Inspiron E1505, TSSTCorp DVD+-RW TS-L632D stuttering

Question

A couple weeks ago, I noticed that when I have a CD or DVD in my Drive, and the computer is actively accessing it, all audio and video (to a lesser extent) becomes stuttered, skipping an eigth of a second every second or so. Video plays more seamlessly, though something does appear to be wierd about it. As soon as the CD or DVD is left alone (ie. all programs actively using it are closed) then audio and video stored on the Hardrive or off the internet plays normally. When the drive is being accessed, ALL audio and video is effected, be it from CD, DVD, Harddrive, Flash Drive, or Internet. My CD/DVD drive is a: TSSTCorp DVD+-RW TS-L632D I bought the machine in early August, 2006. Audio card: SigmaTel High Definition Audio CODEC I've heard something about changing the Current Transfer Mode of the Secondary IDE Channel from PIO to DMA. And tired it, and don't think it worked. It might after I restart my computer, but I'm working right now. If it starts working, I'll let you know... Any other suggestions though? I've also heard that I need to have the drive replaced, but I really don't want to have to send in my laptop because of the frequency with which I use it (every day). Thank you, Morgan Dumitru

bacillus · Answer

if your settings for your optical drive are ideal then this is what you should see in device manager.

morgandumitru · Answer

That is what I see, except that 'Ultra DMA Mode 2' appears under 'current transfer mode' for Device 1 as well as for Device 0.

morgandumitru · Answer

I figured the problem out. The first suggestion I got and tried, and the one you just commented on works. You just have to restart your computer after you change everything around. ;)

Thanks for your help, whomever first made the suggestion (I forget who it was).

Speedmonster185 · Answer

My computer is doing the EXACT same thing as that, I got in in mid-July, 2006, and it has the same dvd drive and sound card. Weird. I was excited when I saw that you fixed it so I went to change my settings too, but they are already like that. I don't have any idea what's wrong. Anybody have any other ideas?

Thanks :)

N1kolas · Answer

I have XPS M1210 core 2 duo 2.0 ghz.  It's stuttering, too.  It's so irritating and annoying.  I have had Inspiron 300m and Inspiron 3000 running on WinDVD it was smooth as silk.  Once I get hold of WinDVD I'll let you all know

N1kolas · Answer

My Nero Ultra 6 cannot recognize the TSST DVD +-RW TS-L632D.  According to Dell tech support it's not supported.  WHAT???  I went to TSST website.  I believe they support Nero because the Nero logo, among others, is there.  I looked for a firmware TS-L632D is not listed.  HEEEEELPPPPP!!!!!!!

goyall · Answer

To my astonishment, I found that the drive in my notebook is not listed under the service tag that accompanies my notebook...   Does it mean that this drive wasn't meant to be in this notebook??

DoomedFromTheSt · Answer

I've got the Inspiron 6400 and am encountering the same stuttering issues. Purchased it in August 2006 and it's also got the exact same dvd drive and sound card. I find it only stutters on DVDs though and not on CDs. The Secondary IDE Channel settings are already set as described above.

Any ideas? Seems that there are quite a few people with the exact same problem :(

Sonoftheking · Answer

I had the same problem on my E1505 bought in 8/06, Dell support told me I needed to play DVD's using 'Sonic CD Player', instead of the one the system was defaulting to, they were working on my system remotely so I don't know how they did it but is works now.

goyall · Answer

'Working on your system remotely'... what does that mean??

lil_one · Answer

How do you change the device 0 , current transfer mode? I can't click on it. Mine says PIO mode still even though I've changed the transfer mode to DMA if available

Kaveram · Answer

I too had this problem, but through some frantic web searching I found the answer to most of your questions. I recommend trying this:

Alternative Method—Uninstalling the Port
1. Uninstall the secondary IDE port

To do that, open Device Manager as follows. Right-click on My Computer, select Properties, click on the Hardware tag, click on the Device Manager button, click on the plus sign to the left of IDE ATA/ATAPI Controller, right-click on Secondary IDE Channel, click on Uninstall. Deactivating is not enough.

Reboot to make the changes active and permanent.

After booting Windows will automatically reinstall the IDE channel and the DVD (or CD) drive. This Plug-n-Play process can take a little while, so give it a minute after the boot process finishes.
2. Reactivate DMA

But this is not enough, because unfortunately Windows does not automatically activate DMA on a DVD or CD drive. You have to tell Windows to try to use DMA first.

For that, go to Device Manager again. Right-click on My Computer, select Properties, click on the Hardware tag, click on the Device Manager button, click on the plus sign to the left of IDE ATA/ATAPI Controller, double-click on the secondary IDE channel, click on Extended Settings and change the relevant setting from PIO only to DMA when available.

On Windows NT and 2000 you now have to reboot a second time, but Windows XP applies the change instantly. Then you can go to the same place in Device Manager again and check whether the device is now actually using DMA mode. If so, all is well.

Note that many CD and DVD drives only use UDMA-2, because their data rate is much lower than that of a hard disk. This is normal and no reason to worry.
3. Driver is not intended for this platform

If you keep getting the following error message, please read on:

There is a problem installing this hardware.

IDE channel

An error occurred during the installation of the device. Driver is not intended for this platform.

2005-03-30 – Johannes B. wrote: The reason for this error is often that Daemon Tools or Alcohol 120% are installed. In this case the solution described below would not work. But when you uninstall these programs and then restart Windows, it will then install the device drivers without any further problems.

If these programs are not installed, then one possible way out is to rename C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\atapi.sys (or a similar path on your computer) to something like atapi.old.

If that's not possible, you can try it from the repair console (boot from the Windows install CD and select the repair console).

If Windows always automatically recreates atapi.sys, you can try renaming it in safe mode or from a command line window or you can try to rename or remove it in the driver cache as well.

It's all from this site: http://winhlp.com/WxDMA.htm There's also a registry editor method as well.

lil_one · Answer

Hi Thanks for replying!   I figured it out. Under the utilities section for the dell forum, you can download a PIO to DMA thing. (I'm not very computer savy). I did that and ran the .exe, rebooted my computer and it worked! :)

a_rosebud · Answer

I've got the same problem except the Transfer Mode is already set to 'DMA if available' but the Current Transfer Mode says 'Not applicable' instead of Ultra DMA Mode 2.

I tried changing it to 'PIA Only', rebooting, and then changing back to 'DMA if available', with another reboot, but it made no difference. I also tried uninstalling the port and rebooting but it reinstalled with the same settings.

Has anyone got any other ideas?

Thanks.

The machine is a brand new Inspiron 1501

CD/DVD drive: TSSTCorp DVD+-RW TS-L632D
Audio card: SigmaTel High Definition Audio CODEC

davejohn · Answer

If it says 'Not Applicable' you're looking at the wrong IDE channel.  Not Applicable means nothing is attached.   Dave

Storage, Drives & Media

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