DMA and K7T266

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.msi-microstar (More info?)

I would be very grateful for any help with this problem.

I've just upgraded my DVD recorder, but it doesn't seem to like the
DMA 4 setting automatically assigned to it. The old recorder worked
on DMA 2.

I'm running XP, but I can't find a way of forcing the system to change
to DMA 2.

If anyone can help me with doing this throught the BIOS I'd be very
grateful.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Helen

 

[Don]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.msi-microstar (More info?)

Helen Wheels wrote:
> I would be very grateful for any help with this problem.
>
> I've just upgraded my DVD recorder, but it doesn't seem to like the
> DMA 4 setting automatically assigned to it. The old recorder worked
> on DMA 2.
>
> I'm running XP, but I can't find a way of forcing the system to change
> to DMA 2.
>
> If anyone can help me with doing this throught the BIOS I'd be very
> grateful.
>
> Thanks in advance for any help.
>
> Helen
>
Try:

Settings > Control Panel > System

When the System Properties window pops up:

Hardware > Device Manager

Find IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers in the list

When you open this you should have something that says:

Parallel ATA Controller

Right click on it and a new window will open with the options Primary
Channel and Secondary Channel. Click on these tabs until you see the DVD
drive in the list.

From here, you can adjust the DMA type. Just uncheck the Let BIOS
Select Transfer Mode box.

Don

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.msi-microstar (More info?)

Hi Don

Thanks for your advice. In device manager I can only view the DMA
setting, there is no option to change it. I can't find where to
change it in the BIOS/CMOS settings - don't even know if it's
possible. The manual's been no help.

However, when I look at system devices, although it doesn't flag a
problem there is a device "direct memory access controller" which
doesn't have a driver installed. There is no exclamation mark next to
it or any sign it isn't working. Should there be a driver for this?
It reports it's on the PCI to ISA bridge, which seems to be working OK
and has a driver installed.

Any help/ideas much appreciated.

Many thanks

Helen

 

[Don]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.msi-microstar (More info?)

Helen Wheels wrote:
> Hi Don
>
> Thanks for your advice. In device manager I can only view the DMA
> setting, there is no option to change it. I can't find where to
> change it in the BIOS/CMOS settings - don't even know if it's
> possible. The manual's been no help.
>
> However, when I look at system devices, although it doesn't flag a
> problem there is a device "direct memory access controller" which
> doesn't have a driver installed. There is no exclamation mark next to
> it or any sign it isn't working. Should there be a driver for this?
> It reports it's on the PCI to ISA bridge, which seems to be working OK
> and has a driver installed.
>
> Any help/ideas much appreciated.
>
> Many thanks
>
> Helen

When you look at the properties for the IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers >
Parallel ATA Controller and find the channel with your DVD drive listed,
uncheck the box "Let BIOS select transfer mode". From there, you should
be able to select the transfer mode from a list. That list is normally
greyed out and won't let you change it unless you uncheck that one box
first.

I went through a similar situation where my BIOS wasn't correctly
identifying DMA on my Seagate Barracuda HDD.

The DMA controller was a separate unit in the old 8086 days, but now it
and most everything else is integrated into your mobo's chipset. The
system board drivers would have the supporting software to make use of
it, so you won't necessarily find a DMA driver in your list.

Don

 

[Don]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.msi-microstar (More info?)

I did a quick online check and found a manual for your board and BIOS.

The settings for the AMI BIOS don't allow setting the DMA mode, so it
will definitely need to be done in Windows.

BTW, since you have the VIA chipset, do you have the VIA Hyperion
drivers installed?

Don

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.msi-microstar (More info?)

Don

Thank you for your help and advice - much appreciated.

I tried the drivers and none of them sorted the problem. I changed
the DVD to a TDK and now it works great! There seem to be issues with
the plextor in all kinds of systems, which is a great shame.

Thanks again

Helen

 

[Don]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.msi-microstar (More info?)

Helen Wheels wrote:
> Don
>
> Thank you for your help and advice - much appreciated.
>
> I tried the drivers and none of them sorted the problem. I changed
> the DVD to a TDK and now it works great! There seem to be issues with
> the plextor in all kinds of systems, which is a great shame.
>
> Thanks again
>
> Helen
>
>

Good that you got things worked out in the end.

Too bad about having to change the drive though, I wonder if Plextor had
a firmware upgrade you could have flashed to update the drive.

In any case, a working drive is a happy drive 🙂