Can't check DMA

[Foolio70]

I recently purchased a new DVD-ROM drive (AOpen 1240). I did this 'cause my old one, a Creative PC-DVD Dxr2 thingie, was about 3 years old and would crash when I had DMA checked. I'm usin' Windows 98 SE BTW.

Anyhow, my new DVD-ROM drive does the same damn thing. Both of my hard drives have DMA enabled with no problems. I've got an Abit KT7A board. The drive runs fine with DMA off, albiet 7x slower.

Anyone have any ideas on how to fix this?

Thanks

[patrickm]

first off, the board does support DMA on the secondary IDE channel, right? (i don't know much about the KT7A, but i think only really really cheap boards don't, so i wouldn't expect that to be the problem)

and you are using an 80-wire cable, right? DMA is set to 'auto' in the BIOS? and you have a fairly recent 4-in-1 if that's a VIA motherboard?

[Foolio70]

Second channel does support DMA. I do have the latest 4in1 drivers, and I do have DMA set to auto in the BIOS (even tried it with off, same effect).

Now I haven't tried using an 80-wire cable - but I didn't think that was at all necessary using devices slower than ATA66 spec...I will try that sometime this weekend...

Thanks

[xzarkad]

Did you install the DVD drive as a slave or a master in the second IDE port? Some boards do only support the master for DMA, the slave will be automatically set to a slower PIO mode.

[Foolio70]

Well, I switched the cable to an 80-wire cable, but alas, it is still unstable.

The drive is the master, and my BIOS detects it as UDMA/33.

Thanks though. I suppose maybe I'll live with a drive that performs just like my old drive, making my purchase at best silly...

[patrickm]

(as for the cable, some boards use the circuit to detect if it's 80- or 40-wire, and will turn off DMA by default if it's the 40)

which IDE drivers are you using? try going back to the default ones, not the VIA ones. in win2K i know the VIA drivers caused lots of problems for me.

also, does it work if you put drive 1 on master0, dvd on slave0, and drive2 on master1? this is probably a better configuration anyway, since the channels are multitasking but master/slave isn't, so when you copy from one channel to the other you'd increase performance. and when you said 'it causes crashes', could you give more info on that? maybe it was a program or a wrong bios setting, but it's hard to guess without details.

[Foolio70]

Let me set something straight first, because maybe I'm being a tad ambiguous - DMA is being enabled. Windows 98 SE is using the DVD drive with DMA enabled. DMA is a go.

When I mean crash, I mean the in the middle of lots of data access (aka DVD ripping, watching movies, copying files, playing audio CDs), the machine will throw either a Blue Screen of Death, get a blank screen, or hang.

I am still using the VIA drivers. Is there an issue with the secondary IDE channel with the VIA drivers? My hard drives (both on the primary, both with DMA enabled) are perfectly fine.

Thanks

[xzarkad]

Yes, you are correct; there is an issue.

Via has a bug in the southbridge. When data are transfered from one IDE to another IDE channel, there can be a crash, loss of data, or in the worst case complete loss of all data on the primary harddrive.
Via has promised that the latest 4 in 1 drives should solve the problem, but this has not been tested yet.
I have read about this issue in almost all computer magazines in Germany and the Netherlands.
One trick to bypass this problem: set all your drives to the first IDE port. (if you can use RAID)
That's all I know about it............

[Foolio70]

Ah yes the southbridge bug. I was under the impression that this affected transfers over the same IDE channel...

I have considered that this was the problem, but apparently 4in1 v4.31 and up had fixes for this. I may consider yet another southbridge workaround in case the new 4in1 drivers didn't fix this problem for me...

[dancoe]

Have you tried updating the bios to the newest version or perhaps experimented with different versions. Sometimes the newest isn't always the best.

[Foolio70]

This is what I plan to do - I am going to upgrade to Win2k (I was eventually gonna do this, just didn't plan on doing it yet) and see if the problem still exists there. If it does, it has something to do with my hardware or BIOS, else Win9x was the problem.

Thanks for your help peoples...

[VideoGuy]

Check your BIOS, if you *still* cant check DMA, then you cant HAVE DMA, its that simple...

