CD-ROM Drive Will Not Stay Selected "DMA"

[ANFPS26]

I had to replace my master CD-ROM drive ( you don't wanna know the reason). I replaced it with a Lite-On 52x. I have it assigned as my D drive (master) and my CD-RW as the E drive (slave) on my Secondary IDE controller. Everything seems to work fine, it's just that I can't assign DMA to the new drive. The CD-RW is DMA, but after checking DMA for the D drive and re-starting several times DMA is always un-checked. I had read in the forum here that they should be DMA. How do I get the D drive to retain that setting? "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing....."

 

[ANFPS26]

I think this option is only for CD writers and hard drives, but I wasn't sure. "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing....."

 

[Jakespeare]

Try this:
Boot up into safe mode. Look under the CD-ROM drives.
What is listed ? Three ? (the old Ghost drive migth still be there)

Remove them all. Reboot.

Now try.

Also, it is possible that you don't have the IDE cable hooked up right. The master device should be the last on the cable.

Try the D: drive CD-ROM, the Lite-on by itself. Try the DMA assignment.
What happens when it is solo ? Does the DMA work then ?

That would be a beginning list of things I would try.

I feel strongly that cheap hardware causes more problems than name brand hardware. Mysterious glitches, and problems that are unusual just seem to happen with off-brands, and cheaper hardware than with the name brand and higher-quality parts.
I think it pays, to spend the extra $2 - $10 for a name brand CD-ROM, than play around with the Delta's, US Drives, and all the rest of the off-brands.

 

[ANFPS26]

Thanks, I'll try your suggestions. The cable is right, I checked that. As for Lite-On, their drives have received good reviews. I have read rave reviews about their CD-RWs, so I thought I was buying a good drive for the money. I guess time will tell. "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing....."

 

[ANFPS26]

Guess what! I have a problem I didn't know I had. I can't boot into safe mode!! I haven't tried it in a long time, so I don't know when it quit working. Pressing Function "F8" until I get some beeps doesn't do it. If I hold the "Ctl" key down, all I get is the stuck key screen. I don't get my Autoexe.bat screen displayed like I used to, but I get it if I press "F8" after the Win98 screen. Do you have any suggestions for me?? I'm open to anything at this point. I dread re-installing Win98. I'll have to re-do all those updates. "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing....."

 

[ANFPS26]

I finally got into safe mode. The Device Manager only showed the two drives, the way they are supposed to be. I didn't remove them. I'll look at it more tomorrow. "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing....."

 

[ANFPS26]

I tried removing both drives in safe mode, but that didn't help. I've emailed Lite-On with the problem, maybe they have seen this before. This drive is supposed to be DMA compatable according to the specs on the box. The bad drive I removed and replaced this one with was an old DVD drive; this new one is not DVD, could that have something to do with it? I never used the the DVD. I have no interest in watching movies on my PC. "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing....."

 

[ANFPS26]

Okay, my problem is solved. I had to do the following procedure from Lite-On:

DMA and Ultra DMA Bus Master transfer mode is supported by appending
a software option /DMA to command line of device driver in CONFIG.SYS,
ex., DEVICE = C:\HXCD-ROM\CDROM.SYS /D:MSCD001 /DMA "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing....."