

 

[Frank J. Lhota]

Locate, download and install the Intel Application Accelerator software.
This
should be the enhance DMA drivers.

Thanks for the suggestion. The IAA fixed the problem! I can now back up my
hard drive in a reasonable amount of time from within XP.

For the record, the registry tweaks did not fix the problem. Going into
device manager and uninstalling and reinstalling the hardware did not fix
this problem either. Nor was the Microsoft KB much help. Surprisingly,
http://www.drivershq.com did suggest an update was required, but directed me
to an Intel install that was not applicable.

Thanks once again for your advice.

--
"All things extant in this world,
Gods of Heaven, gods of Earth,
Let everything be as it should be;
Thus shall it be!"
- Magical chant from "Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi"

"Drizzle, Drazzle, Drozzle, Drome,
Time for this one to come home!"
- Mr. Lizard from "Tooter Turtle"

 

[Guest]

Hello Fitz!
I hope I am permitted to enter into this exchange and address you directly.
I have a similar problem. In my case it is NERO which informs me that it
detected "that my drive is not in DMA mode. The Manager shos two devices both
as Primary IDE channels, both shown in Position as Slave, and DMA enabled.
When I de-select one in the hope to change the other to "master" I get the
msg. "Setting DMA failed."

 

[Fitz]

Sorry, been out of town for a few days.

First, if I read your post correctly, it sounds as though you have two
devices (a hard drive and an optical drive?) on the Primary IDE channel,
with both being reported as Slave. If this is not correct, then re-post
(state exactly what type of device and on which channel they are installed
and master/slave status).

You should not have 2 devices on one IDE channel being reported as "Slave"
devices. One should be Master, the other Slave.

If you have 2 IDE channels (Primary and Secondary) and only 2 devices
installed, then you should install each device on it's own channel. There
are jumpers on the back of the devices. Normally, they are set at "Cable
Select". You can adjust the jumpers so that they are Cable Select (CS),
Master, or Slave. If you have a modern system running WindowsXP, then the CS
setting should be fine. If you separate the devices on different channels,
then Master would also be OK. The hard drive should go on the Primary
Channel. Additionally, the cable connecting the device(s) to the motherboard
usually has a "System" end (goes to the motherboard and is usually blue) and
then 2 device connections (one at the end and the other in the middle,
usually black). The end connection is connected to the Master device, and
the middle to the Slave.

If you do as suggested, you will need a second IDE ribbon cable. Set both
device jumpers at CS or Master, connect the hard drive to the Primary IDE
channel and the optical drive to the Secondary channel. In Device Manager,
under ATA IDE/ATAPI, set Transfer Mode (for both Channels) to "Use DMA if
available".

Let me know if this helps.

Fitz

 

[Guest]

Thank you Fitz, I have two harddrives, two DVD/CD ROM drives on a NF4K8AC
motherboard. I had it built by a technician about a month ago.

Pls correct me if I am wrong, but it seems to me that you have two solution?
I think I am able to change the jumpers. If however another cable has to be
connected, then I may be out of my debth. So should I try this first and if
that does not work take it back to the tech?


an old - old guy who tries to keep up!

 

[Fitz]

Ok- I misunderstood your original post. I thought you only had 2 devices-
you have 4. That means you should have 2 devices on the Primary Channel and
2 on the Secondary, each having one Master and one Slave device. You
shouldn't have to change any of the connections. Even with this info, I'm
not sure I understand exactly how they are configured on your motherboard.
The usual way would be to put the harddrives on the Primary IDE channel, and
the optical drives on the Secondary channel, each having a Master and Slave
device. The other option would be putting a hard drive and an optical drive
on each channel, with the hard drives being Master and the optical drives
being Slaves.

Since you only had the system built a month ago, a have some anxiety about
changing things around, I would suggest you call the tech who built it and
see if he will work with you. It could be a jumper setting, or it could be a
hardware problem with one of the drives, or it could be software (in which
case, editing the registry to keep it from defaulting to PIO mode may be
necessary). You would be better off having someone with experience showing
you how rather than me trying to explain it.

