Are you in PIO mode? You sure you're not?

PIO mode is a legacy method of transfering information to or from a disc drive. Hopefully, no one around here is using it as it will really cause you heightened CPU usage and slower transfer rates.

Thanks to one of MS's "features", you may be running in PIO mode and not even know it.

If windows detects that you are having trouble reading a disc it will automatically change your transfer mode back to PIO mode even if you have DMA selected. If it does this, you cannot change the mode back to DMA without going into device manager.

I had this problem with my plextor and to fix it I went into device manager, saw that I was in PIO mode, attempted to change it, rebooted, then got frustrated to see that it would not come out of PIO, so I just deleted the secondary IDE channel and restarted. When it came back on windows redetected and I was back into DMA mode like I belonged.

Now, going back to PIO mode to slow down disc access actually makes some sense because information is easier to retrieve when reading at slower rates... However being stuck there for good is awfully lousy. I may try to put up something on the frontpage to see if anyone is aware of another work around for this issue.

You can try this regedit.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\ Class\{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}\000x

"x" will be a different number. There may be several.

Under the keys, find these 2 values if they exist:

MasterIdDataChecksum
SlaveIdDataChecksum

Delete them if found. reboot.

what you'll want to watch for is the value "matchingdeviceid". Make sure that it is the right controller (primary or secondary) that has your optical devices before deleting those entries. No need to delete the primary id's if your drives are on secondary channel

Is this PIO Mode "feature" only a Windows XP thing or do all windows have it? My Sister's harddisk has been running in PIO Mode since about a week after I built the puter, 1 year ago. Would changing the OS to win 2000 fix it, if Know Nuttin's method dosn't work?

PIO mode is a legacy feature - its the oldest method of transfering information over the IDE/ATAPI interface - http://www.storagereview.com/guide2000/ref/hdd/if/ide/modesPIO.html

Try toggling the setting for transfer mode. Whatever setting it is at, change it and hit ok, then go back into properties and change it back to the setting it was at, hit ok - if this is not the setting you want it to be at, go back into properties again and change it to the proper setting.

Other than that, you should ensure the drive's jumper settings are correct - the proper settings are on the drive sticker or on the manufacturer's website. You should also ensure you are using an 80 wire IDE cable and not an old 40 wire cable.

Other than that, I have attached the article I am sending to the frontpage which contains some information which perhaps will give you something else to work off of if you still cannot solve your sisters problem.

Know Nuttin: Thanks for the advice, perhaps I will try that again some time, but for now I think I am done.

know nuttin's method works.

Thanks for the post DaBigJ. Can I ask if you tested it yourself or are you going on theory? It looks to me like it would work, but I haven't taken the chance to try it out yet.

My article should be up on OC.com on Friday. If I can test that before friday, I will resubmit the article with that information included - send me your real name VIA PM know nuttin and I'll give you credit for your contribution.

Could this have cause this problem I was having?
http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=344966

I had a piece of crap ECS K7S5A motherboard that ALWAYS went to bloody PIO mode, no matter how many times I set it back to DMA. Fortunately it bit the dust and now my Shuttle Nforce2 makes me very happy, no more PIO mode!

No need to credit me. Thanks for the offer though.

I.M.O.G. said:

Thanks for the post DaBigJ. Can I ask if you tested it yourself or are you going on theory? It looks to me like it would work, but I haven't taken the chance to try it out yet.

My article should be up on OC.com on Friday. If I can test that before friday, I will resubmit the article with that information included - send me your real name VIA PM know nuttin and I'll give you credit for your contribution.

Click to expand...

I used this method on Server 2003 and it worked just like it's supposed to. It should work exactly the same on XP too.

On 2000 it most likely works.
On NT 4.0 it might, probably does.

I am going to try know nuttin's method on Saturday when I visit my Sister. I will post back with results after then, though I am very confident. My sister will be very pleased that she will not to need to buy a new HDD or Motherboard, coz her refrigerator just died.

This should be a sticky! How many people have spent money on new hardware because of this "feature" (problim!!!) I wonder??

Where exactly does it say its in PIO mode? I couldn't find it or DMA on my drive. in device manager

under primary/secondary ide channels. Advanced settings. You may not have the same tabs if you have installed IDE drivers other than the MS.

There are photochopped pictures in the word document I attached 9mm, pretty ones. They'll show you right where to find the settings.

I really do not think this was the cause of your problem, though I can't rule it out.

On my system, a 1.5Ghz pally with 1.25GB ram and a plextor CDRW, when I was transfering CD's in PIO to my Maxtor diamondmax9 7200/8mb drive, the movie I was watching got so choppy, the words were fluid, but the video would update only every .75 seconds or so. It was like I was trying to multitask ten things at once... Back to DMA and no problem anymore.

I.M.O.G. said:

There are photochopped pictures in the word document I attached 9mm, pretty ones. They'll show you right where to find the settings.

I really do not think this was the cause of your problem, though I can't rule it out.

On my system, a 1.5Ghz pally with 1.25GB ram and a plextor CDRW, when I was transfering CD's in PIO to my Maxtor diamondmax9 7200/8mb drive, the movie I was watching got so choppy, the words were fluid, but the video would update only every .75 seconds or so. It was like I was trying to multitask ten things at once... Back to DMA and no problem anymore.

Click to expand...

Ok thanks. I have the nVidia driver thing, so its different

If you remove the nvidia driver thing do you still have the problem?

9mmCensor, go to Device Manager, expand ATA/ATAPI controllers and right click and select properties on the Primary or Secondary IDE Channel (below NVIDIA Nforce MCP2 IDE Controller), choose the "Avanced Settings" tab

I.M.O.G. said:

On my system, a 1.5Ghz pally with 1.25GB ram and a plextor CDRW, when I was transfering CD's in PIO to my Maxtor diamondmax9 7200/8mb drive, the movie I was watching got so choppy, the words were fluid, but the video would update only every .75 seconds or so. It was like I was trying to multitask ten things at once... Back to DMA and no problem anymore.

Click to expand...

Heck, in PIO mode for me, Winamp won't even play a song smoothly while opening Firefox

PIO mode == BAD At least it's easy to get back to DMA mode....

JigPu

JigPu said:

At least it's easy to get back to DMA mode....

Click to expand...

Hah, I used to think it was easy... but this was a pain. Once again it was cool again once I knew the appropriate process, but its more work than should be necessary thanks to another great MS "feature".

PCluva said:

9mmCensor, go to Device Manager, expand ATA/ATAPI controllers and right click and select properties on the Primary or Secondary IDE Channel (below NVIDIA Nforce MCP2 IDE Controller), choose the "Avanced Settings" tab

Click to expand...

This is what I get. Is something wrong?