DMA (Direct Memory Access) should always be turned on. It will speed up your ability to get data from the hard drive to the processor.

Dell Demension 8400
3.0GHz P4 processor
250 GB SATA HD
ATI 300SE PCI Express Video Card
1901FP 19" Flat Panel
NIC card
DVD+RW 16X Drive
DVD ROM drive
56K Modem
Windows XP SP2 OS
1 GB DDR2 533MHz memory
Sound Blaster Audilogy Sound Card

Dell XPS T850r
512 MB RAM
Nvidia GeForce 3 Video card
20 GB IDE HD
30 GB IDE HD
17" Quantex CRT Monitor
NIC Card
DVD-/+RW 16x
CD-RW Drive
Sound Blaster Live Audio
Windows XP SP2 OS

Dell Inspiron 8100
1.13 Pentium III M processor
512 MB Ram
30 GB HD
15" Screen
DVD Rom Drive
CD-RW 8X Drive
Linksys Wireless Adapter
Windows XP SP2 OS

All systems networked using Linksys Wireless Router.

Thanks Nascar,   In my bios (A09) under integrated devices the on/off option for IDE drive UDMA is turned off.  It should be on right?   I know in my original post I put DMA and should have said UDMA.

http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/if/ide/modesUDMA-c.htm
Visit this site and get information about Ultra DMA. You should turn this on in BIOS as it newer and enhanced version of DMA.

Thanks