IS DMA active on my computer?

[Canuck]

Hello;

For some reason, my DVD captureing is no longer working properly and someone here suggested I check my DMA settings for my drives. I went into my DMA settings and this is what I see. Is my DMA enabled?

http://www.stormpages.com/healey/capture.html

My system has a SCSI CD-R burner and my DVD player is my Secondary IDE (which is what I highlighted to get the image above). Any help and suggestions would be appreciated.

[mrtristan]

DMA is not enabled. It would tell you, in the last tab.

What version of Windows are you using? Sometimes w2k and 98 will turn off DMA, if an X amount of errors occurs per second. The only way to re-enable it is to restart.

[Canuck]

I am using WinXP Pro. I was having NO problems using DVD2SVCD (with perfect results every time) then suddenly my ripping stopped working. Someone told me to check my DMA and this is what I found (see above image). I think that somehow my DMA is turned off but to be honest, I dont know how to turn it back on. Any ideas?

Also, as you can see by the image, I am confused as to which one is my DVD drive...DEVICE 0 (not applicable) or DEVICE 1 (PIO Mode). I am sooooo confused..arrrrrrrrghhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!

[mrtristan]

It didn't automatically enable itself after a restart?

I use Windows 2000, so I can't offer much more help. You can probably find out how to solve the problem using google, though. It might take a while, but you'll turn up some answers eventually.

[Canuck]

Actually, I have been using Google. Unfortunately with no luck. I have read a thousand forums before finally coming here to ask, in my opinion, professionals for help (shameless kissup). I shall continue my reading exercises and continue on. Thanks anyway.

ps, I am getting used to XP but it sure is a pain in the butt sometimes.

[caliburn]

It seems to me that your looking in the wrong place.
You should be looking in "DVD/CD ROM Drives", not "IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers".

Caliburn

[jtor]

It seems to me that your looking in the wrong place.
You should be looking in "DVD/CD ROM Drives", not "IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers".

Caliburn

That's probably because you're using Win9x. He's using XP, so he should
look into IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers to enable DMA.

[khelms]

What do you have on your secondary IDE cable? Just the DVD drive? If so, it should show up as device 0 (master), not device 1 (slave). You didn't omit some vital info from your posting, like you moved the device from the primary channel to the secondary for performance, did you? If the DVD drive is the only thing on the secondary channel, you need to set the jumpers on it to make it the master device and not the slave.

[Canuck]

What do you have on your secondary IDE cable? Just the DVD drive?

Yes, the only thing on my secondary IDE is the DVD drive. My burner is a SCSI and my HD is by itself plugged into the Primary IDE. I never moved it and the jumpers are still on Master.

A helluva puzzle eh? After a week of trying to do the "right" thing, I just gave up. I removed my SCSI burner, my DVD and any software related to any of it. Left it for a day (only for me to cool down otherwise I would have destroyed my computer..lol.. ). I then re-installed everything one at a time. It seems to be working now. WinXP is a bit quirky for me but I refuse to let it beat me.

Thank you to everyone who has replied. I know it was not any easy puzzle.

[khelms]

I think you missed my point. If the DVD drive is the ONLY device on the secondary IDE channel, then the jumpers on it should be set to master. That XP screen capture you linked to shows something is the secondary slave device. I think you have the jumpers on your DVD drive set wrong. I'm surprised it works at all and that could be the source of your problems.

[Canuck]

I think you have the jumpers on your DVD drive set wrong. I'm surprised it works at all and that could be the source of your problems.

ummmmm...... well...that was the problem. I had my jumpers set wrong. Don't ask me how I missed it. I must have looked at that a hundred times (slight exageration). I guess when you look at the same thing over and over you start seeing what you expect to see instead of what is really there. I feel rather stupid.

Thank you khelms for making me look at it again. Now, when I go into the Device Manager it only shows one Secondary, and it is set at "Multi-Word DMA Mode 2". Everything works great. Time for this old man to get his glasses. Thank you again.