DMA and PIO problems

[Lexstan]

Hi:
I'm new here. Just found the place info on a problem I'm having that just cropped up.
I have Western Digital and Seagate hard drives installed on my computer. Recently I added the ATI Wonder TV pro card to the system.
All was fine in the beginning. Now, when I access the TV or TV Record features, I get a message that tells me the TV feature doesn't work because "DMA is not enabled on the WD hard drive" (Main Drive). I check device manager and see that, even though the advanced tab has Use DMA if available on the Primary IDE, PIO is the mode it's in...
When I try to change it, the drive stays in PIO mode. Where can I find something to keep it in Ultra DMA mode and what has caused this to happen?

Thanks in advance,
Lexstan

 

[Nodsu]

What Windows version do you have? Windows 2000 had a bug that didn't enable DMA on some controllers even if it was available.

Do you have DMA enabled in BIOS?

Windows disables DMA when it detects data corruption on the IDE channel. Make sure your IDE cable is a good one and securely plugged in.

Have you installed the drivers for your chipset or do you have some generic ones Windows decided to use?

 

[Lexstan]

I'm running Windows XP Home with SP2 installed... I believe I have DMA set in the bios because it WAS working properly. Is there a way to turn off PIO?
I should probably get the specific drivers for the hard drives, shouldn't I? I didn't know there were drivers specific to hard drives...

Lexstan

 

[Nodsu]

You cannot turn off PIO - this is the ground level failsafe mode of operation.
There are no drivers for hard drives. There are drivers for IDE controllers.
Do look over your IDE cables. They work themselves loose sometimes.