CD/DVD Rom? - Please help

Hi Bill,

Yes, it plays music CD's and Data CD's fine.

It's a Time computer, I will find out tonight when I get home what make the
motherboard is and let you know.

Canna

"Bill Leary" wrote:

"canna" wrote in message
...
Thanks for your reply Bill.

I am using version 2.5.0.0.

I'm on 4.0, so keep that in mind.

When I do a system diagnostic it gives me the following :

"Your motherboard is using an ALi, SiS or VIA series of chipset. We strongly
recommend you to install the IDE or bus master driver that comes with your
motherboard and enable the DMA mode for accessing your DVD-ROM. Not enabling
DMA mode or using an improper IDE driver might either degrade the performance
of PowerDVD or even prevent PowerDVD from properly executing. For more
information about the IDE driver, please visit the web site of your
motherboard vendor."

I'm assuing that you can read CDs in the drive, right?

If so then...

PowerDVD thinks the IDE interface, at least to your DVD drive, isn't using DMA.
It's probably right. I've tried mine (while troubleshooting a DVD burn problem)
in various modes, and it won't play movies worth a damn in any of the non-DMA
modes. The motherboard itself isn't your problem, but that the proper drivers
to enable features on the board haven't been loaded.

You might try Windows Update and see if any of the driver updates apply. WU has
updates for mine (VIA), but I've got newer ones directly from VIA so I don't use
WU's. The point, however, is that there may be some available that way if you
have trouble getting them from the vendor.

It's also possible that the IDE mode has been locked in BIOS.

With this warning, you'll probably find that it's in one of the PIO or FPIO
modes.

What's the make of the computer? Or, better, the motherboard?

- Bill

"canna" wrote in message
...
Yes, it plays music CD's and Data CD's fine.

Can you check under
My Computer
System
Device Manager
CDROM
whatever-your-drive-is
Properties
and see if the feature "Digital CD Playback" is enabled or not?

I expect you're going to find it's not.
And if you enable it, it'll probably play music CDs poorly, if at all.

It's a Time computer, I will find out tonight when I get home what make the
motherboard is and let you know.

Thanks.

- Bill

That's correct, I did this yesterday.... It would hardly play 3 seconds
without stoping.

Canna



"Bill Leary" wrote:

"canna" wrote in message
...
Yes, it plays music CD's and Data CD's fine.

Can you check under
My Computer
System
Device Manager
CDROM
whatever-your-drive-is
Properties
and see if the feature "Digital CD Playback" is enabled or not?

I expect you're going to find it's not.
And if you enable it, it'll probably play music CDs poorly, if at all.

It's a Time computer, I will find out tonight when I get home what make the
motherboard is and let you know.

Thanks.

- Bill

umm so it's playing DVDs but poorly?

Either way, as was posted, go into the System BIOS and make sure
Transfer method is set to DMA something (not PIO something) then, as
Bill said go into ControlPanel/System/DeviceMangler and make sure DMA is
checked there as well.

Helps to spritz and wipe the DVD too, I've found.

rpl




canna wrote:
That's correct, I did this yesterday.... It would hardly play 3 seconds
without stoping.

Canna



"Bill Leary" wrote:


"canna" wrote in message
...

Yes, it plays music CD's and Data CD's fine.

Can you check under
My Computer
System
Device Manager
CDROM
whatever-your-drive-is
Properties
and see if the feature "Digital CD Playback" is enabled or not?

I expect you're going to find it's not.
And if you enable it, it'll probably play music CDs poorly, if at all.


It's a Time computer, I will find out tonight when I get home what make the
motherboard is and let you know.

Thanks.

- Bill

Rick, if you read the previous posts we were talking about music CD's playing
poorly (when I enable "Digital CD playback". It does not play DVD's at all,
infact it does not even register that a disk is in the drive.

Thanks for your input anyways.

Canna.

"Rick T" wrote:

umm so it's playing DVDs but poorly?

Either way, as was posted, go into the System BIOS and make sure
Transfer method is set to DMA something (not PIO something) then, as
Bill said go into ControlPanel/System/DeviceMangler and make sure DMA is
checked there as well.

Helps to spritz and wipe the DVD too, I've found.

rpl




canna wrote:
That's correct, I did this yesterday.... It would hardly play 3 seconds
without stoping.

Canna



"Bill Leary" wrote:


"canna" wrote in message
...

Yes, it plays music CD's and Data CD's fine.

Can you check under
My Computer
System
Device Manager
CDROM
whatever-your-drive-is
Properties
and see if the feature "Digital CD Playback" is enabled or not?

I expect you're going to find it's not.
And if you enable it, it'll probably play music CDs poorly, if at all.


It's a Time computer, I will find out tonight when I get home what make the
motherboard is and let you know.

Thanks.

- Bill

canna wrote:
Rick, if you read the previous posts we were talking about music CD's playing
poorly (when I enable "Digital CD playback". It does not play DVD's at all,
infact it does not even register that a disk is in the drive.

I'm sry, haven't had my first coffee yet.



Thanks for your input anyways.

Canna.

"Rick T" wrote:


umm so it's playing DVDs but poorly?

Either way, as was posted, go into the System BIOS and make sure
Transfer method is set to DMA something (not PIO something) then, as
Bill said go into ControlPanel/System/DeviceMangler and make sure DMA is
checked there as well.

Helps to spritz and wipe the DVD too, I've found.

rpl




canna wrote:

That's correct, I did this yesterday.... It would hardly play 3 seconds
without stoping.

Canna



"Bill Leary" wrote:



"canna" wrote in message
...


Yes, it plays music CD's and Data CD's fine.

