Problems with IDE transfer modes

[angelleye]

I've got my hard drives running off a Promise PCI RAID controller. Therefore, my Plextor 40/12/40 cd-rw drive is the only device on my primary IDE controller on the board. in BIOS i've got it set to Ultra DMA Mode 2. In the Device Manager in Windows I have Primary IDE set to DMA if available. However, it always sets current transfer mode to PIO.

During CD burning the buffer level jumps all over the place. Under normal circumstances it would sit at 99% until the CD was done. right now it jumps from 80 strait to 12 back to 90 back to 10...even as low as 2. It doesn't ever error though because of the Nero features and the burner features.

Most CDs come out ok...however some audio cds have skips and slurbs here and there. I'm thinking this is probably when the buffer is low...and I'm thining the buffer jumps all over because it's in PIO mode. Am I anywhere close to the right track? and if so, how can I get it to use DMA mode???

The burner manual says it supports Ultra DMA Mode 0-2. I've got BIOS set to 2. the Plextor jumper is set to Master. I've also tried cable select with no luck. Now I'm back on Master.

Any information on this would be greatly appreciated. It's driving me nuts!

Thanks!

Drew

 

[pmonett]

What kind of IDE cable do you have ? 40-pin, or 80-pin ?

 

[angelleye]

I believe it's the 80 pin. It has the really thin lines in it instead of the fat ones. How can I tell for sure?

 

[pmonett]

If you know the difference between the thin and the fat lines, I'm pretty sure you can tell.
In doubt, there is really only one method : count the lines !

 

[cdogg]

It doesn't make a whole lot of sense that the burner which supports DMA has defaulted to PIO, even though it's on the IDE channel all by itself.

I suspect the Promise controller has something to do with it, but as a test, I would first try the Plextor drive on a different IDE channel by itself (possibly the secondary or one on the Promise controller). Leave it set to Master.

If you have to, swap it's position with the hard drive. If it still has problems, then it might be the drive itself or a controller conflict of some kind. At that point, you would need to try it in another system.

Good Luck!





~cdogg

"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."
- A. Einstein

 

[angelleye]

Can I put something on the secondary w/o having anything on the primary? I was thinking that wouldn't work...so I never did try it. I'm willing to try anything so just let me know. I just wanna make sure cuz I have ebay listings hosted off this computer so when it's down...my listings are down...as far as pictures and stuff anyway.

I don't think I can really mess with the promise controller. It's got 2 IDE controllers on it...and I have 1 hard drive on each set to master and it's setup RAID0. I think moving them around could screw up my array.

Anyway...please let me know about the secondary ide channel by itself w/o a primary device.

thanks for all the help,

drew

 

[angelleye]

I went ahead and tried changing it to the secondary IDE controller on the board but it doesn't even see my CD rom that way...since there's nothing on Primary I guess.

Any other information on what might be causing this would be great.

Thanks!

Drew

 

[angelleye]

Ok...I put the Plextor as slave on the Primary IDE and it's working perfectly. Set it to Ultra DMA Mode 2 and my buffer level while burning cds stays constant at 99%. Why the hell won't it work as Master?

Would my RAID array have anything to do with that? I wouldn't think so since it runs off it's own card and completely seperate...but what do you think?

Any information would be great.

Thanks!

Drew

 

[cdogg]

No idea! That is strange...


I'm sure it has something to do with your RAID controller, or perhaps your mobo requires a hard drive in the Master position on the Primary IDE?

~cdogg

"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."
- A. Einstein

 

[pmonett]

Could it be that your burner just does not appreciate being Master ?
This is not a joke : I had a CD-ROM unit once where the manual specifically indicated that the unit was to be set as Slave and the Master setting was not supported.
Okay, since your's is a Plextor I would be quite surprised that it would not accept being Master, but maybe the manual has an indication on that subject ?

 

[angelleye]

cdogg: no particular mention of a hard needing placed on the master anywhere in the mobo manual. no particular mention of anything other than their are two controllers for use.

pmonett: I had checked all that out before..the plextor manual is pretty clear that you have it either way. It walks you through figuring out your current configuration and adding in the burner based on that...whatever it needs to be. I looked for a preferred config and couldn't find anything like that.

ah well...it works the way it is now so i'm not gonna worry too much about it. if anybody does any information though i'm always eager to learn. thanks for all the help.

drew

 

[KIDA1973]

Even if you do have an 80 pin cable, a worn cable could cause problems. When you tried the CDRW on a the mobo IDE bus did you change the cable at the same time (did you use the same cable the CDRW was connected to the Promise card with?) You might want to check the cable just to be sure.

Good luck

Matthew P Janes
Computer Network Support Technician
Boise State University Student Union
Boise ID 83725

 

[angelleye]

Kida1973: Actually the CDRW was never connected to the Promise controller. It had been on the mobo Primary Master when I was having problems. It's now on the Primary as slave and works just fine.

Only my hard drives have been on the Promise card.

Drew

 

[KIDA1973]

Drew,
My bad. I still stand by what I said about it possibly being the cable though. I have had a CDRW that would show in BIOS and Device Manager both, had most recent BIOS on mobo but CDRW would only transfer in PIO even though I had an 80 pin connector. Changing the cable fixed the problem.

Good luck.

Matthew Janes

Everything in its right place...

 

[angelleye]

If it was a bad cable though, wouldn't I most likely still have a problem? I haven't changed cables..just switched from master to slave on the primary.

drew

 

[KIDA1973]

Yes, I suppose that would be correct...my bad again. I suppose I should have read the entire thread much more carefully...my apologies.

Matthew Janes

Everything in its right place...

 

[angelleye]

heh...no worries. thanks for your time..

drew

 

[angelleye]

Just in case you all were curious I finally figured out what the proble was with this thing. My CD Burner had a firmware update that needed to be aplied.

I realized after putting the burner on a new board and it suddenly happened again, only booting in PIO mode, all of a sudden without me changing any hardware settings at all.

Anyway I dowloaded the firmware update from Plextor.com and now everything works great!

 

[pmonett]

Thanks for the info. It's nice of you to follow-up correctly.