topic Re: DMA problem in PCs & Accessories

DMA problem

Jarl60 — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 07:41:34 GMT

I have a Vaio FE11H notebook. I cannot get the DMA setting to stick on the ATA channel for the DVD/Cd drive. Keeps reverting to PIO. Have tried unistalling, etc. No luck. Any help appreciated!!

Re: DMA problem

Blencogo — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 08:19:46 GMT

Hi Jarl60,

Reverting to PIO mode is usually caused by your DVD drive encountering errors when transfering data. After a few consecutive errors, Windows decides that the drive can only work in PIO mode and greys out the UDMA option. This tends to happen with dirty or scratched discs - rented DVDs can cause this.

Have you tried Uninstalling the "Primary IDE Channel" in Device Manager and rebooting? You will find this under "IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers" in Device Manager. You need to uninstall it - disabling is not enough.

If this does not work, post back as the Registry may have to be edited.

Re: DMA problem

Jarl60 — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 11:59:39 GMT

Thanks for help. Have previously tried what you suggest; no dice.
Any further advice gratefully received.

Re: DMA problem

seb21__ — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 12:23:17 GMT

It could be a bad connection as well. The cable could be loosely or damaged.

Or a bad driver.