Can you check under
My Computer
System
Device Manager
CDROM
whatever-your-drive-is
Properties
and see if the feature "Digital CD Playback" is enabled or not?

I expect you're going to find it's not.
And if you enable it, it'll probably play music CDs poorly, if at all.



It's a Time computer, I will find out tonight when I get home what make the
motherboard is and let you know.

Thanks.

- Bill

I'm sry, haven't had my first coffee yet.

;^ )~ I can't recommend much about computers but I can recommend Nescafe
Gold Blend. Is it still morning where you are? It's 4pm here in Sunny
Sheffield (UK).

Canna.

"Rick T" wrote:

canna wrote:
Rick, if you read the previous posts we were talking about music CD's playing
poorly (when I enable "Digital CD playback". It does not play DVD's at all,
infact it does not even register that a disk is in the drive.

I'm sry, haven't had my first coffee yet.



Thanks for your input anyways.

Canna.

"Rick T" wrote:


umm so it's playing DVDs but poorly?

Either way, as was posted, go into the System BIOS and make sure
Transfer method is set to DMA something (not PIO something) then, as
Bill said go into ControlPanel/System/DeviceMangler and make sure DMA is
checked there as well.

Helps to spritz and wipe the DVD too, I've found.

rpl




canna wrote:

That's correct, I did this yesterday.... It would hardly play 3 seconds
without stoping.

Canna



"Bill Leary" wrote:



"canna" wrote in message
...


Yes, it plays music CD's and Data CD's fine.

Can you check under
My Computer
System
Device Manager
CDROM
whatever-your-drive-is
Properties
and see if the feature "Digital CD Playback" is enabled or not?

I expect you're going to find it's not.
And if you enable it, it'll probably play music CDs poorly, if at all.



It's a Time computer, I will find out tonight when I get home what make the
motherboard is and let you know.

Thanks.

- Bill

canna wrote:
I'm sry, haven't had my first coffee yet.


;^ )~ I can't recommend much about computers but I can recommend Nescafe
Gold Blend. Is it still morning where you are? It's 4pm here in Sunny
Sheffield (UK).

about 1000 here in (surprisingly) sunny Toronto when I posted that; I've
recently moved to decaf tea... doesn't do a thing vis-a-vis opening the
eyelids.

Using the (reasonably good,) store-brand instant, otherwise, and will
probably switch back to that at oh-dark-30 when I usually wake up.

Rick

clueless on the CD front; mine works so I've never had to fiddle with it.



Canna.

"Rick T" wrote:


canna wrote:

Rick, if you read the previous posts we were talking about music CD's playing
poorly (when I enable "Digital CD playback". It does not play DVD's at all,
infact it does not even register that a disk is in the drive.

I'm sry, haven't had my first coffee yet.



Thanks for your input anyways.

Canna.

"Rick T" wrote:



umm so it's playing DVDs but poorly?

Either way, as was posted, go into the System BIOS and make sure
Transfer method is set to DMA something (not PIO something) then, as
Bill said go into ControlPanel/System/DeviceMangler and make sure DMA is
checked there as well.

Helps to spritz and wipe the DVD too, I've found.

rpl




canna wrote:


That's correct, I did this yesterday.... It would hardly play 3 seconds
without stoping.

Canna



"Bill Leary" wrote:




"canna" wrote in message
...



Yes, it plays music CD's and Data CD's fine.

Can you check under
My Computer
System
Device Manager
CDROM
whatever-your-drive-is
Properties
and see if the feature "Digital CD Playback" is enabled or not?

I expect you're going to find it's not.
And if you enable it, it'll probably play music CDs poorly, if at all.




It's a Time computer, I will find out tonight when I get home what make the
motherboard is and let you know.

Thanks.

- Bill

Bill,

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?

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.

Canna.


"Rick T" wrote:

canna wrote:
I'm sry, haven't had my first coffee yet.


;^ )~ I can't recommend much about computers but I can recommend Nescafe
Gold Blend. Is it still morning where you are? It's 4pm here in Sunny
Sheffield (UK).

about 1000 here in (surprisingly) sunny Toronto when I posted that; I've
recently moved to decaf tea... doesn't do a thing vis-a-vis opening the
eyelids.

Using the (reasonably good,) store-brand instant, otherwise, and will
probably switch back to that at oh-dark-30 when I usually wake up.

Rick

clueless on the CD front; mine works so I've never had to fiddle with it.



Canna.

"Rick T" wrote:


canna wrote:

Rick, if you read the previous posts we were talking about music CD's playing
poorly (when I enable "Digital CD playback". It does not play DVD's at all,
infact it does not even register that a disk is in the drive.

I'm sry, haven't had my first coffee yet.



Thanks for your input anyways.

Canna.

"Rick T" wrote:



umm so it's playing DVDs but poorly?

Either way, as was posted, go into the System BIOS and make sure
Transfer method is set to DMA something (not PIO something) then, as
Bill said go into ControlPanel/System/DeviceMangler and make sure DMA is
checked there as well.

Helps to spritz and wipe the DVD too, I've found.

rpl




canna wrote:


That's correct, I did this yesterday.... It would hardly play 3 seconds
without stoping.

Canna



"Bill Leary" wrote:




"canna" wrote in message
...



Yes, it plays music CD's and Data CD's fine.

Can you check under
My Computer
System
Device Manager
CDROM
whatever-your-drive-is
Properties
and see if the feature "Digital CD Playback" is enabled or not?

I expect you're going to find it's not.
And if you enable it, it'll probably play music CDs poorly, if at all.




It's a Time computer, I will find out tonight when I get home what make the
motherboard is and let you know.

Thanks.

- Bill

"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.

By the way, which IDE channel is the drive on, what else is on the same cable,
and is the drive master or slave?

- Bill