Can burning software change DMA to PIO ?

[guns1inger]

I recently lost the CPU in my PC (careless, I know) and replaced the MB, CP and memory. I also took the opportunity to rebuild windows, as I hadn't done so in quite a while. As part of the rebuild I changed burning software - from CopytoDVD to Prassi ONES.

Ever since, I have had a constant problem with the mode changing from Ultra DMA 2 to PIO. To date I have done the following :

1. Uninstalled the secondary IDE channel. Reboot, get DMA mode back. Soon there after it is back to PIO mode. Might be one reboot, might just happen. No pattern.

2. Changed the registry settings to reset the error count after each successful access. No change to frequency of mode change.

3. Changed the original 40 pin IDE cable to an 80 pin IDE cable. This has enabled the HDD sharing the channel to shift from DMA2 to DMA5, however the DVD burner is still slipping back to PIO mode.

I have no error messages in the event logs to suggest a problem with access to the drive, my burns are all successful once the mode is changed. In the last instance, the mode was fine until I burned a CD. The CD is fine, but the mode then changed to PIO.

So, is the problem the MB (Giga-byte 775 with SiS chipset and latest drivers) or could the burning software be the issue ?

Has anyone found a foolproof way to prevent mode changes ?

[drjtech]

It sounds like you are already familiar with what Microsoft says is the usual culprit:

DMA Mode for ATA/ATAPI Devices in Windows XP

For repeated DMA errors. Windows XP will turn off DMA mode for a device after encountering certain errors during data transfer operations. If more that six DMA transfer timeouts occur, Windows will turn off DMA and use only PIO mode on that device.

All CRC and timeout errors are logged in the system event log. These types of errors could be caused by improper mounting or improper cabling (for example, 40-pin instead of 80-pin cable). Or such errors could indicate imminent hardware failure, for example, in a hard drive or chipset.

But since you didn't see any errors in the Event Log, this is not the likely cause in your particular instance.

I would recommend uninstalling Prassi ONES and re-installing CopytoDVD. If the problem goes away, then most likely it was a software issue. If the problem remains, then at least you will have eliminated software as the likely culprit.

-drj

[redwudz]

Here's a good article on DMA to PIO problems. It appears some burning software can make the problem worse.

http://www.michna.com/kb/WxDMA.htm

The only 'cure' I have seen is to pull the DVD out before the OS has 6 read failures in a row.

The failure appears to be in reading the CRC codes. Unfortunately you can't get rid of the codes without compromising the data integrity. It would be nice to set the counter to 60 instead of 6, though. Or at least make the OS tell you when it resets to PIO and give you a button to set it back to DMA.

[guns1inger]

Thanks. I found that article and the kb reference it links to when the problem first started to appear. I made the registry changes suggested, but still it persists. The odd this is that sometimes it happens after a successful burn or a reboot, even if it hasn't been reading a disk. That is what lead me to change the cable, in case it was the cause.

Oh well, CopytoDVD goes back on tonight and we will see what happens.

[handyguy]

Only time it happened to me it turned out the drive wasn't listed in the bios & then when I got it listed, things worked.

[guns1inger]

Unfortunately, the BIOS doesn't seem to allow me to list optical drives, only HDDs. It either auto detects, or requires all the HDD settings that opticals don't have.

[handyguy]

I set mine to AUTO....

One other thing that cause cause the change is using cheap media.

[Abond]

Maybe try to reset the BIOS to factory defaults and reboot. Then you go again to BIOS to see what is listed there. The other workaround can be to connect the drives one by one and boot after each conection to BIOS. I would also suggest to set the jumpers as Cable Select. BTW are the drives not listed at all or as Unknown device?
There is small utility called PIOtoDMA you can find it at Dell site. Well, I don't know if it will work with a non Dell configurations, and I must confess I never used it.

[guns1inger]

The devices are all listed correctly by the bios and by XP's device manager. When I uninstall the secondary IDE channel and either reboot or discover hardware, both devices are correctly found and reinstalled. Jumpers are currently set to cable select. I was planning to swap them on the cable next, but I might check out the Dell utility first.

[guns1inger]

An up date for anyone else having this problem. I donwloaded the PIOtoDMA software from Dell, and it works. No longer do you have to uninstall and reinstall or screw with the registry. There is one side effect that I have observed though. I have a HDD on the same IDE channel. When I boot it is Ultra DMA Mode 5. If the optical has reverted to PIO and I run the PIOtoDMA utility, both devices are set to Ultra DMA Mode 2. This means the throughput of the HDD is reduced. At the moment this is a small price to pay.
The other catch is it only works for optical devices on the SECONDARY IDE channel.

Can the mods provide a link to this utility in the tools section ? The Dell link is http://ftp.us.dell.com/fixes/PIOtoDMA.exe

Thanks to those who offered suggestions, and big thanks to Abond for this great little tool.

[Abond]

Hey, great that it works! As I said - I never used it. Before several months I had HD crash and upon reinstalling everything I download a lot of stuff from the Dell site (I have a Dell, rather old one), but till now everything is running flawlessly, so I don't need most of the utilities.