DMA, UDMA BIOS Settings

[Kubie]

In the BIOS, these are the choices for DMA settings for the drives:
SWDMA0
SWDMA1
SWDMA2
MWDMA0
MWDMA1
UDAM0
UDMA1
UDMA2
AUTO
The default setting is AUTO.
This is a ASUS P4P800 mobo. What is the best setting for cd-rom, cd-rw, and dvd-rom?
Carl

[RJ]

Today's optical devices all support Ultra DMA 33 (UDMA 2) or even Ultra DMA 66 (UDMA 3). Older drives might not support that, my PlexWriter 12/10/32A runs with Multiword DMA 2.

I'd set it to auto. You can check in device manager which DMA setting is being used. As long as it doesn't use PIO only it'll be fine.

RJ

[Kubie]

RJ,
Thanks for the reply.
I asked because W2K Dev. Mgr sure doesn't show it or I can't find it.
The other reason is because ATI DVD test says DVD may not have DMA enabled. So I was going to make the settings myself in the BIOS. They are all on AUTO at the moment.

Carl

[RJ]

The problem is Windows 2000 itself, it sets the devices to PIO by default, so unless you change it it will remain PIO.

To change the setting, go into device manager, IDE ATA/ATAPI Controller, double click on primary IDE channel, go to the advanced settings tab. There you can set the mode from "PIO only" to "DMA when available". You can also see the mode that is currently used.
Do that with all your optical devices. You probably need to reboot, and then, enjoy :)

RJ

[Kubie]

RJ,

Thanks much! I'll go there now!

Carl

[Kubie]

All the DMA settings are correct.
Guess I'll start from square one trying to get my DVD to work.
Thanks for your help RJ.
Carl

[RJ]

Hmm. Well, what exactly is the problem ? Does the playback software not work ? Is the playback jerky ?

When the drives are set to use DMA then there should be no problems. If ATI software says DMA might not be enabled then it is wrong, as you've checked that it is enabled. But what is the problem now ?

RJ

[Kubie]

RJ,

This is the first thread:

http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=69039

Since then, I've d/l'd the latest drivers. I now have sound but the ATI DVD Compatibility test warning says, "Sound card with clock stability -0.59% and DMA for DVD may not be enabled".
DMA is enabled.
A DVD movie started to play and when the credits were finished for the start of the movie, the move stopped and a popup box came up and said " The graphics card drivers need to be updated".
I guess thats it. I would think my radeon would play dvd with the latest drivers.
Carl