DMA on DVD Drive

Question

I have a 4700 and I have installed a GeForce FX 5500 (128 megs) for a little bit of gaming.  The games run fine, but the video played off the drive is veeery choppy.  I asked in another forum and I was told to make sure DMA is on.  I went to properties and there isn't an option for DMA on either of my cd-roms.  Is there anything that I can do?  Why don't I have the option of using DMA?  It seems that if my pc is fast enough to play the games, the dvd player should be.  What's the deal?

osprey4 · Answer

Sorry, I'll go step by step so you know where to look. Go to Start, right click My Computer (that means you click the right button), and from the menu, select Properties. The System Properties dialog box will appear. Click the tab called Hardware. You'll see a button called Device Manager. Click that and the Device Manager box will appear.

Still with me? Click the little plus sign next to IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers, and find the controller that your ATAPI devices (CD or DVD devices) are attached to. Right click that controller and select Properties. One of the tabs will list the transfer mode for that controller.

Post back and tell me what you see.

ijoeblackl · Answer

I have looked everywhere and I don't see anything regarding the cdrom's and dma or anything.  Can my cdroms just not use dma, and why not?

Daddyjaxx · Answer

Under IDE Controllers, look for this:

osprey4 · Answer

The transfer mode, whether DMA or PIO, is found under IDE controller properties. If you have the Intel Application Accelerator installed, it will be found in Control Panel under Administrative Tools.

Predator · Answer

Joe,To add with John`s, click on thew CD/RW link in my post and scroll to Section 15, articles 14 & 17, please use theseBest Regards God, grant me the senility to forget the people I never liked anyway, the good fortune to run into the ones I do and the eyesight to tell thedifference. CD/RW Link

ijoeblackl · Answer

ok guys, i went to the window that was shown.  I don't have anything that reads secondary ide; i have two primary ide channels and they are both set on autodetect.  the first reads dma ultra and the other reads pio only.  i don't know if either of them are the cd rom drives.  i cant change the autodetect option or the pio only option,

osprey4 · Answer

Go back through Jeff's article and see if anything helps: http://www.the-predator.com/dell/detect.html#1-0-14

DELL-Cares · Answer

Hi there, We want to make sure your system is working fine and hence following up. Having said that, we do not want to disturb you with numerous messages. We will wait to hear from you to continue the conversation.

Storage, Drives & Media

DMA on DVD Drive

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