XP - UDMA 2 -> PIO by itself!

[SamDav]

Ok I have no idea what happened. I had installed a harddisk on my primary master and a creative pc-dvd rom 12x on slave. My secondary is all taken too! My primary slave showed UDMA 5 and Creative UDMA 2. After a month now I noticed that my DVD Rom has become a little slow, I checked and saw that the DVD Rom is switched to PIO by itself. I set it back to UDMA and when I reboot, It?s still set to "UDMA if available" but on the bottom it says it?s working in PIO! I have not changed any hardware! Is this possible by a software? I have installed several DVD software players! What should I do? Thanks!

PS - I have XP prof.

 

[FalseChristian]

Why do you need so many DVD software programs? Obviously one of them is the culprit. Delete them all and install them one by one until the problem creeps up again.

 

[SamDav]

Ok. Here are the tests that I did. I uninstalled every possible software that might use my DVD-Rom and still get PIO. I have left only MusicMatch Jukebox.

I thought to test the drive on the secondary slave instead of primary slave. I connected the drive with obviously another cable to secondary slave and rebooted. It now works in UDMA mode 2! But I want it on primary slave.

Naturally I thought that the cable on the primary devices is damaged. I changed the cable and I still get PIO mode on primary slave! What should I do next? What is wrong with primary slave?

 

[FalseChristian]

This might seem simplistic but check your BIOS to see if your Primary Slave is using PIO mode. I can't understand why you're having this problem. C'mon, you IT experts!!! Help this guy out.

 

[SamDav]

Yes that was what bothered me! In the BIOS when computer starts up it perfectly shows UDMA 2 for my primary slave (Creative DVD). I finally resolved the problem. I mean the problem resolved itself! I disconnected the DVD-ROM, connected my DVD-R drive to the primary slave. Booted, it showed UDMA! Turned off my computer and removed the DVD-R and again connected the creative DVD-ROM. This time it shows UDMA 2! I have no idea what was the problem!

 

[DaiShan]

I am a little confused when I look at your system specs in your sig, you have 2 agp video cards? or is this not the rig you are talking about? if it isn't will you please post the complete specs of the rig?

 

[Ronzon]

Try going into the bios and turn off the auto detect for the drive -- select NONE or NOT INSTALLED instead. With the bios showing no drive, it is solely up to Windows to determine the type of drive and UDMA capability. This has solved many UDMA probs in Win2k/XP computers. Hope this helps...

 

[SamDav]

That is FalseChristian, I'm SamDav! We are two users with the same icon!

 

[FalseChristian]

I have 2 AGP cards because ATI can't get gamma or vsync right so I need my Voodoo5-5500 AGP to play Quake, QuakeII, and Unreal-engined games!!! C'mon, ATI! Get gamma and vsync right!!! How hard can it be!?!

 

[afzan]

<< Try going into the bios and turn off the auto detect for the drive -- select NONE or NOT INSTALLED instead. With the bios showing no drive, it is solely up to Windows to determine the type of drive and UDMA capability. This has solved many UDMA probs in Win2k/XP computers. Hope this helps... >>



THANKS A LOT!

DMA is finally being used!