Re: HOW DO YOU ENABLE DMA FOR HARD DISK?

From: Alex Nichol (alexn.mvpdts_at_ntlworld.delete.com)
Date: 12/12/04 

Date: Sun, 12 Dec 2004 12:39:37 +0000

MikeFadd wrote:

>I use ATI's Multimedia Center to watch TV on my computer. I just installed
>the programs from a CD I have, and when I clicked on the TV button which then
>led me to setting everything up, I received the following message:
>
>-----------
>Personal Video Recorder and TV-on-Demand Performance will be degraded on
>this system as DMA for the hard disk is not enabled.
>
>Please check the Syetm Settings in the Windows Control Panel for the
>following Devices:

If using standard MSoft drivers for the hard disk, go to
Control Panel - System - Hardware - Device Manager
and look under IDE ATA/ATAPI Disk controllers
for the Primary channel - double click and look on Advanced Settings

(If you use third party drivers, like Intel Application Accelerator, or
VIA 4 in 1 this will not be there - these assume DMA no matter what)

In the upper pane it should have 'Use DMA if available' selected. -
lower one is the slave device, probably CD. Secondary channel is for
the devices on the second controller and cable

If in spite of that it is on PIO it means that there is a hardware fault
(possibly wrong cabling) that has generated unacceptable levels of
errors and it has fallen back. Possible example are not using an 80
wire UDMA cable; or having the drive plugged in to the middle connector
of the cable, with the end free or going to a CD that does not terminate
it properly.

After putting that right, go back to Device manager, and highlight the
top level controller, just above Primary channel; Action - Remove,
accept OK out and reboot for PnP to start over 

-- 
Alex Nichol MS MVP (Windows Technologies)
Bournemouth, U.K.  Alexn@mvps.D8E8L.org (remove the D8 bit)