DMA/UDMA with Pioneer A03/103 & A04/104

[drbyte]

Hello to all,

Well i'am new to this forum, but have been visting VCDHELP for a long time now.
Great site !
2 months ago I purchased the Pioneer 104 write (is the oem version from the A04).
When I started writing to a DVD-R I got 'communcation' errors.
Some seaching on the www learned me that some computers who are running Windows 2000/XP have problems writing to DVD-R with the Pioneer drives.
Found a .pdf file that's from Pioneer Australia.
You can read it here.
So, entered the BIOS and put the 104 (Secondary Master) in PIO4 mode and started up XP Pro.
In XP Pro I also put the 104 in PIO4 and after that I had no problems writing to DVD-R any more.
However, writing in PIO4 takes a huge resource from the computer and you can't do anything else.
Writing at 2x speed, the buffer from the 104 fluctuates between 97% and 20%.
When it reached 20%, the burnproof protection kicks in and switches the drive back to 1x wrting allowing it to fill up the buffer again and the whole proces repeats itself until the DVD-R is written.
There are users who have no problems writing in DMA/UDMA mode.
Most of the time they have Intel based maiboards.
Tomorrow (16-8-2002) I will get a Promise IDE UDMA 100 controller.
For what I know, connecting the 104 (or any of the other Pioneer DVD-R writer) to this controller may also solve the problem.
Before you all jump on me, I know this is not the way.
According to the specs. of the drive it should support UMDA2.
Maybe its a firmware question and maybe it has something to do with the infamous Via 686B bug.
My knowlege isn't going that far !
Before I put the drive in PIO4 I've tried:

- A clean install of Windows XP Prof and wrote without having installed anything else -> no go.
- Switched around other IDE ports -> no go.
- Used other IDE cables (33/66/100) -> no go.
- Used ASPI 4.60/4.70/4.71 -> no go.
- Also tried ASAPI -> no go.
- Tried Nero 5.5.9.0. / Instand VOB 6.4 / Easy CD Creator Deluxe Platinum 5.1 -> no go.
- Used the PCI latency patch for the Via 686B bug -> no go.
- Latest bios for my maiboard (version 9m) -> no go.
- Latest firmware for the 104 (version 1.20) -> no go.
- Via 4in1 version 4.41 -> no go.
- 3.14 IDE Miniport driver -> no go.

Maybe there's something I have overlooked, so will give you a overview of my system and will appriciate any input regarding this problem.

Mainboard: ABIT LG7-Raid (with latest 9m bios)
Processor: AMD Athlon XP 2000+
Processor Cooler: Spire Ball Bearing
Memory: 512 MB DDR - PC2100 from Samsung (Brand/Brand)
HDD: 2x IBM 40GB ATA 100 connected to RAID controller (stripe for preformance) Primary & Secondary Master on RAID-CONTROLLER.
-- So the drives ARE NOT connected to the standard IDE controllers on the mainboard --
DVD-ROM: Lite-On LTD 163 (Master on Primary IDE Connector)
CD Writer: Lite-On 32x speed (Slave on Primary IDE Connector)
DVD-RW writer: Pioneer 104 on Secondary IDE as master
Video: Geforce 4 TI 4600 from MSI
Audio: Sounblaster Live
Network: Intel Pro+ management Adapter 10/100 mbits.
Power supply: 420 Watt
Windows XP Profession with complete Windows Update from Micosoft.

Give you all my best regards and greetz,

The Doc

[jeepman]

I can tell you it is not just Pioneer, or Intel based boards. I have the HP DVD200i and a AMD chipset based dual Athlon board from Tyan, called a TigerMP S2460.

Fortunately, I was able to get help here too! The trick is PIO Mode only while I run Windows 2000 SP2. I will still send HP an e-mail asking for help, but I bet I am out of luck, and they will say you have to run in PIO mode. Luckilly in my case, I have another Athlon XP 1700+ ready to take over while the CPU hogging PIO burn is occuring.

[THE RIPPER]

hey jeepman, i got the same bord rev,3 , no probs with my 104 in dma mode here. are you the same jeepman from 2 cpu ?

[3dcandy]

I'm sure I read something about there being a problem installing the 4-in-1's in XP....might be wrong, but can you uninstall the IDE Via driver, and use the Microsoft one?

[jeepman]

hey jeepman, i got the same bord rev,3 , no probs with my 104 in dma mode here. are you the same jeepman from 2 cpu ?

Yes, 'tis I.

Wow, I may still have to take back the HP, and get the Pioneer. Oh wait, I have already ordered 10 Ritek DVD+R's and I would have to flog those off on eBay. Oh well, I don't mind PIO mode too much for burning, but DMA would be nice.

Where do you have the Pioneer located, i.e. Seconday Master, etc.

[THE RIPPER]

I have my dvd-r as a slave to my hard drive.I know some people don't recomend this but i'v yet to run into a problem.