Req: Computer help - DMA & PIO modes

[Guest ferret]

When I watch a DVD or play a CD, it's really jumpy and jerks all over the place.

I had this problem before and it turns out that I had installed Nero Burning Rom and it changed the IDE bus thingy to PIO only instead of DMA if available. I uninstalled Nero changed the setting in Device Manager back to DMA if available and all was well. When looking at the properties my CD-RW drive was using DMA again.

I installed a newer version of Nero the other day to see if it worked - it didn't. So I uninstalled it, changed the setting back to DMA if available ... and it's still broke :) It always uses PIO and so my CDs and DVDs are unwatchable.

Any suggestions getting the CD drive to use DMA again?

[Guest Stuart P]

Might be a bit of a long shot, but try checking out your BIOS settings. Probably something like 'F2' or 'DEL' as the machine powers up to get into BIOS. Try exploring any options for your optical drive on your secondary IDE channel. It may be that DMA is disabled in the BIOS, resulting in it never being available for windows to use (enforcing PIO mode)

Stu

[Guest ferret]

Thanks, will give it a go.