PIO mode

[davemcg37]

my liteon sohw-1213s dvdburner, set as secondary master keeps slipping into pio mode when ripping dvds resulting in overly long read times, any ideas how to remedy this?

[handyguy]

Cheapo media can make it do that. Once it can't read the media about 5 times it goes into PIO mode.

[redwudz]

Or a dirty laser lens. If the drive has to seek a lot to read the DVD, it gives up and reverts to PIO. This is a OS problem and I don't know of a permanent cure.

Usually, you just uninstall the drive channel and let the OS restore it and everything is OK.

[SCDVD]

Cheapo media can make it do that. Once it can't read the media about 5 times it goes into PIO mode.

That's true. But even worse, once it is in PIO mode, your system will ignore any attempt you make to change it back to DMA mode if you are running XP or W2K. Billy's crew at Microsoft thinks they know best how to take care of "poor dumb users". This is a carry over from the hard disc management methods with respect to DMA settings. The logic with a hard disc is - Once sick, always sick. That is, if a hard disc is having a high error rate and the OS changes to PIO mode to slow things down in the hope of coping with the sick hard disc, it stays that way.

With optical drives, this logic isn't appropriate. If you have a bad DVD or CD disc, the problem is limited to only that disc. Unfortunately, your system doesn't know the difference in this regard between a hard disc and an optical drive.

The only way around this is to delete the IDE controller for your optical drive in Control Panel / Systems / Settings and then reboot. When you reboot, your system will automatically reinstall it. BE CAREFUL though - DO NOT DELETE THE CONTROLLER FOR YOUR HARD DISC DRIVE.

[JSB]

I had posted this is the "ripping" sticky....

XP can be very stuborn though.... so bring out the big guns and get into you registry:

http://sniptools.com/vault/getting-back-to-dma-mode-in-windows-xp.htm

Following is the mechanism that has worked for me, please try it at your own risk, it involves hacking the registry: 

1. Open RegEdit 

2. Find the following KEY: 
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\ Class\{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}\000x 

3.The last four digits will be 0000, 0001, 0002, 0003, and so on. 
4.Under each key, delete all occurences of the following values: 
     MasterIdDataChecksum 
     SlaveIdDataChecksum 
5. Reboot the computer. Windows will now redetect DMA settings.

Once I tried the "un-install IDE chanel" trick 5 times... no luck. Primary IDE was in PIO and would not reset to DMA. Used the registry tweak and BAM... DMA all around!

JSB

PS please try it at your own risk, it involves hacking the registry!

[davemcg37]

thanx for all the advice guys

[handyguy]

"The only way around this is to delete the IDE controller for your optical drive in Control Panel / Systems / Settings and then reboot. When you reboot, your system will automatically reinstall it. "

that works too, but don't forget to reset the mode afterwards.