Enabling DMA mode makes my computer slow & make HDD noisy

[DABANSHEE]

I recently purchased a 20GB Seagate Barracuda ATA II, but it seems to run really noisy & slow, & make the computer very slow (booting, opening windows, responding to clicks, etc) when I enable DMA mode in the device manager, even though it will then benchmark 40% faster.

This happens whether I'm using MS's default Win98 IDE driver or VIA's IDE driver. I also sent my drive back & got another one, yet they both reacted exactly the same way, when DMA was enabled.

Thanks

 

[Orbius]

Are you running a non-standard bus speed?

 

[DABANSHEE]

I'm running a AMD K6-III 400@476mhz (5x95), which means the PCI bus is running at 32mhz, I just looked it up in the manual.

I can't imagine having a PCI bus 1mhz below spec would have that effect

thanks.