Stuck in PIO hell after all regular fixes

[craiggus365]

After searching many posts in this forum and google I am stumped and still reverting to PIO mode every time I try to do anything. I have had my 2 HD's and 2 optical drives working for a few weeks w/ no prob. I then tried to upgrade my flat IDE cables (one of which was too short) to round and my troubles began. I had primary w/ a HD as master and CD burner as slave and secondary w/ DVD burner as primary and HD as slave (HD was slave b/c cable was too short to go any other way.) This was working fine but I got new round cables which were longer and set pri. and sec. as HD master and optical burner slave and my comp ground to a halt. Whenever I burn a disc thew DVD drive never exceeds 2x when bewfore 8x+ was no problem. After doing some reading about slow optical performance I discovered this set up may be the culprit so I changed my primary to both HD's and secondary to both opticals. Then I realised I was stuck in PIO on the DVD burner. I have since tried reverting back to original config (flat cables and old HD/optical setup.) NO LUCK! I followed the posts in this forum - remove IDE & reboot - and - the registry tweak where you delete keys so XP doesn't downgrade the drives speed after getting errors

http://www.neowin.net/forum/lofiversion/index.php/t19007.html

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\Class\{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}\000X

Where 000X corresponds to the various drives on your IDE bus. Likely, 0000 will be your primary hard drive,but who knows (or cares). IN each 000X key, look for "MasterIdDataCheckSum" or "SlaveIdDataCheckSum". If you see either one or both of these right-click on them and delete them. A dialog will pop up asking you to confirm the Deleteion. Click OK. Do this for each drive 000X. Restart when done.

This DID NOT work!! It just went back to PIO on 1st burn attempt. Pls. someone help...

p.s. - i am using cable select on all drives and my BIOS shows all channels set up correctly. I am going to bed now after 3+ hours of frustration again. Any help would be appreciated, I will be back on around 7AM EST if anyone can help. Thx.

[craiggus365]

Just gave it one last try. Still stuck but I noticed that upon insterting any disc if it has reinstalled to DMA after a removal of the channel the disc detection will send it back to PIO.

[budz]

are you sure the jumpers are set correctly on the hard drives and optical drives? set the jumpers correctly on each drive. use this link on setting to DMA MODE.
http://www.cdrlabs.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=7625

use this link if you're having probs in setting to DMA MODE.
http://www.cdrlabs.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=6645

[hellbringer]

do you happen to have an asus a7n8x or another nforce2...or any nforce motherboard for that matter? i recently had the same problem stuck in pio mode...althow i might still have problems i don't know because i have my drivers unhooked right now.

but anyways if u do have a nforce motherboard go to nvidia and update your drivers and your should be fine.

[Cobra]

I had a very similar problem. Go Start --> Control Panels --> System --> Hardware --> Device Manager. Expand the "IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers" section and right-click the offending controller (either primary or secondary) and uninstall it.

Reboot and away you go - will be recognised and reinstalled as DMA.

If this doesn't quite work, go into BIOS and make sure the drive is set to DMA mode in there, and not PIO. Do the same again, and it should work. I can't imagine this is going to be a problem, though.

Thanks to flaninacupboard for this solution!

Cobra

[craiggus365]

Well here goes:

@ cobra - I have removed the channel multiple times...still same thing. It does go to dma mode on boot-up and reinstall of my secondary IDE but the 1st time it does anything (detect disc or try to burn) it goes back to PIO

@ hellbringer - motherboard is VIA (this is what device manager reports) Do I need to clear BIOS? I hit <del> on boot up & the drive reported ok and DMA was enabled.

@ budz - It was on Cable Select but I also tried Master settings for sh*ts and giggles

Still in PIO...This is annoying!!!

[normcar]

Are you sure you are using 80 pin instead of 40 pin cables. Someone had this problem a couple of days ago. I would also call/contact your MB manufacture for help. It could be a bad MB. Also be sure to use the most up to date IDE drivers. If the drives are not attached to the IDE controller on the MB, then try that. I would also try the old cables, if that works, then it may be cheap cables. Are you also sure there are no setup settings when starting up, some people have problems with that. Also have you updated the firmware of the DVD writer, if so please post the version, and someone may know of problems with certain versions.

[craiggus365]

I replaced flat cable select cables w/ round cobra cables Ata-133 round IDE. My MB can detect ALL other drives ok and this problem just follows this drive. If I put my CD burner in master position and DVD in slave it does the same thing. This set up when it was HD and Burner on same channel worked for 2 weeks but the changing of the cables trigerred the PIO. I changed everything back to original setup and had the same problem. I will try Memorex for a firmware update. I am running 1.A1 now, it came this way

[craiggus365]

I flashed to 1.A3 - the cables are 80 conductor - the only thing I can think of is when I first changed the cables the old were Cable Select and these new aren't. I did not change to master slave until after I had the 1st PIO problem.

[smearbrick1]

Have you tried your DVD burner in another PC? Could be the burner... Could be coincidence that this happened just as your swapping cables.

[craiggus365]

didn't try in other computer yet but would clearing the MB CMOS or Master IDE controller help???

[craiggus365]

I flashed CMOS...no help *sigh*. I will try MB manufacturer.

[pfh]

New Via 4-n-1's might help. (chipset drivers).

I've never had much luck with using cable select funtion.