HTH

[PNPman]

if your really want to find out whats going wrong
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?url=/technet/prodtechnol/winntas...chrep/bsod.asp

it applies to all microsoft os not just nt.

[Foolio70]

Thanks for the link.

However, I don't always get a BSOD - sometimes it's a lockup, sometimes a blank screen...

Again I shall reiterate - DMA is enabled, supported, applicable, recognized by the entire loveing universe, etc. etc...it's just not stable with it on the DVD drive (but is perfectly happy with both my hard drives)...

Thanks

[vhelp]

foolio70,

I have a suggestion... may not like it, but try it anyways. Why don't you just go to compUSA or circuitCity and buy another one - just one of there cheepist ones???
Just buy it, connect it, see if it still gives you the problem you've ben having in the past, and if it still is, then just return it! Just don't buy the same make/brand that you have in your system. I find, that if I have these kinds of problems, ...sure I can't affort it all the time, but i just go out and buy another different brand and test it out on my system. If it didn't work, I just return it, and move on. If it did, then. . . . .

It could just be your DVD-ROM drive not being all that compatible w/ your system, but you'll never know till you try??

Later!

[Vidbox]

First try splitting the HD's... set them up as the primary drive on both your primary and secondary IDE lines. Place the DVD as the slave on the Primary line. Now see if the DMA assignment will stay.
The problem neither your DVD drive or your VIA installation, but you "ABIT" KT7A. You're probably also experiencing a slowdown in boot time, "from booting in just 20 seconds to about 55 seconds now". The Abit KT7's prefer for you to complete the IDE lines. So if you access the Secondary IDE line, you must use both the master and slave slots.
The only way I found around it was to place the HD's in a RAID controller. If your's are already in the KT7A's RAID slots then a external RAID controller is the only was to solve the problem. By-the-way, don't use a soundblaster of any kind with an ABIT KT7 motherboard - problems will develop. "It was posted on there U.S. site before it went down."

"HERE'S A SHOT OUT TO INTREX COMPUTERS IN NORTH CAROLINA"
I took my KT7 back because of the Soundblaster problem to the place I purchased it from to have it tested. I was told there was nothing wrong with the motherboard. So I took it back home and re-assembled it...
...after installing a Soundblaster 16, SB PCI128, and a Soundblaster live, I still couldn't get the system to stablize enough to record for VCD. The moment I placed some other sound card on the system it stablized. Of course the boys back at Intrex Computers of Chapel Hill NC told me the problem; if any, had to be in the VIA chip.
Yeah Right.


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Vidbox on 2001-09-03 17:56:26 ]</font>

[Foolio70]

Actually, boot-up time is still under 15 seconds...

Here is my setup -

2 hard drives on the 1st IDE channel
1 DVD-ROM (soon to be replaced) as the Master of the secondary channel.
1 CD-RW as the Slave

I'm replacing the drive. I'm pretty much convinced that this is my fault in purchasing an AOpen product. I told myself long ago that I would never purchase another AOpen product...but I was cheap this time.

We'll see...should be gettin' it replaced to-morrow...

Thanks guys for everything...

[Vidbox]

<TABLE BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=85%><TR><TD><font size=-1>Quote:</font><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR><TR><TD><FONT SIZE=-1><BLOCKQUOTE>
On 2001-09-03 20:31:40, Foolio70 wrote:
Actually, boot-up time is still under 15 seconds...

Here is my setup -

2 hard drives on the 1st IDE channel
1 DVD-ROM (soon to be replaced) as the Master of the secondary channel.
1 CD-RW as the Slave

I'm replacing the drive. I'm pretty much convinced that this is my fault in purchasing an AOpen product. I told myself long ago that I would never purchase another AOpen product...but I was cheap this time.

We'll see...should be gettin' it replaced to-morrow...

Thanks guys for everything...

</BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR></TABLE>

"MARK" my words dude, it's your motherboard. I've since given the Abit KT7 to my oldest son, and picked myself up a MSI KT266 PRO. I haven't experienced a hardware problem since.
Just as long as you place your drives in the same sequence, you'll keep the problem.