DVD Drive in PIO Mode - Doesn't want to go to DMA

Per the title and screenshot - I've set it to DMA mode if able and rebooted, but it still is in PIO mode. This is a problem because it means DVD playback is choppy. The problem is definitely with the DVD drive - everything else is regular speed, including video if it is on my hard drive or streaming from the Net. How might I get it to go back to DMA mode (it used to play full-speed)?

 

Sounds like your IDE channels might have dropped to PIO mode, instead of DMA. (This is a "feature" in WinXP.)

Go into device manager and look at the Primary and Secondary IDE channels. Under the advanced tab, see what mode you're in. If it says PIO you'll need to uninstall the drives and let Windows find them again (resetting it to DMA if available won't do it).

If WinXP has trouble reading a disc more than a couple times it permanently lowers the mode to PIO. Uninstalling and reinstalling the drives is the only way to get a fresh start. Once the drives have been re-detected, you may have to go back and manually set the "DMA if available" option.



Hope this helps,
-Gophn

 

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KB817472

 

Thanks! That fixed it. I wanted to double-check here before uninstalling that just in case it would uninstall the hard drive as well or something like that - never uninstalled anything from Device Manager before other than a video card. Sure enough it worked.