Not sure what a message means, need advice

[razz]

Recently I purchased a new LG CD/DVD ROM and installed it on my computer. With this purchase came a CD with Nero Express and Nero 7 essentials.

I already have and use Ashampoo (which I really like) but I wanted to check out this CD. After install I ran the program and the following message appeared:

This application has detected that your drive is not in DMA (direct memory access) mode. To improve your system performance we suggest you enable DMA for all drives, Do you wish to run Nero DMA Manager to enable DMA mode right now?

 

I have no idea what DMA is and certainly no idea if my drives should be in this mode. You guys are very clever on this forum and I was hoping someone would know whether I should enable DMA or just leave things as they are. My PC is certainly running very well right now

[hazelnut]

Have a look here razz

 

http://www.onthegosoft.com/dma_setting_nt.htm

 

Mine are set to DMA mode.

[YoKenny]

I have the same LG CD/DVD and it is on the Secondary IDE interface in DMA mode

 

 

I don't like anything from Ashampoo as they are too spammy for my liking.

[DennisD]

Ashampoo Burning Studio is the only program I use from them, and I agree with you Ken about the spam, but it's far superior to the bloated Nero rubbish which comes shipped with LG drives.

 

I couldn't get rid of them quick enough, and it was quick, as I thankfully tried them under Returnil.

 

Stick with Ashampoo is my twopenneth.

 

Just a bit of insight for you about DMA razz. If your CD/DVD drives ever start to act up, like running slow, making crackling and popping noises, using a lot of CPU resource, it usually means that for some inexplicable reason, the drive/s have reverted to PIO mode, although they may still be showing DMA as in Kens screenshot.

 

That's when you'll need to uninstall the secondary IDE Controllers and reboot, allowing Windows to reinstall them properly into DMA mode. That's what happened to one of my DVD drives some time ago.

 

It's explained well in that exellent link from hazel, but I thought it useful to describe some of the symptoms of a drive being in PIO mode.

[Corona]

I just looked at my IDE properties and the primary is set to DMA. The secondary is set to PIO. Are these referring to my 2 disc players? The top one (M drive) is a CD RW. The bottom one (N drive) is a DVD player (no write). Should I have them both set to DMA?

[hazelnut]

Both of mine are set to DMA mode Corona if that's of any help.

 

Also I must agree with Dennis about Ashampoo Burning Studio. Very infrequently I get an email from them, that's all.

 

It's the best burning software I have used and causes no conflicts whatsoever on my system.

[YoKenny]

This is from my XP Pro system

 

 

Make sure that you use good quality Ultra DMA (80-Conductor) IDE/ATA cables and purchase good quality CD-RW or DVD-RW CDs for reliability.

 

The DVD player is Device 1 ( slave ) and the CD player is Device 0 ( master )

 

I like CDBurnerXP

What is CDBurnerXP?

CDBurnerXP is a free application to burn CDs and DVDs, including Blu-Ray and HD-DVDs. It also includes the feature to burn and create ISOs, as well as a multilanguage interface. Everyone, even companies, can use it for free. It does not include adware or similar malicious components.

http://cdburnerxp.se/en/home

[Andavari]

Another enabling DMA guide is here which I've used for years. You definitely want to get that drive working in DMA mode as PIO mode is s**t.

 

A drive can go into PIO mode when there's many errors on a CD/DVD - it's an annoying anti-feature on WinXP that I wish never existed.

[Corona]

Done. Secondary is now in DMA mode.

But like I asked earlier, does Primary and Secondary refer to my CD (upper) and DVD (lower) drives?

[YoKenny]

Done. Secondary is now in DMA mode.

But like I asked earlier, does Primary and Secondary refer to my CD (upper) and DVD (lower) drives?

It has to do with addressing on the IDE bus:

http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/if/ide/confJumpering-c.html

[razz]

Another enabling DMA guide is here which I've used for years. You definitely want to get that drive working in DMA mode as PIO mode is s**t.

 

A drive can go into PIO mode when there's many errors on a CD/DVD - it's an annoying anti-feature on WinXP that I wish never existed.

I checked and my primary is Ultra DMA Mode 6 ...YAY! Good!...but my secondary is PIO Mode I followed instructions as to how to change it to DMA but it's not working. According to here (link that Andavari provided) it states the following:

 

check your BIOS settings. Make sure you have Ultra DMA enabled, or if they are in PIO only mode. Change them to Auto DMA or something similiar. It tends to be very BIOS specific.

.

My question is: what is the best way to check your BIOS settings? Who knows, that may be my problem even though you would think if that was the case then my primary would also be in PIO mode.

[hazelnut]

Razz did you give the ''what do I do if this doesn't work '' a try in my link in post number 2?

 

That worked for me after I uninstalled Nero a few years ago and only pio mode would show.

[YoKenny]

How to get into your computer's BIOS:

http://www.cyberwalker.com/article/28

 

Like I said before I dumped all the Nero software and now use CDBurnerXP.

 

I would make sure that the IDE cables are of high quality and are plugged into the drives in the correct sequence as having the cable plugged reversed could cause the symptoms you indicate.

 

Connector Assignments and Color Coding: For the first time, the 80-conductor cable defines specific roles for each of the connectors on the cable; the older cable did not. Color coding of the connectors is used to make it easier to determine which connector goes with each device:

Blue: The blue connector attaches to the host (motherboard or controller).

Gray: The gray connector is in the middle of the cable, and goes to any slave (device 1) drive if present on the channel.

Black: The black connector is at the opposite end from the host connector and goes to the master drive (device 0), or a single drive if only one is used.

http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/if/ide/conf_Cable80.htm

 

Make sure that each drive has the small jumper in its correct place and that there is a jumper as not having one installed leaves the drive susceptible to its lowest performance capability:

http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/op/jump_IDE.htm

[razz]

Razz did you give the ''what do I do if this doesn't work '' a try in my link in post number 2?

 

That worked for me after I uninstalled Nero a few years ago and only pio mode would show.

Hi Hazelnut, ty for your link. Within the page of that link you supplied there is the following chart:

Drive letter IDE ATA/ATAPI controller Device

C:\ Primary 0

D:\ Primary 1

E:\ Secondary 0

F:\ Secondary 1

 

Does this not mean that the secondary controller is assigned to F:drive? ... in which case I don't need to worry because my concern is my D:drive which, according to the chart, is assigned the Primary controller. In my case, my Primary is in Ultra DMA mode. Am I missing something? This stuff is confusing for me and I appreciate all the help I have received from everyone on this forum.

[Andavari]

Primary is what hard disks are assigned. Secondary is what your CD/DVD drives will be assigned and which can very easily get downgraded to PIO mode when using discs with many read-errors.

 

Since it's so easy for a CD/DVD drive to get stuck in PIO mode especially after using a disc with read-errors it's something you need to occasionally look at to make sure it's in the preferred DMA mode.