Liteon 12x10x32 DMA?

[bachdog]

I bought a Liteon LTR-12101B 12x10x32 CDRW (under Pacific Digital's label) and I don't know whether it supports DMA. I contacted Pacific Digital and got 2 different responses from tech support. One guy said none of their drives support DMA and another one said if your mobo supports it then you should set the DMA in Windows to gain speed. According to Liteon's site, the LTR-12101B supports PIO Mode 4 and DMA Mode 2.

The problem that I have is with the bios. When I check the bios it lists only PIO Mode 4 for the LTR-12101B. The DMA setting is disabled. When I change it from disabled to DMA Mode 2 and boot up, the info screen that pops up during restart still shows PIO Mode 4. Also, when I go back in the bios the DMA setting is disabled again.

I'd like to run in DMA mode.

Thanks for any help,

Mark

 

[bachdog]

I'm still looking for replies on this thread. I realized I had a mix of 80-pin and 40-pin IDE cables in my pc but using a 80-pin shielded cable (40 extra grounds) on the Liteon didn't have any affect on DMA.

 

[pillage2001]

Go to your Drive's properties and check the settings. The option named DMA should be checked.

 

[bachdog]

Thanks pillage2001, I've done that already. The thing that bothers me is the bios doesn't recognize that DMA is available so I'm not sure if checking the DMA in the drive properties is really doing anything. The bios recognizes my DVD player as DMA 4 and my hard drive as DMA Ultra 5, but not the CDRW.

 

[bachdog]

<< Thanks pillage2001, I've done that already. The thing that bothers me is the bios doesn't recognize that DMA is available so I'm not sure if checking the DMA in the drive properties is really doing anything. The bios recognizes my DVD player as DMA 4 and my hard drive as DMA Ultra 5, but not the CDRW. >>



I've figured out what's going on after reading up on DMA.

DMA followed PIO as an interface for IDE. Initially, there was single-word DMA but was quickly replaced by multi-word DMA, or just simply DMA. DMA mode 2 has the same transfer rate (16.7MB/sec max) as PIO Mode 4 except DMA has less utilization of the CPU. After DMA came ULTRA DMA. Ultra DMA is twice the transfer rate as DMA so ULTRA DMA Mode 2 is approximately 33 MB/sec.

The Bios for the A7V133 mobo makes a distinction between PIO Mode and Ultra DMA mode, but doesn't have just plain DMA as a choice. The Lite-On 12X burner, as well as Plextor's 12X burner, offer interfaces of PIO Mode 4 and DMA Mode 2 (not Ultra DMA); therefore, since Ultra DMA is the only DMA available choice in the bios, PIO Mode 4 shows up. Plextor's support site says to set the bios to either PIO Mode 4 or DMA Mode 2 and to check the box for DMA in the operating system under the CDRW's properties (control panel, system).

I believe by checking the DMA box that DMA is the interface being used, not PIO Mode even though the bios doesn't show it. Windows says if you check the DMA box and reboot and the check mark remains, then DMA is available for that hardware. The DMA check mark remained after I rebooted.

After setting the DMA flag for the Lite-on 12x CDRW and setting DMA for my Pioneer DVD-116 (uses Ultra DMA Mode 4, 66MB/sec), I was able to burn a copy of a CD of size 452 MB in a little less than 5 minutes using Nero. Nero said the CDRW buffer was 95 or 96% full at all times, which you would like it to be, so I think the settings are optimal.

 

[pillage2001]

My lite on is at PIO mode 4 I think and I haven't get a single bad burn. It's running at optimal speed and DMA is enabled in the system properties. Your drive's max transfer should be 16.67Mb/sec that's why you're at PIO Mode 4.

 

[bachdog]

I agree with what your saying pillage2001, but DMA Mode 2 (not Ultra DMA mode 2) also has a max transfer rate of 16.7MB/sec except it utilizes the CPU less than PIO Mode 4; therefore, DMA Mode 2 is preferable over PIO Mode 4. I believe that even though the bios doesn't say so, DMA mode 2 is available and by checking DMA in the CDRW properties that DMA is invoked.