How do I enable my DMA?!

[ComputerIlliterate]

I've installed my Toshiba DVD Rom and Ravisent Cinemaster, but when I try to watch a movie, a warning says I should enable my DMA. I tried to enable it through Device Manager/CDRoms/ToshibaDVD/settings, but then I get a warning saying chosing DMA may have undesirable effects. I ignore this and hit ok, but when I return to the settings, it's unchecked again. My DVD's are playing, I know this because the sound works fine, but I get no video. Is it the DMA or is it something else? Thanks

 

[Workin']

What kind of motherboard/CPU do you have? If you have a non-Intel chipset, like VIA MVP3, etc., make sure the bus mastering drivers are installed for your motherboard. For example, the VIA-based boards need to have the latest "4-in-1" driver set installed for DMA to work.

If you look in Device Manager under Hard Disk Controllers and tell us what it says under there we could tell you for sure.

 

[ComputerIlliterate]

I have a Celeron 533 and an ABIT BX133 RAID motherboard. Should this be a problem? Thanks.

Under Hard disk controllers I have Intel 82371AB/EB PCI Bus Master IDE Controller and the Primary and Secondary IDE controller.

 

[Workin']

Hmmmm, that looks OK to me.

Here's a dumb question but it's all I can think of right now - is your pass-through cable hooked up between the decoder card and your video card? That won't have anything to do with the DMA problem but it might be why you have sound but no picture.

 

[FarENheiT]

Hmm, I dont know how it is in win98, but in win2k you enable it through the hard drive controllers. If you go in device manager and bring down the controllers, first double click the primary one. There should be boxes listing whether there are devices on the chains. Most likely, yours will say "PIO Mode only." PIO = bad. So click the drop down box and choose DMA. I think this is how it is...I haven't checked that for awhile and i'm at work now. But go ahead and enable DMA for each device on the chain then APPLY. Then double click the secondary controller and enable DMA for those devices as well. You may or may not need to restart. Also, Win2K doesnt have UDMA 66 enabled by default. I know there is a reg patch that does it...www.tweak3d.net has it in their Win2k tweaking. Or you can download X-Setup (www.xteq.com) and it can enable UDMA66 in there. I am praying right now that you are using Win2k because otherwise I said that for nothing =)

 

[Workin']

Just thought of something - when the computer boots, does the POST screen or device listing or whatever you want to call the BIOS screen that shows which items are detected during boot-up show the DVD drive as being UDMA 2 or UDMA 3? If not, you may need to change some settings in your BIOS so it is detected properly.

 

[ComputerIlliterate]

Sorry, I'm using Win98 ;-)

 

[ComputerIlliterate]

When I reboot, the DVD is not detected as Primary IDE or Secondary IDE. My HD does though which is the only other IDE connection I have.

 

[Workin']

Go into your BIOS setup and make sure that all your drive types are set to "Auto", and that both IDE channels are enabled and set to automatically detect the transfer mode, then the BIOS should detect each drive every time you boot. Maybe the settings for the DVD/IDE port are set to limit it to PIO transfers only, and that's why your DMA checkbox isn't staying checked.

 

[ComputerIlliterate]

I have an error when I boot up that says my SB IRQ is conflicting with a PCI IRQ. This wouldn't affect the DVD at all would it?