Enable DMA for Plextor 12/10/32A in Win2k

[mrhair]

Hey all,
I heard that the newest firmware for the Plextor 12/10/32A CDRW finally let Windows 2000 put the drive in DMA mode. However, this is not the case for me, as my drive is still in PIO mode. It is the master on the seconday IDE channel with a Creative DVD drive as its slave. Could the DVD drive be the hindering factor here?
Asus P3B-F
AiW Radeon
SB Live!
External USB Modem (woohoO!

 

[AndyHui]

DMA mode for IDE devices are independent of other devices.

Have you put that jumper on the two reserved pins at the back of the drive to enable DMA operation?

You have set DMA if Available for that device under the IDE Channel in Device Manager, right?

 

[mrhair]

Yeah, actually, I've gone through tons of things to try to get DMA to work in Windows 2000, including some registry hacks. Every option in Windows is set right, but I've never heard about the jumper thing on the drive itself. Besides, DMA works great in Windows Millenium and 98, so that jumper must be set correctly eh?

 

[Davegod75]

not neccesarliy. Put a jumper on those two reserved pins and w2k will say umda mode. BTW ..what does it say on boot up?

 

[mrhair]

Where did you hear about that jumper setting?
And are you asking what the POST screens say about the Plextor? If so, if says it's running in mode 4 (PIO) but it has always said that.

 

[AndyHui]

The undocumented pins/jumper at the back of the drive allows for operation at UDMA mode 2....this can be seen at POST....rather than the PIO mode 4 speed.

 

[mrhair]

Thanks for the tip. I am wondering though, why DMA does not work automatically with Windows 2000 like it does with 98/ME?

 

[mrhair]

Like I said before, I also have a Creative DVD drive as the slave to my Plextor. Like the Plextor drive, the Creative runs in DMA mode in 98 and Millenium, but not in Windows 2000. Anyone having the same kind of troubles?

 

[mrhair]

I have a possible fix for the Plextor not using DMA mode in Windows 2000, and it does not involve using that jumper on the back of the drive. A Plextor tech support guy sent an email saying to set Secondary IDE devices to NONE in the system's BIOS. Apparently, my Asus P3B-F does not detect the Plextor drive ( or my DVD drive, for that matter ) as one that can use DMA mode 2, so it sets them as PIO Mode 4 devices. Therefore, if the BIOS is set to autodetect these optical devices, Windows 2000 will heed to the BIOS's settings, and it will put my devices in PIO mode only. By telling the BIOS that there are no devices on the secondary IDE channel, Windows 2000 will scan the IDE chain itself, and it should correctly detect the devices as capable of using DMA mode 2. I haven't been able to try this yet because I am not at home, but it sounds like it could be the fix I've been looking for.
Hope this works for some of the other people out there who are having the same problems.

mrhair