DMA versus PIO ... Help Please

Hello,

By right clicking the My Computer icon then properties and Device manager I get to the expand the disk drives and then double click the entry representing my HDD then settings again I see 2 available boxes that can be checked REMOVABLE and DMA. If the DMA box is available to be checked does this mean that my HDD supports running in DMA? Is this a verifiable way to see of my HDD supports DMA settings or is there a better way and if so can someone maybe help me out as I want to run DMA as it is suppose to help my HDD run smoother and faster as opposed to IPO. My HDD is a generic 20 gig and came with my puter when it was built. Are there ups and downs to running in DMA mode?

Thanks

FireDancer

 

Go ahead and check the DMA box. You should be prompted to reboot after.

To learn a bit more click below......

http://www.microsoft.com/hwdev/archive/devdes/idedma.asp

Dale

 

Understanding

Dale,

Thanks so much for the responce. I went ahead and checked DMA and rebooted. I also went to the site you suggested and im not sure how to do all that was writen there or if it is even nessecary.

It was as follows:

If it is known that there is DMA-capable IDE hardware in the system, an easy way to make sure the machine is set up to use DMA is to add two lines to the Mshdc.inf file using the OPK tools available to OEMs. The Mshdc.inf file must be changed before the system is set up (really before the IDE devices are enumerated and installed). If the system is already set up, Mshdc.inf can be modified and all IDE devices manually removed from Device Manager, and then re-detected and enumerated and installed, which will set them up in DMA mode.

In the Mshdc.inf file, add to the [ESDI_AddReg] section the two bold-faced lines shown in the following example. The first 3 lines (not bold) should already appear in the file.


Do I really need to do as listed above or can I get away with just the checked DMA setting and rebooting. And If I need to take on this scarey task.. LOL is there a easier way to do so or at least more understandable as I do not know what OPK tools are or even how to get there.

Thanks again for your help it is greatly appreciated

Stan (FireDancer)

 

I would stay with checking the DMA box. If it stays after a reboot, you will be fine.
If it doesn't stay, it is not fully supported by your system. I have read that to really get the full use of DMA, it should be checked for both the hard drives and the CD. Some models of DVD will not fully support this.
The upside of using DMA [Direct Memory Access] is that you are not going through the processor to get data from the drive, it is direct access.
I am not aware of a downside.

 

Hey Stan,

No you don't need to do all the other stuff listed in the article.
I just posted so that some can see the advantages of doing this slight change.

After you rebooted, did the DMA box stay checked?

If so, you are all done!!

Dale

 

10-4 to Dale!

That is exactly right!

Mike

 

Great stuff !! Nice to hear !!

You can also do this with any CD-ROM/RW/ DVD's that you have.

Give that a go as well. Same procedure.

Dale

 

Yeahhhhh!!!!

Dale,

Yes it stayed after reboot and thanks for the awsome help!!!
At the risk of sounding totaly inept LOL!!! in reading markP62's
post he mentioned something about both hard drives, both???
I know of only one that I have LOL.

Thanks again to all of you for your responces I am really glad I found this BBS.

Stan (FireDancer)

Oh btw would it be adviseable to do the same for CD-ROM?
ups or downs ?

You guys and gals are too for my own good

Thanks again

 

BOTH harddrives would be if you had more than one installed in your machine. That doesn't seem to be the case here.

Yep, try it on your CD-ROM/'s, for the same reason you did it to your harddrive.

Dale

 

Great

Dale,

Thanks again, I did just that and all changes stayed. Just by coming here I have learned a bit more and hopfully alot more in the future.... Thanks!!!!



I think im on the way to turning my mind to mush on my CPU ... but its so fun!!!!!!



Stan

 

Glad to help, that is why we are all here.......learning and helping!

Dale

 

I agree with everything said here.
Just a comment:
If I check DMA in my CyberDrive 068D CD-R/RW drive, Nero hangs when starting.

 

Seems like Nero has a setting for that! Check the setup/config. If not found check nero site.

Mike

 

Mike,

Thanks for your comment.
A year ago -when I installed the CyberDrive unit- I made what you advise.
I repeated today same steps.
Results are the same:
Configuration in Nero does not mention DMA and Nero website does not address specifically the problem, but in discussing several similar problems, they advise unchecking DMA.
This was what I did one year ago and the problem was solved.
(By the way, the problem was that Nero hangs while checking SCSI/IDE bus).

Regards

Peter