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How Do I Enable DMA?

C

Carbo

Diamond Member
Running XP Pro on a PIII 500, with 384MB RAM. I have a WD 40GB hard drive. When I want to check if DMA is enabled, I thought I could determine that by going into Computer Management>Device Manager, and then going to disk drives. But, there, it lists my one hard drive as a SCSI disk device, which it isn't. When I right click on this there is no option for enabling DMA. What am I doing wrong?
As I said, this is the only hard drive, and it is running of a Promise Tech ATA100 controller card.
 
Enabling DMA is a property of the Promise Controller, not the hard drive. Go check there in your device manager.
 
Hi, Andy. Yes, I thought so and checked that device, too, under device manager. But, there is no option for enabling DMA their, either.
 
Modern motherboards often have DMA features in the BIOS. Have yet to find any "feature" in win2k that enables/disables it.
rolleye.gif
 


<< the controller should automatically enable dma for your drive! >>

It should but doesn't always. My Maxtor ATA/133 controller detects and uses DMA Mode 2 for an older WD hard drive of mine but does not detect that ability in my DVD-ROM or my CD-RW (and I'm sure they have it).
 
What kind of motherboard do you have? If you have a VIA southbridge chipset you may be able to install IDETool which will show you
the mode for your IDE devices, with the exception of the devices on your Promise controller. In my system, that's my HDs. You may have
to install a bus mastering driver to get the higher modes. In your Hardware Devices (Device Manager) in XP you should see the
DMA mode for your IDE devices represented with a checkbox, and you want it checked, of course.
 
Carbo,



<< Running XP Pro on a PIII 500, with 384MB RAM. I have a WD 40GB hard drive. When I want to check if DMA is enabled, I thought I could determine that by going into Computer Management>Device Manager, and then going to disk drives. But, there, it lists my one hard drive as a SCSI disk device, which it isn't. When I right click on this there is no option for enabling DMA. What am I doing wrong? >>



I enabled DMA by entering the Device Manager & selecting "IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers" double clicking the Primary & Secondary controllers brings up a set of tabs starting with "General/Advanced Settings/Driver/Resources". I went into Advanced Settings & set Transfer Mode to "DMA if Available".
 
Crypto, yes, I did the same with my DVD-ROM and my CD burner, as they are both running as master devices. One on the primary, the other on the secondary. However, because my hard drive is not on the mobo, but rather on a controller card, I was not given the option to enable DMA on it when I went into Device manager. As others here have pointed out, that is taken care of automatically when using a controller card. On bootup I was able to verify that is correct and the hard drive is in DMA mode.
 


<< Crypto, yes, I did the same with my DVD-ROM and my CD burner, as they are both running as master devices. One on the primary, the other on the secondary. However, because my hard drive is not on the mobo, but rather on a controller card, I was not given the option to enable DMA on it when I went into Device manager. As others here have pointed out, that is taken care of automatically when using a controller card. On bootup I was able to verify that is correct and the hard drive is in DMA mode. >>

Right. On my system with my two HDs on primary master and secondary master of my Promise TX2 Ultra100 IDE controller, I see DMA Mode 5 shown for each drive, one right after the other in the boot sequence. I imagine you are seeing the same thing.
 


<< Right. On my system with my two HDs on primary master and secondary master of my Promise TX2 Ultra100 IDE controller, I see DMA Mode 5 shown for each drive, one right after the other in the boot sequence. I imagine you are seeing the same thing. >>

Yes, I am.
 
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