Hi, I've been having some problems with my Master CD-ROM drives. I have tried different IDE cables and different drives. Here's the problem: when I use my Master cd drive, installing software etc. it uses my cpu up completely. The computer slows down to a grind pretty much. In windows task manager the cpu usage bar jumps around from 80 to 20 to 100 percent, but usually hangs around closer to 100 percent. Now, my cd drive that is set as slave runs perfectly fine. The cpu usage only goes up to about 20 percent. Before I had both drives set on Cable select with the jumper, and then i actually tried setting them to master and slave but it didn't help. Then I went into my device manager to see what the transfer mode was. It was set on PIO instead of DMA, which i heard could cause problems. so i switched it to "DMA if available." but even after restarting and stuff it still says "current transfer mode: PIO mode" even though i have it selected as DMA. The slave drive however says "multi-word DMA mode 2 so i dont know. Can anyone help me with this problem?

Either your BIOS has gotten the DMA setting wrong (go see in BIOS setup and make sure it is enabled) or your hardware doesn't support it.

try removing the controller from device manager, then reboot. This will redetect it and should fix it. If not, it may not be supported as nodsu said.
I have yet to discover what causes it, but I see a lot of cases of the controller becoming set to PIO ffor no apparent reason, and apparently nobody touched any settings on the machines.

Well Rob

It's probably because your computer is extremely hoopty, and due to the fact that you built it yourself. Or maybe from the half dozen times its blown up, or most probably because Alex spilled something on it.... Well, even though your post is two years old, and i'm not sure, but you might even have a new computer... The fact remains... I know who you are, SharpshooterSVD... I remember you, from MOHAA, and Ghost Recon... and don't think I can't find you... Big Rob!!! MUHAHAHAHAHA! Lol, sup Mac?