MSI K7T Turbo and Sec.Channel DMA Problem.

[IceT]

Here is my setup:

MSI K7T Turbo Ltd.(latest BIOS) with AMD 1.2GHz with 768MB PC133
Leadtek GF3
SB Auidgy sound card
Network card x 2
WD 45GB HD (primary master) and WD 6.4GB on primary slave
Liteon 166s 16x DVDROM (secondary master, latest firmware)
LG 40x CDRW on secondary slave
WinXP Professional with SP1

My problem being: I cannot enable UDMA/33 in WinXP for my Liteon 16x DVDROM on secondary master channel. The motherboard's BIOS detects the drive as ATA/33 but in WinXP, it just loads "Multiword DMA Mode 2" which is only 16.7mb/s. I have flashed the latest firmware for the DVDROM, have tried many many man different 4-in-1 drivers, have tried all REG patches to enable UDMA/33, and ALL methods DID NOT work! XP still loads "Multiword DMA Mode 2"! I have gone through differnet BIOS settings, didn't work.

I also have other 16x DVD like LG, Sony and AOpen, I have tried all of them on secondary master, only "Multiword DMA Mode 2" is used and NOT UDMA/33!

However, if I put the DVDROM on primary slave, then XP actually loads UDMA/33 for the DVDROM!!!! I have tried all different kinds of IDE cable, all no good!

I tried chaning IDE cables, still no go!

I think this is mainly software problem? DO you guys have any idea?

Please advise!

Thanks in advance.

 

[IceT]

Anyone?

 

[tcsenter]

However, if I put the DVDROM on primary slave, then XP actually loads UDMA/33 for the DVDROM!!!! I have tried all different kinds of IDE cable, all no good!

First, Multiword DMA 2 is fine for any ATAPI devices like DVD-ROM and CDRW drives, since 16.7MB/s is still well within the bandwidth requirement, and you're utilizing busmastering mode so CPU utilization will be low.

But I suspect the problem is a driver issue. For whatever reason, the IDE driver detects a problem with ATA/33 when a DVD-ROM is master. Unless your LG CDRW is the culprit. When you tried all these other DVD drives, particularly when you tested the DVD as a slave, was the LG CDRW still attached to the secondary channel?

 

[IceT]

When I put my 16x DVDROM on secondary channel as master, I disconnected the LG writer for testing purposes. However, only MW DMA Mode 2 is used in WinXP. MWDMA Mode 2 limites my 16x DVDROM, read speed max out @ 10x where it should reach 16x under UDMA/33.

 

[tcsenter]

When I put my 16x DVDROM on secondary channel as master, I disconnected the LG writer for testing purposes. However, only MW DMA Mode 2 is used in WinXP. MWDMA Mode 2 limites my 16x DVDROM, read speed max out @ 10x where it should reach 16x under UDMA/33.

Ah ok, it escaped me that this was 16x DVD, so it does top-out around 21MB/sec peak.

The ATAPI protocol was developed to allow removable storage ATAPI devices like CD-ROMs to share cables and IDE ports with hard drives in slave or cable select mode. I always try to 'jimmy' my devices around so that my CD/CDRW/DVD drives are slave instead of master.

So you have a couple choices:

- Try swapping the DVD and CDRW master/slave setting

- Place your HDDs as masters and your ATAPI devices as slaves (which 'technically' is the way its supposed to be done, anyway)

 

[IceT]

I just got a reply from MSI saying that both the default XP IDE driver and Via's disable the UDMA/33 for secondary channel to increase compatiability. So does it mean I cannot enable UDMA/33 in XP @ all?

Anyway, I went out and bought an IDE channel card. So now I have the DVDROM on primary master and writer on secondary master.

Thanks a lot for all your help!