Posted by Bill's News on 01/15/89 11:44

No speculation here that your described problem is PIO-DMA related;
most likely not, as it's intermittent. As a matter of fact, I'm
already bored with Googling for Win98 DMA-PIO settings, as they are
mostly questions without answers. The items which describe setting
OS options thru debug are certainly not for the faint of heart!!!

Your OP reads more like a flawed disc (marginal perhaps). Remember
that, PC DVD readers do not perform error recovery in the same way
that dedicated DVD players do. So you might get some playback
hesitation on the PC that you'd not notice on a stand-alone, when
there is any need to reread sectors.

Have you checked for other programs or OS functions which may be
running when this occurs (screen save, for example)? W98 is pretty
limited in tools for monitoring windowless activities. I'd urge you
to get XP, but it has a life expectancy of barely 2 years before MS
stops supporting it and foists the next rushed-to-market OS on us
paying beta testers;-)


joedoe_31@hotmail.com wrote:
> Thank you Steve and Bill's News for more insight and help. I
> checked
> last night everything and it just does not have the DMA attributes
> as
> you suggested (after all it is Win98). All the devices in Dev Mgr
> are
> said to be "working properly" and "no conflicts" exist (I guess :-)
>
> The DMA under Hardware in msinfo32.exe says that DMA channel 2 is
> taken by Floppy Disk controller and channel 4 by DMA Controller and
> channels 0,1,3,5,6,7 are free.
>
> The DVD-ROM drive properties under CD-ROM node in the Dev Mgr does
> not
> have, as I said, any attributes except for two check-boxes for
> "Disconnect" and "Synchronize" under General Tab.
>
> The Controllers you are mentioning in Dev Mgr are shown as "Hard
> Disk
> Controller" tree which has 3 sub-controller listed:
>
> 82801AA controller
> Primary controller
> Secondary controller
>
> The above don't have any attributes that states "DMA" in any way
> (after all it may be different in Win98). The settings for the
> Primary and Secondary can only be changed under 82801AA controller
> which when I uncheck the "Use automatic settings" checkbox, and save
> and exit out of Dev Mgr, it quickly reverts back to the original
> checked box!
> There is "DMA controller" under "System" resources (e.g. ACPI, CPU,
> ....) in Dev Mgr that has a few things that can be changed, but I am
> not sure where that leads me.
>
> Since the PC is an HP Vectra VL400, it has e-diag tools. It states
> that Secondary Master is the DVD-ROM drive (drive D:) and Secondary
> Slave is the CD burner (drive E:).
>
> I looked at Bills' News given link and registry stuff is not exactly
> set up in Win98 (or mine). It is under Enum(erated) keys for
> devices,
> which basically lists the configurations (and perhaps more) as can
> be
> seen in Dev Mrg properties, plus some of the subkeys don't exist at
> all.
>
> As I dont have net access from home, it is a bit difficult to post
> the
> screenshots of the Dev Mgr properties for the devices so you guys
> can
> see and suggest any other ideas.
>
> I will post the properties screenshots and exported registry info
> soon. So do keep an eye for pos. I would like to see this problem
> disappear. Post any other ideas all the same!
>
> Thanks!
>
> Sid

[Back to original message]