[craiggus365]

@ pfh i took cable select off - that was the original config before the round cable upgrade.

Now i just got back from computer store & got a PCI to IDE controller card...I am trying it now

[budz]

using a PCI CONTROLLER CARD would be ideal for hard drives but not for DVD BURNERS.

[smearbrick1]

using a PCI CONTROLLER CARD would be ideal for hard drives but not for DVD BURNERS.

Actually, the pci bus is quite adequate for burners.

[hellbringer]

if u havn't already i would still update your mb drivers, there's some programs hangin around that detect exactly what motherboard you have(i think). then if its nforce then go to nvidia if not go to via site and get your drivers...this would be my first step

[liquid217]

Have you checked the event log to see what the error actually is? Usually, there is a reason your system switches to PIO mode.

[craiggus365]

Have you checked the event log to see what the error actually is?

I will update the MB driver and want to look in the log file but where do I find it????

[liquid217]

control pannel.... administrator tools....event viewer...

Its been a while since i've used it, but it should be under system log.

[craiggus365]

I updated the MBdrivers w/ the 4-in-one - no luck. I am checking the log but am having trouble deciphering just what I need to look for (I am going for the date the drive worked last.)

The only thing which may lead me to believe this is a DVD drive problem is the DVD drive when connected to the PCI card stops my computer from booting! The CD burner and 200 GB hard drive have no problem on this card. I will try to take the drive to a friends yhouse & plug in on his comp to see results..........

This REALLY SUX

[budz]

smearbrick1 wrote

Actually, the pci bus is quite adequate for burners.

I have to disagree with you because in my experience I've tried using a PCI CONTROLLER CARD with dvd burners and they didn't work correctly. But using them with the hard drives there was no problems. I've read where some have used PROMISE or SIIG controller cards with dvd burners but had compatibilty problems or as in my experience they(dvd burner) didn't work correctly.

[craiggus365]

Guys....Any reason that the CD burner may be ok on the PCI card but the DVD burner may not????

[smearbrick1]

Guys....Any reason that the CD burner may be ok on the PCI card but the DVD burner may not????

Budz seems to think there would be problem with the DVD burner on the card, but I have to disagree. I have used this configuration before with no problems. Also, I have seen many posts on this site where the whole "don't use your optical drives on an ATA card" statement was beaten down severely. Has to do with the PCI bus speed and the onboard IDE bus speed (IDE bus speed is higher), but the DVD Writer only uses a certain percentage of that speed.... dammit!!! I can't remember! I'll have to search around.

[snafu099]

I went through this same stuff when I installed new Nec 3520a 16x dvd burner replaceing a nec 1300a. This was on a new Compaq system under warrenty and they went as far as replacing the MB with no change.

As a last resort, frustrated fix attempt, I installed another nec 3520 on same ribben as a slave (replaced a 16x dvd-rom reader only) and then everything worked fine.

In hindsight, when I tested as "single install on cable" I had not disconnect second device from cable, only removeing the power. This seems to cause a problem when using 80 wire cable

I never understood the reason/logic of why the problem occured, but the $60 for second 16x burner was better than pulling my hair.

[scottb721]

Try this for the PIO problem. It worked fine for me.
http://users.bigpond.net.au/ninjaduck/itserviceduck/udma_fix/

[craiggus365]

Ok, here is where I am @.

I found a registry hack to force DMA (actually 6.) It forces XP to stay in MODE 6 and does keep the current mode out of PIO.[/i].

set TimingModeAllowed for the specific IDE drive to 0xffffffff. This will prevent the problem from re-occuring again

I got this hack here:

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

They have one other hack to force DMA 66 - Is this a better choice then the MODE 6??????

You can also enable Ultra DMA 66 with a simple such trick

Edit the key

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\Class\{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}\0000

and add a new DWORD value called EnableUDMA66 with a value of 1.

Or, here save this as a *.reg file and execute it

----
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\Class\{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}\0000]
"EnableUDMA66"=dword:00000001

The drive seems to copy files normally but I am going to use NERO CD-DVD SPEED to run transfer and CPU usage tests to actually "see" if it is fully in DMA. But, As soon as I start a burn the device manager stays in DMA 6 but the drive "acts" like PIO (slow burn speed) and causes high processor usage.

I think it is the drive itself - I am going to see if a computer store will plug in to test it for me.

@ BUDZ - You are correct, the DVD burner wont detect or even allow my computer to boot up while on the PCI adapter. The CD burner and 200 GB HD have no problem on the adapter.

I will report back tonight after work....wish me luck

[craiggus365]

I tried the drive @ a computer store but the jerky salesman would not let me use it to do a test burn so it was really useless. I reinstalled XP on top of current version to no avail, I am going to try a diffrent DVD burner tonight and will report back

[JSB]

Its gotta be hardware... I will bet all the spare change on my desk on it!

JSB

[craiggus365]

Well I bought a new identical drive to the "problem" unit...Memorex got slick...They are now Lite-On drives and no longer NEC...I will post in the burner lists these shocking findings. The drive did work never the less so I was upset, to say the least, goodbye NEC, just by chance while changing the IDE cable once again I noticed a small piece of foil in the IDE connector of the original unit (NEC). The new cable I installed uses foil shielding and must have deposited a small piece on the pins when I installed it the 1st time and it was shorting 2 pins! After some tweezer surgery I am back up and running - what a relief!!!