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CD/DVD Rom? - Please help



 
 
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  #21  
Old May 20th 05, 12:18 PM
canna
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By the way, which IDE channel is the drive on, what else is on the same
cable,
and is the drive master or slave?


How do I find this info?



"Bill Leary" wrote:

"canna" wrote in message
...
My motherboard is a Gigabyte GA-7ZM(P) made by Gigabyte Technology. I have
run Everest and found a link to a site to update the bios.

Should I do this?


I'm always reluctant to do a BIOS update in a non-lab environment. If something
goes wrong, you've got a dead machine. And if it's an old one, it's probably
permanently dead. As noted below, your board supported DMA modes when shipped,
so you shouldn't have to update the BIOS for this, unless it outright refuses to
recognize the drive or switch to a usable mode.

On Rick's post he said I should go into the Bios and set the tranfer method
to DMA rather than PIO. I had a look last night and can't find any menu or
setting that even look like DMA or PIO. The Bios version is from 1999.


The specs for that board claim "2 x Ultra DMA 33/66 bus master IDE ports on
board," so the hardware is there.

The mode selection will be under "IDE" or perhaps "ATA" devices. Or, for some
BIOS, it's selected in the drive setup screen. That is, you should see a list
of disks attached to the system and something like "Transfer Mode" will
(usually) say "AUTO." You'd want to try changing that to something with "DMA"
in it's name.

It's also possible that it's auto-detected a rate too FAST for the motherboard
to work with. If the drive will do Ultra-DMA 100 and it auto-selected to that
mode, your motherboard can't do it. The max for that MB is Ultra-DMA 66. It
might work with data CDs but not with DVDs. When mine is in ultra-mode, for
example, I can play DVDs but can't burn them.

Of course, it's possible we're completely off the track here. It could be
something else entirely. But until the IDE mode issue is settled, that's
probably the best place to look.


- Bill



  #22  
Old May 20th 05, 01:27 PM
Jack E Martinelli
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Posts: n/a
Default

Since the on-board IDE controller here is so slow, if not obsolete, you may
wish to consider the cost/benefit of installing a inexpensive PCI controller
card, running at ATA100 or 133. If the HD/s run at 7200 rpm, and support
such faster IDE transfer speeds, the performance improvement will be
noticable.

You may wish to use HDTach 3.0.1.0
to assess the speed of your disk system:
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=672


If you add the PCI card, you will then disable the on-board IDE/ATAPI
controller in the BIOS.
Once accomplished, the system will appear to boot exactly as it does now,
.... except faster.
--
Jack E. Martinelli 2002-05 MS MVP for Shell/User / DTS
Help us help you: http://www.dts-L.org/goodpost.htm
In Memorium: Alex Nichol
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/e...ts/nichol.mspx
Your cooperation is very appreciated.
------

"canna" wrote in message
...
By the way, which IDE channel is the drive on, what else is on the same

cable, and is the drive master or slave?

How do I find this info?



"Bill Leary" wrote:

"canna" wrote in message
...
My motherboard is a Gigabyte GA-7ZM(P) made by Gigabyte Technology. I

have
run Everest and found a link to a site to update the bios.

Should I do this?


I'm always reluctant to do a BIOS update in a non-lab environment. If

something
goes wrong, you've got a dead machine. And if it's an old one, it's

probably
permanently dead. As noted below, your board supported DMA modes when

shipped,
so you shouldn't have to update the BIOS for this, unless it outright

refuses to
recognize the drive or switch to a usable mode.

On Rick's post he said I should go into the Bios and set the tranfer

method
to DMA rather than PIO. I had a look last night and can't find any

menu or
setting that even look like DMA or PIO. The Bios version is from 1999.


The specs for that board claim "2 x Ultra DMA 33/66 bus master IDE ports

on
board," so the hardware is there.

The mode selection will be under "IDE" or perhaps "ATA" devices. Or,

for some
BIOS, it's selected in the drive setup screen. That is, you should see

a list
of disks attached to the system and something like "Transfer Mode" will
(usually) say "AUTO." You'd want to try changing that to something with

"DMA"
in it's name.

It's also possible that it's auto-detected a rate too FAST for the

motherboard
to work with. If the drive will do Ultra-DMA 100 and it auto-selected

to that
mode, your motherboard can't do it. The max for that MB is Ultra-DMA

66. It
might work with data CDs but not with DVDs. When mine is in ultra-mode,

for
example, I can play DVDs but can't burn them.

Of course, it's possible we're completely off the track here. It could

be
something else entirely. But until the IDE mode issue is settled,

that's
probably the best place to look.


- Bill





  #23  
Old May 20th 05, 02:27 PM
Bill Leary
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

"canna" wrote in message
...
By the way, which IDE channel is the drive on, what else is on the same

cable,
and is the drive master or slave?


How do I find this info?


Sorry, I'd assumed you'd had the machine open an knew where things were plugged
in.

You should be able to tell through BIOS. Generally, when you find the device
list which shows the drives they're listed in order:

My machine, for example, shows this:

Primary Master: WDC WD800JB-00FMA0
Primary Slave: IOMEGA ZIP 250 ATAPI
Secondary Master: Hewlett-Packard DVD Writer 300i
Secondary Slave: No drive

On many systems, if you select a drive from this list, it shows you various
characteristics, including what mode it's running in. Mine all show AUTO,
though the various PIO, DMA and Ultra-DMA modes are also available.

- Bill


  #24  
Old June 8th 05, 06:49 AM
Bill Leary
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Posts: n/a
Default

"canna" wrote in message
...
My motherboard is a Gigabyte GA-7ZM(P) made by Gigabyte Technology. I have
run Everest and found a link to a site to update the bios.


I (we?) last heard from you back on the 20th.

Did you ever get your DVD working correctly?

- Bill


  #25  
Old June 8th 05, 12:36 PM
canna
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

Hi Bill,

No not sorted yet. I've been away for a couple of weeks and have not had net
access. I will post back in a couple of hours when I'm on the computer with
the problem. I wiil be able to reply straight back to you then.

Cheers,

Canna (Craig)

"Bill Leary" wrote:

"canna" wrote in message
...
My motherboard is a Gigabyte GA-7ZM(P) made by Gigabyte Technology. I have
run Everest and found a link to a site to update the bios.


I (we?) last heard from you back on the 20th.

Did you ever get your DVD working correctly?

- Bill



  #26  
Old June 8th 05, 01:04 PM
Bill Leary
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

"canna" wrote in message
...
No not sorted yet. I've been away for a couple of weeks and have not had net
access. I will post back in a couple of hours when I'm on the computer with
the problem. I wiil be able to reply straight back to you then.


Well, I'll be at work by then.

I was curious about your results.

- Bill


 




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