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RoveWolf · 08-17-2006, 02:32 PM

DMA is just the read-write mode to and from the hard disk in your computer (and other ide components such as cd/dvd roms etc). To check simply go to:

Right click 'My Computer' >> Properties >> Hardware tab >> Device Manager >> Find 'Primary IDE Channel' >> Right click then go to 'Properties' >> Click on the advanced tab... You should then be able to see what the transfer modes are. Make sure they're set to 'DMA if avaiable' and also check if the 'Current Transfer Mode' is already reading as DMA.

It should be set to this by default, but sometimes it isnt.

Definition for DMA:

DMA (Direct memory access) mode is a high performance mode for transferring data to and from devices, in particular, to CD and DVD burner devices.

The burner devices can function in either DMA or PIO modes. DMA mode allows the processor to transfer large pieces of data with very little software overhead - therefore requiring low CPU utilization. In this mode, high speed burning can be performed in background with other programs running.

PIO mode requires CPU processing for every few bytes sent to the device, so that CPU utilization becomes very high when trying to burn at high speeds.

08-17-2006, 02:32 PM	#5 (permalink)
RoveWolf VIP Member Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: West Midlands, UK Age: 22 Posts: 1,262	DMA is just the read-write mode to and from the hard disk in your computer (and other ide components such as cd/dvd roms etc). To check simply go to: Right click 'My Computer' >> Properties >> Hardware tab >> Device Manager >> Find 'Primary IDE Channel' >> Right click then go to 'Properties' >> Click on the advanced tab... You should then be able to see what the transfer modes are. Make sure they're set to 'DMA if avaiable' and also check if the 'Current Transfer Mode' is already reading as DMA. It should be set to this by default, but sometimes it isnt. Definition for DMA: DMA (Direct memory access) mode is a high performance mode for transferring data to and from devices, in particular, to CD and DVD burner devices. The burner devices can function in either DMA or PIO modes. DMA mode allows the processor to transfer large pieces of data with very little software overhead - therefore requiring low CPU utilization. In this mode, high speed burning can be performed in background with other programs running. PIO mode requires CPU processing for every few bytes sent to the device, so that CPU utilization becomes very high when trying to burn at high speeds. __________________ Note: Formerly known as Breaks. Thermaltake VC3000BWS Armour Jr SuperMidi Tower - Black Gigabyte GA_965P_DS3 PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard Intel Core 2 DUO E6300 "LGA775 Allendale" 1.86GHz (1066FSB) HIS ATI Radeon X1950 Pro ICEQ 3 V2 TURBO SILENT Heatpipe 256MB GDDR3 (PCI-E) Western Digital Caviar RE 160GB SATA-II 16MB Cache Enermax Noisetaker 535W EG565AX-VE(W) SFMA ATX2.0 SLI Compliant PSU Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2-6400C4 TwinX (2x1GB) Samsung 18x18 DVD+RW (Black)