[d3m0n1q_733rz]

Hi, I tend to use my old Compaq Presario to make repairs on newer computers that break down every now and then, but ever since I can remember, I haven't found a way to get the second IDE port to run any drive over multiword DMA 2. The southbridge is a VIA VT82C686A and I know that the board supports UDMA 4 otherwise known as Ultra/66 since my first IDE port is working at that speed all the way across for both drives. My problem is that, no matter what drive I stick on it, I can't seem to get it working above the MDMA2 and I need a solution because it's really crippling my repair and disk burn time as well as slowing down my computer due to my pagefile being on a spare drive on that channel.
Anyone have a fix for it? All available bios settings are set to enable UMDA/66 and I know that the drives support the speed since the Via IDEtool shows all of that information.
Thanks in advance to anyone who will take the time to assist me with this problem.

 

[d3m0n1q_733rz]

Forgot to mention that I also have the 80-wire IDE cable, so no thinking that it's an error on my behalf.

 

[d3m0n1q_733rz]

I'll assume by everyone's silence that you're all just as stumped as I am about this. Or I just got caught up in a flurry of other people's problems and am being overlooked. Of course, not everyone's problems can be solved.

 

[Triple6]

What drives are you connecting?

If any of them are a CD/DVD drive then that might be the max it can handle and possibly slowing down other drives on the same channel.

You may wish to update the VIA chipset drivers: http://www.viaarena.com/default.aspx?PageID=420&OSID=1&CatID=1070

There's a way to reset the transfer modes in XP, it involves deleting and creating some registry keys. But it works great to restore the proper modes and I've used it numerous of times.

Here's the best site detailing out the instructions: http://users.bigpond.net.au/ninjaduck/itserviceduck/udma_fix/index.htm

 

[d3m0n1q_733rz]

Well, quite simply, the DVD burner has a max of UDMA4 and the CD burner has a max of UDMA2. I know this because they work at that speed on my Ultra 66 card that I threw in it. But I need that card out of there and it's slowing down my system. The drivers are actually great. I had to actually downgrade my drivers to something with the VIA IDETool in order to get the first IDE channel to work in UDMA4. But that second channel just won't do it.

 

[d3m0n1q_733rz]

Forgot to mention that I've also tested it with hard drives. And according to the fix, I was reading the wrong fix because it's not in PIO mode, it's in Multi-word DMA 2...Hmm, but I do wonder if it would work in PIO mode...

 

[d3m0n1q_733rz]

Managed to get the secondary up to UDMA 0 by switching my HDDs to that one and my DVD and CD burners to the first. Of course, that's slower than the ATA/66; not to mention that, while I did manage to get my DVD burner to ATA/66, my CD burner only made it to...Multi-word DMA 2. I'm thinking that there's more to this than IDE controllers. It probably has more to do with my CPU speed and amount of ram. Or lack there of.
Anyhow, since I've managed to get this up past MW DMA 2, I'm calling this a closed.

 

[Triple6]

If repeated errors are detected Windows will slow down the transfer mode, eventually all the way down to PIO. I remember there was an issue with older VIA chipsets not supporting faster UDMA transfer modes for some optical drives.