Let me know how it goes-

Fitz

 

[Guest]

Thank you Fitz! - I should have turned right around after I entered that
small store. It looked and prooved to be totally disorganized. The fact that
it had been in business for four years and the prices made me stay.
I took your reply to the tech. His reaction to it was negative however he
agreed to check it tomorrow. Before I take the PC to him I would really like
to take a look at it myself. I know a little about jumpers and cables and
might just be able to find the answer, if you could give me some hints.
I looked at the BIOS "Standard CMOS Features" It showed:
IDE Channel 0 Master - 1st hard drive
IDE Channel 0 Slave - 2nd hard drive
IDE Channel 1 Master - DVD RAM
IDE Channel 1 Slave - CD/CDW
Sata Channel - four of them listed as "Master" and as "None"
Does this help?

 

[Fitz]

Ok- Take a look in Device Manager (Control Panel>System>Hardware>Device
Manager) and open up IDE ATA/ATAPI Devices. Look under PATA controllers
(listed separate from SATA controller) double click or right click and open
"Properties". It should list the Primary and Secondary channels, the devices
attached to each and the transfer mode. Are they listed correctly (hard
drives on Primary (Master and Slave) and CD/DVD on Secondary (Master and
Slave)? What is the transfer mode (should be DMA for all four). If it's PIO,
then you need to re-enable DMA, using the procedure in my original post (the
link to the website). If the CD/DVD devices are not listed, then open CD/DVD
Drives (in Device Manager) and see if they are listed as SCSI devices. If
so, reinstall the IDE driver (IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers>Right click>Update
Driver and follow onscreen instructions). To check the jumpers, look at the
back of the CD/DVD drives. There should be a map of how the jumper is set
for the different modes (CS, M and S). Make sure that they are not both set
as Master. If you have the manuals for the drives,it should show jumper
positions also. Most of the time, it's hard to see the guide on the device
itself and you have to physically remove it to see them. The manufacturer
website may have the jumper setting guide and would be a good place to look.
If the drives are both set in CS mode, you might try setting one as Master
and one as Slave and see if that works. You could also try disconnecting on
drive, and restart the computer and see if the other drive went to DMA mode
or if you can change it to DMA when it's not sharing a Channel.

I don't know what you meant by "His reaction to it was negative"...if he
built the system a month ago, and you haven't made any changes, then the
transfer mode for IDE CD/DVD should be DMA. If it not, then there is a
problem and he should fix it. Sometimes, when a SATA/RAID driver is
installed, an IDE device will show up as a SCSI (SATA) device, an no
transfer mode is listed. I've had this happen and reinstalling the IDE
driver corrects it. It didn't actually affect the drive/computer performance
and NERO certainly didn't give a warning about it.

Good Luck,
Fitz

 

[Peter]

There's an article here that might help:
http://users.bigpond.net.au/ninjaduck/itserviceduck/udma_fix/

 

[Guest]

Fitz - thanks for the attention you give to my problem!
Peter - my first blog. The language blew me away. I'll never learn to write
like that. Thanks.
Under NVDIA nForce Parallel ATA Controller Properties I show:
General: Device type: IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers,
Manufacturer NVIDIA Corporation
Location: PCI bus 0, device 6, function 0
Primary Channel:
Master Drive - 1st hard drive
Transfer Mode - Ultra DMA6 - Ultra 133
Let BIOS select transfer mode - not selected
Enable read caching - enabled
Enable write caching - selected
Slave Dirve: 2nd hard drive
Transfer mode Ultra DMA 5 - Ultra 100
the other selection as above

Secondary Channel:
Mater Drive - DVD RAM
Transfer mode - Ultra DMA 2 - Ultra 33
Slave Drive - Mitsumi CD/RW
Transfer mode - Multiword DMA 2

All seclection below "transfer mode" unavailable except for BIOS which is
deselected in both cases.

I did not follow up on your other suggestions. I want to wait until I hear
what you have to say?
nurmi nee Richard

 

[Fitz]

All the information for the PATA Controller looks correct, except the
Mitsumi CD/RW, which has a Transfer mode of Multiword DMA 2, which is an
older/slower version of DMA. How old is the drive? Have you ever upgraded
the firmware for the drive?

I'm at a loss to explain why Nero is saying you are not using DMA- unless it
doesn't recognize "Multiword" DMA and only recognizes Ultra DMA as
legitimate- but again, I don't know. You could try posting the problem to
"CDfreaks.com" or possibly try the Nero website. I'm thinking I'm out of
ideas!!

I'd be interested in knowing if you get it resolved.

Fitz

 

[Guest]

Thank you Fitz - I came to the same conclusion. Thank you for showing me the
way. I don't intend to give up to find the answer and when I do, I shall get
in touch with you. Hope you have a good week-end and beyond.
Nurmi