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how to enable DMA for Harddrive and CDRW.?

F

faye

Platinum Member
Hi,
I heard many people saying enabling DMA for harddrive , cdrom and cdrw can increase the performance and blah blah blah,

where can i enable it,?
i've tried looking it in "My computer"(rite click), but no.

where can i find it,?
My harddrive seems always loading stuffs. It is better than before(just installed System Mechanic), it seems better, but still very noisy when it is running.

I have a Quantum LM 20G harddrive.
 
For Windows 98 or 98 SE I believe you need to right-click on the My Computer object on the desktop, select Properties from the context menu that pops up. Now choose the Device Manager tab. I believe the hard drives are all located under one category, and the CD / DVD drives are under another. Expand the appropriate categories, double-click on the individual drives to get their Properties dialogs. Look through the dialogs as they come up to be sure that DMA is enabled. (Sorry I can't be more specific than this. I'm not a Win9X user, though I played with it for a couple of months. I migrated from AIX to Windows NT 4 and Windows 2000.)

By the way, regarding not being sure about which OS you're using, and your reference to the "blah blah blah" -- If operating systems and the computers they run on were as useful and reliable as they ought to be, then it wouldn't matter if you were aware of these matters. Unfortunately, we're not there yet -- not by a long stretch. I hope you have a hardware manual for your system and its components, and you should have at least some sort of documentation for the Windows installation on the machine. There is also a help facility built into Windows, and there's the Microsoft Knowledge Base online. I suggest that, if if it is important to you to be able to use this PC successfully, you consider investing some time in investigating the system and its operating system. Also, do be aware that, although online message forums can be extremely useful, there is also a lot of BS floating around online in the guise of good technical advice. In other words, people who are mistaken are often as convinced, and convincing, as people who are knowledgeable. You need to know at least enough about your system to become a judge of the likely utility of what you read online.

If you need further help on this, or other questions about the matter of how your CD drives are behaving, please holler. If I can't help, I'm sure someone else will be able to do so.

Regards,
Jim
 
oh, here is where i am stuck.

I right click on "my computer"
select properties/device manager/disk drives
then select Quantum FireBallP LM(my harddrive name)

i double click it and select settings.

I don't see any DMA wording.
only; Disconnect, Sync Data Transfer, Removable (which is selectable, and only the first two are enabled)

unselectable(shadowed); Int 13 unit, auto insert notification.

that's all i can find. i don't see anything that has DMA in it.
 
Hmmm. This is where I may have to bow out. I know that the DMA setting for drives is in this general area, at least for all of the Win98 or Win98SE machines I've seen. Unfortunately, I have no such machines anywhere near me so that I can guide you more precisely. I hope someone else will pipe up with the information. All I can do is ask if you explored that multi-tabbed dialog thoroughly. BTW, it's also possible that the drive and / or its device drivers simply don't support DMA. (I'm not familiar with the model.) It IS an IDE drive, isn't it?

Anyone want to chip in?

Regards,
Jim
 
Just checked my HD&CD and check box option for DMA is availiable in Control Panel setting tab. Don"t you have to enable DMA in bios?😕
 
What motherboard (chipset)are you using? Some motherboards and bios have multi options for DMA transfer modes....You may have to change them in the bios or you might not have what is required to run DMA...Tell us your mobo type..
 
oh ya,
i forgot to mention...

it is an
ABIT BE6

HPT366(HighPoint Technology) v1.21

Quantum Fireball LM 20GB
 
FYI....Abit has a new firmware for that mobo...your ata controller will change to v.1.25...and you do have a dma option in the bios.....flash the bios to the newer firmware...


Tell me how you have the drives setup..ie..what is the master and what is the slave and so on...
 
If my memory serves me correctly, it's referring to Terminate and Stay Resident programs like a mouse driver or dos-based utility that stays loaded in the memory when you run it.
 
I still do not know how to enable DMA, I have the same problems as faye, because I do not see the DMA enable check box in control panel->system->device manager->disk drives->properties for my harddrive->and there is no DMA check box.
 
hmm, i have another stupid question,
what kind of performance will it gain if i enable DMA.?
everything works fine rite now. I am just curious if i enable DMA, what kind of extra speed i will get.

for Ringer,
I have my Quantum connected to the Primary Master(the first black slot) and my CDRW and CDrom to the second black slot(Secondary Master and Slave)

I just don't want to flash my bios cuz sometimes it will permanently damage the chip(i said sometimes)
 
OK how do you do it under W2K for an IDE DVD-ROM drive? Nothing on the device manager tab that allows enabling DMA.
 
In W2K's Device Manager you expand the IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers item, then double-click on the appropriate IDE channel. The channel properties dialog's Advanced Settings tab allows you to set the transfer mode for Device 0 and Device 1 of the channel. You want "DMA if available". (After a reboot, the Current Transfer Mode field should confirm DMA status.)

Regards,
Jim
 
Use the primary ata/66 controller for your hard drive,use the secondary ultra dma/66 controller for your cd-rom,then attach your cdrw to the primary ide controller....the abit has 4 controllers on it...so use them, no need to slave any drives.....try this config, at least you will get better performance from removing the slaved drive.
 
Go to control panel. WHich is under start/settings/control panel

Select the system icon then device manager then hit the + sign next to disk drives. Then select the drive you want then goto properties. Now check the box that says DMA then your done.

Do the same thing for the CD ROM drive(s)

Perry

 
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