Enabling DMA on a CUSL2???

[RedRooster]

Ok, here's the long and the short of it.
I have a CUSL2, a Maxtor ATA100 HD, a 12x Toshiba IDE DVD-ROM, and a 8432 Plextor IDE CDRW.
The Maxtor is of course on the primary by itself, and the DVD is the master on the secondary, the Plextor is the slave.
Since installing the Intel ATA drivers, I don't have DMA boxes for any of the devices in device manager, although the BIOS is telling me the HD is at UDMA5(ATA100) and the DVD is at UMDA2(I assume this means DMA is enabled on this device?). However, the Plextor has DMA disabled in the BIOS, and I know it should be a DMA device as I had it working with DMA on on my old BE6. Whenever I try to change the UDMA level of the Plextor in the BIOS it doesn't hold, and it always stays disabled no matter what I do.
I there anyway to fix this, can I "force" DMA somehow through the BIOS or in 98SE even?
Thanks for any help.

 

[Valvoline6]

Thats correct, the Intel ATA 100 drivers automatically enable DMA for any drives that can benefit, but CDRW's have big problems with DMA under the Intel ATA 100 drivers, so DMA is disabled for them. I do not think there is anyway around it short of uninstalling the Intel driver.

 

[Valvoline6]

oops double post.

 

[bonkers325]

Valvoline6

wrong dood intel ata drivers dont enable dma

u have to edit the registry to enable it

latest version leaves dma open in regisrty but disables it
once u enable it you will see a dma box in device manager

i know so cause i have been doing it lately

 

[RedRooster]

Really bonkers???
That would be sweet!
I'm assuming a search for "DMA" should find the proper keys eh, or will I have to create new keys?

 

[bonkers325]

type regedit

goto local machine
then choose enum
then choose scsi
goto all your devices that allow dma

create a new binary string for each saying DMACurrentlyUsed set it to 0000 01 to enable dma

create a new binary string for each saying SyncDataXfer set it to 0000 01 to enable dma

by default they either have these strings or not if so either they will be 00 meaning not enable or 01 enable

 

[Valvoline6]

Bonkers DMA is enabled by the Intel ATA drivers. You just no longer have the ability to turn it off and on in the device manager. Check the Intel Ultra DMA Companion. In there is shows "Default Transfer Mode UDMA5, Current Transfer Mode UDMA5". For My Hard drive:

Device Information
Primary Master: Maxtor 52049H4
Model: Maxtor 52049H4
Firmware: DAC10SC0
Device Type: ATA - Fixed - Direct-access
PIO Mode Support: 0 - 1 - 2 - 3 - 4
DMA SW Mode Support: No Support
DMA MW Mode Support: 0 - 1 - 2
UDMA Mode Support: 0 - 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5
Default Transfer Mode: UDMA-5
Current Transfer Mode: UDMA-5
Transfer Mode Limit: No Limit
Cable Type (Device): 80 Conductor
Cable Type (Host): 80 Conductor

For my CDRW UDMA is disabled, but DMA MW-1 is enabled. They just do not want you messing with it because nasty things can happen with UDMA and CDRW drives. These settings are automatic.

Model: RICOH CD-R/RW MP7060A
Firmware: 1.60
Device Type: ATAPI - Removable - CDROM
PIO Mode Support: 0 - 1 - 2 - 3
DMA SW Mode Support: 0 - 1
DMA MW Mode Support: 0 - 1
UDMA Mode Support: No Support
Default Transfer Mode: DMA MW-1
Current Transfer Mode: DMA MW-1
Transfer Mode Limit: No Limit
Cable Type (Device): 40 Conductor
Cable Type (Host): 80 Conductor
PIO PPE: Disabled
UDMA Control Register: Ultra DMA Mode Disabled

So the appropriate DMA mode is enabled automatically by the Ultra ATA drivers, I don't think you should mess with it.

 

[Plester]

RedRooster2K - howse it going? sounds like a pesky little problem. i just built a cusl2 rig for a friend, and after spending some time over at cusl2.com, the consensus is DO NOT upgrade the ATA100 drivers to 6.03.

i only upgraded the 815 drivers, and was able to enable DMA on all drives including a plex 8x4x32 on ide2(master). works like a charm. good luck.

 

[bonkers325]

people i know what i am doing
anyways things work fine
one more thing i know what those strings mean

if u dont know how to or have the guts so be it
no shame to that

i get major performance when i force dma

if u notice with the 6.03 drivers u get no boxes in the device manager for enable dma cause in the registry it is disabled

why i say this cause everytime when i do a fresh install for people i see no dma box

so when i goto registry and add it and enable it
boom there it is

dont listen to the damn intel ata exe
is bs

 

[RedRooster]

Well I got fed up with the 6.03 ATAs so I unistalled them, but then all hell broke loose....crashes/buffer underruns/general instability.
Re-installed the ATAs and everything is back to normal, nice and stable.
Like Valvoline said, the Companion thing is handy for seeing what drives are doing what, and apparently my HD is ata UDMA5(ATA100), my Tosh DVD is at UDMA2, and my Plextor is running DMA-MW2, assuming that's good?
I found the regedit for the DMA boxes and tried them, sounded the same as what bonkers suggested, but I had no luck. I'll try it again tomorrow though, I know I missed something somewhere. Although as it is now, my drives are fast, and everything is working sweet so I don't want to frig around too much.
Thanks for all the help guys, I'm finding CUSL2.com to be a really great place too.

 

[GeorgeD]

bonkers325,

the registry update shows only the DMA checkbox in the Drive properties, but actually NO PERFORMANCE INCREASE.

I have a very similar problem on my CUSL2:
When I installed the Intel latest i815E chipset drivers, the device manager found and installed the Intel ATA storage driver (which works OK) and the Primary and Secondary IDE (dual fifo), but these devices appear to be not working OK - there is an exclamation and the IDE devices are in the DOS mode.
I reinstalled the original Windows IDE Bus Master drivers and these are working OK (no exclamation, no DOS mode), but I cannot set my HD and DVD to operate in DMA mode (the checkbox is not present) and the transfer rates are horrible (half of the UDMA-33).
I have Win95, but the original Intel ATA drivers are not for Win95.

My specs:
ASUS CUSL2, Bios 1003 final
PIII - 667@667 (@800 rock stable, but I'm not an o'er)
128 MB KingMax RAM (2-2-2, 5/7)
ATI AIW 128 + Nokia 447PRO monitor
HD IBM Deskstar 34GXP 27.3GB
DVD TOSHIBA SD-M 1402, 12X/40X
CDRW Yamaha 8424, SCSI
SBLive!
SupraExpress 56i
OvisLink netcard