I want PIO mode but the option suddenly doesn't exist

Not sure what I did, but suddenly my computer has decided that my ATAPI DVD
ROMs are now ATA devices, and I can't run any of my CDs/DVDs. Going into
Device Manager doesn't help. I now just have a generic "dual channel PCI IDE
controller" where before I had two channels with settings I could change.

Any suggestions would be helpful. This is an AMD X2 processor, and the
motherboard is an nForce4 Ultra chipset board. I've loaded the latest
chipset drivers from NVIDIA but they don't change a thing. Is it time for a
new board, a format, or is there a fix?

Thanks in advance...

 

Just a stab in the dark, but ... you could try forcing a re-detection of the
device.

Run Device Manager and highlight the DVD ROM drive. Then right-click and
choose Uninstall. This should remove the device from the registry. Then go
to the Action menu, and choose "Scan for Hardware changes" to detect teh
device. This "should" create fresh entries for the device, based on the
hardware detection. If you want to be really bolshie about it, reboot the
machine after you uninstall the device and before you do the hardware
detection.

If it gets recreated as the same ATA device, then ... sorry, I dunno. Other
folks may have additional (or better) ideas.

Hope it helps a bit,

 

Thanks, Andrew. That wasn't it, but just messing around I noticed that the
one thing I COULD do on those drives was uncheck the DMA access box. I did
that, and I got PIO mode. I have no idea what I did to change it in the
first place, and someday I will have to graduate to SATA stuff, but for now
I'm stuck with the standard wide cable gear.

In any case thanks for getting back to me. Taught me a trick -- I have
ALWAYS uninstalled and then rebooted, and never knew about the
Action/Hardware Changes thing. That in itself was a great answer.

 

Cool! Glad it was somewhat useful.

Cheers,

 

mmm not sure why your cds/dvds wont run, but i can tell you for sure that
the drive will be much faster with dma turned on

(somebody correct me if i am wrong, just extracting from my memory not from
a chart)
pio less than 4 -> dont even bother about them
pio 4 -> 16mb/s
ultra dma -> 33mb/s
ultra dma 2 -> 66mb/s
ultra dma 3 -> 100mb/s
ultra dma 4 -> 133mb/s
ultra dma 5 -> 150mb/s
sata -> 185mb/s (1.5 gbps)
sata 2 -> 370mb/s (supposedly, 3gbps)
of course, theorical numbers which you never will actually reach

typically, cdrom drives will be in udma2

 

This is the first time I've ever seen anyone actually wanting PIO mode. The
question is usually "help, I'm stuck in PIO mode"!!

 

[email protected]!

I need to enable DMA mode on my DVD drives but it is greyed out!!!
The only device in my IDE channel is ATAPI CD-ROM and it is in PIO4 mode.
I can't run any securom-enabled software until I fix this...

Suggestions?

Rig in "About Me"
Vista Home Premium 64 2xDVD-RW IDE

 

Take a look at the following:
http://www.securom.com/message.asp?m=copy&c=4001

 

Yeah, I'm sure that helped him.
I've experienced this before & you need to go into the registry and force
DMA. After so many errors the DMA "degenerates" until it eventually resorts
back to PIO mode.
http://club.cdfreaks.com/f61/troubl...cking-dma-windows-vista-xp-2000-me-9x-101616/
That should help you check it out.