If you do a search in CD writer news groups, there are still discussion
about DMA mode on CDR-RW unit. it is a common problem.

So far as I know, I have very mixed experience. some drives won't work if
you enable DMA, some will read but not write with DMA, some work fine. if
your unit works fine with DMA enabled, you have no reason to worry, UDMA
won't offer more speed advantage since we are talking about CD drive here. I
can't tell you which brand doesn't work, since it will be against my
workplace (you can ask me privately, but not in public). but the only brand
I can trust (for CD writer) is Sony.

However, if you want to try something, depending on which chipset you are
using, you can download the latest driver (VIA 4in1, Intel inf, ALi
installation ... etc), it may help. but, win2k and mobo/BIOS will auto
detect from the drive firmware, which you can do nothing.

Jun Qian

----- Original Message -----
From: "Changhsu P. Liu" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, October 13, 2001 12:25 AM
Subject: [PCBUILD] CD-ROM runs in DMA instead of Ultra DMA mode?


> There is no visible problem with my CD-ROM (actually it's CD-RW/DVD
combo),
> but I'm curious why it's not running in ultra DMA mode.
> I have simplified my peripherals to only 4 devices (I took the IDE card
> out). 3 HDs and 1 CD-RW/DVD. Checking the advanced settings on Device
> Manager|IDE ATA/ATAPI controller, all 3 HDs' transfer mode are in Ultra
DMA
> while only this CD-RW/DVD is in DMA mode. I know it's better than PIO, but
> it would be better if it can run in ultra DMA mode. There is no place to
> set the mode except choosing "DMA if available" then the system
> automatically select it. Maybe in BIOS?

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