DMA replaced by PIO

Gswiss · 06-17-2008, 09:26 AM

Running under XP-SP2, when we use a single disk, DMA is active and everything is fine.

When we connect a second physical disk as slave on the same Main IDE Channel, both switch to PIO.

We bought a new 80-connector ribbon and tried several different slave disks. No change.

FYI, both dvd readers are on secondary channel.

**manic** · 06-17-2008, 10:38 AM

Are the drives the same speed, ie ata100? If you put a slower
drive on the chain it will make the faster drive slower. In other
words you can only be as fast as the slowest ide drive on the
chain.
If thats not the case you should be able to manually adjust the
dma speed in bios.

dai · 06-17-2008, 01:51 PM

what brand is the master drive

Gswiss · 06-17-2008, 03:58 PM

Master is a one year old Western Digital 250 GB. We'll try another recent WD drive as a slave.

dai · 06-17-2008, 09:37 PM

when putting a slave on the same line as a wd master drive you have to set the jumper on the master
wd settings
single master=jumper removed
master with slave= jumper in that position
slave=jumper in that position

Gswiss · 06-18-2008, 07:28 AM

Thanks but the problem is not related to the jumpers. Disks are well recognized and operations work properly except that they're slow. Programs are on the second disk. They could not run if disk was not recognized.

dai · 06-18-2008, 09:46 AM

if you did not change the jumper on the wd master when adding the slave then the jumpers are wrong

Gswiss · 06-18-2008, 01:05 PM

Don't worry, my jumpers are correct. When the 1st disk is alone, I remove the jumper. When it's Master, I place it on the 2 middle pins of the 10-pin slot. On the slave disk, it occupies positions 3 and 4. (cf. att'm)

**manic** · 06-18-2008, 01:12 PM

As mentioned in prior post, are the drives the same speed?
Does bios give a option of changing the pio/dma status?

Gswiss · 06-20-2008, 10:24 AM

Yes, all WD drives are Caviars of the same generation bought less than 2 years ago.

The issue was solved a bit by chance. We went into the BIOS to see whether DMA could not be forced from there. As it turned out, we could not since we were faced with a Department Store Tower, nevertheless with a Gigabyte MB and AMI BIOS, going back to 5 or 6 years ago (Pentium 4, 1.7 Ghz).

It's at that point, in the BIOS, that we noticed that the two disks were set to User-defined. When we changed this to Auto, the problem was solved and everything was back to normal as it was before we ran into the defective connector issue which started all.

Thnaks to all for the suggestions which put us on the right track.

**manic** · 06-20-2008, 11:00 AM

Glad it worked out,,,,

06-17-2008, 09:26 AM	#1 (permalink)
Gswiss Registered User Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 113 OS: W98SE + W2k + XP	DMA replaced by PIO Running under XP-SP2, when we use a single disk, DMA is active and everything is fine. When we connect a second physical disk as slave on the same Main IDE Channel, both switch to PIO. We bought a new 80-connector ribbon and tried several different slave disks. No change. FYI, both dvd readers are on secondary channel.

06-17-2008, 10:38 AM	#2 (permalink)
manic Mod Hardware Team Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Florida Posts: 4,876 OS: xp	Re: DMA replaced by PIO Are the drives the same speed, ie ata100? If you put a slower drive on the chain it will make the faster drive slower. In other words you can only be as fast as the slowest ide drive on the chain. If thats not the case you should be able to manually adjust the dma speed in bios. __________________

06-17-2008, 01:51 PM	#3 (permalink)
dai Manager, Hardware Forums Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: west australia Posts: 53,599 OS: vista 32x 64x ultimate retail	Re: DMA replaced by PIO what brand is the master drive __________________

06-17-2008, 03:58 PM	#4 (permalink)
Gswiss Registered User Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 113 OS: W98SE + W2k + XP	Re: DMA replaced by PIO Master is a one year old Western Digital 250 GB. We'll try another recent WD drive as a slave.

06-17-2008, 09:37 PM	#5 (permalink)
dai Manager, Hardware Forums Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: west australia Posts: 53,599 OS: vista 32x 64x ultimate retail	Re: DMA replaced by PIO when putting a slave on the same line as a wd master drive you have to set the jumper on the master wd settings single master=jumper removed master with slave= jumper in that position slave=jumper in that position __________________

06-18-2008, 07:28 AM	#6 (permalink)
Gswiss Registered User Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 113 OS: W98SE + W2k + XP	Re: DMA replaced by PIO Thanks but the problem is not related to the jumpers. Disks are well recognized and operations work properly except that they're slow. Programs are on the second disk. They could not run if disk was not recognized.

06-18-2008, 09:46 AM	#7 (permalink)
dai Manager, Hardware Forums Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: west australia Posts: 53,599 OS: vista 32x 64x ultimate retail	Re: DMA replaced by PIO if you did not change the jumper on the wd master when adding the slave then the jumpers are wrong __________________

06-18-2008, 01:12 PM	#9 (permalink)
manic Mod Hardware Team Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Florida Posts: 4,876 OS: xp	Re: DMA replaced by PIO As mentioned in prior post, are the drives the same speed? Does bios give a option of changing the pio/dma status? __________________

06-20-2008, 10:24 AM	#10 (permalink)
Gswiss Registered User Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 113 OS: W98SE + W2k + XP	Re: DMA replaced by PIO Yes, all WD drives are Caviars of the same generation bought less than 2 years ago. The issue was solved a bit by chance. We went into the BIOS to see whether DMA could not be forced from there. As it turned out, we could not since we were faced with a Department Store Tower, nevertheless with a Gigabyte MB and AMI BIOS, going back to 5 or 6 years ago (Pentium 4, 1.7 Ghz). It's at that point, in the BIOS, that we noticed that the two disks were set to User-defined. When we changed this to Auto, the problem was solved and everything was back to normal as it was before we ran into the defective connector issue which started all. Thnaks to all for the suggestions which put us on the right track. Last edited by Gswiss; 06-20-2008 at 10:39 AM.

06-20-2008, 11:00 AM	#11 (permalink)
manic Mod Hardware Team Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Florida Posts: 4,876 OS: xp	Re: DMA replaced by PIO Glad it worked out,,,, __________________