Turning DMA ON/OFF

[seeetu]

Hi, I like to know how DMA is turned ON or OFF.....Is there any way to do this or it is managed by the system.Because I have 3HDD(2IDE+1SATA), 1DVD-ROM & 1DVD-RW and ofcourse dual boot 2000+sp4 & XPSP2.From XPSP2 DMA is ON for all drives where as it is OFF for the DVD drives from 2000.I have checked this with "Nero Info Tool".I have not touched anything regarding DMA, just checked and asking here...

DMA in ON mode gives much faster performance result for copying/burning..


thanks;- seeetu.

 

[Sazar]

should be able to do it through windows/system properties/hardware and then in the list for all devices you should be able to right click on the HDD's and modify properties...

as with everything else... know what you are doing before clickin on big shiny buttons

 

[dreamliner77]

Some dvd-rom drives will only work in PIO mode if they are a) slave or b) sharing an IDE cable.

 

[Mr. K]

I believe DMA is controlled through modifying the settings of the particular IDE channel.

In Device Manager (Win+Pause/Break, click Device Manager), browse to your primary and secondary IDE channels (typically listed under 'IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers') and under their properties look at the 'Advanced Settings' tab. You'll have a 'Transfer Mode' menu for each device on the IDE channel; set it to 'DMA if available' and upon reboot it will run at the highest DMA mode it can.

If you do not have the option to change these, it may be because you have the Intel Application Accelerator installed, which I think automatically maximises your DMA setting (though don't quote me on that).

 

[Shamus MacNoob]

And in alot of cases can be forced in bios setting also.

 

[seeetu]

I checked all available option under win2000 pro, couldn't find DMA.So, I simply formated it and freshly installed WinXPSP1 and DMA is now ON for all devices.

BTW, Which one is mostly prefered by XP user.....sp1 or sp2?

seeetu.

 

[the_scotsman]

Most definately SP2!

 

[Kr0m]

meh, mine are stuck on PIO mode
In the bios the drives are set to auto.

 

[Kr0m]

whoa, nevermind. I just checked in device manager again and they're (2 drives) set to Ultra DMA mode 4 & 5.

 

[jsthrower]

MR K
Thanks for the mention of the Intel Accelerator in the DMA forumn. I was really confused to find I had No Advanced tabs in my device manager tonight, so I hit the internet to see why. You called it correctly. I installed a 250 G hard drive and was told I should install the Intel Accelerator. I went to All Programs/Intel Accelerator and clicked on it....BOOM...There was all the info that was missing for the device manager. THANKS A MILLION.