CD-RW problems

[Static-GR]

"Additionally, if you have DMA enabled for your drives in your bios, disable it. Sometimes that causes problems."

I've always heard to make sure DMA is ENABLED for maximum performance. I know that on my old 450Mhz machine, my 12x CD-RW drive would produce buffer underruns unless DMA was enabled. I know that all the reviews of CD-RW drives always say "enable DMA", etc... Is this different for XP or something?

 

[daddyo]

I had to disable it on my machine to get by some problems.

But I'm running an old amd K6-233 processor. On newer machines it might not matter. If it slows you down just re-enable it. Everybody's experience differs somewhat.

 

[jimkes]

.......Make sure you disable WinXP's native burning feature......

.... so how do I do that bit? I have looked for a way but been unable to find one. I've also looked at my BIOS settings and can't find a simple enable/disable DMA reference anywhere.
Thanks again guys for your continued efforts!! Have a virtual Scotch on me (a Scottish exile in England!)

 

[daddyo]

My DMA was located in my AMD bios...

There may also be a setting in your system properties somewhere. Since I'm not at my home computer, I can't search for it right now. At work, we're locked out of the registry and the bios. Darn IT people won't let us even change the refresh rate on the monitors.

Keep looking or post another message. Maybe someone knows where it's located on your system. It would be helpful to know what your system is.

 

[jimkes]

I looked in the BIOS (ie pushed DEL on startup and went through all the options) - still couldn't see it.

Here goes on info about my machine:

Processor x86 Family 6 Model 4 Stepping 4 AuthenticAMD ~1410 Mhz (AMD Athlon)

BIOS Version/Date Award Software, Inc. ASUS A7A266 ACPI BIOS Revision 1004, 30/04/2001
SMBIOS Version 2.3

Channel 2 Standard floppy disk controller OK
Channel 3 ECP Printer Port (LPT1) OK
Channel 4 Direct memory access controller OK

I have 256Mb RAM and I run Zonealarm Pro and Norton Antivirus 2002 - latest versions of each.

Does this help?

 

[jimkes]

....sorry - forgot..

..... Pioneer DVD-ROM DVD-116
and a TEAC CD-W 512EB...

 

[daddyo]

Well, I think we've beaten the DMA topic to death...

Maybe someone else out there has more info for you. This well is dry. Sorry I couldn't help.

 

[Khayman]

to enable/disable dma goto device manager, locate your ide controlers and right click. select properties then advance settings. change transfer mode to DMA if avaliable

 

[XeoNoX]

GJ

 

[Flatulator]

Include me in this group of disgruntled CD RW owners and XP. I've got an old HP 7200i that IS supported by XP. I can read CD's but no way will it burn. I've tried all software - Nero, CDRWIN, Clone CD, and some obscure one from the HP website. I've installed the recommended XP ASPI layer exactly as per instructions. Everytime I try to burn my machine hangs.

Microsoft blew this one BIG time. This burner has worked flawlessly for 4 years under WIN98. I refuse to buy another burner just because they can't get their act together with XP.

Any suggestions??

 

[Flatulator]

After re-reviewing many of the fine posts here, I disabled my DMA on the burner and am now off to the races!

I think it was Daddyo's post that specified it.. A big thank you!

 

[daddyo]

Glad it worked out for you, flatulator.

It worked for me also. Got a brand new plextor 16x10x40 to work again. I thought I had a dead drive until I disabled the DMA.