I have Chaintech 6OJA3T motherboard based on I815EP chipset. I have installed Intel Application Accelerator that automatically sets DMA mode transfer for all supported IDE devices. Intel Application Accelerator after installing, indeed, reports that all (4) IDE devices work in DMA mode. however Nero InfoTool reports that DMA for both devices (60 Gb IBM HDD on Primary Slave and NEC ND-3500AG DVD-RW on Secondary Slave) on IDE slave channels IS NOT enabled. whom do I trust? IAA or Nero InfoTool? i suspect that Nero is right because file copy speed between drives - DMA enabled and disabled is too low - average speed is 10 mb/s. WinXP device manager does not allow to enable DMA mode manually for IDE controller - i simply don't have such an option. any suggestions how to detect whether DMA mode is enabled for all devices. and if not - how to enable it?

Hi Viennais,

Device manager on XP should not only tell you if it's on, but it will tell you exactly which mode it's in.

BUT, you don't look at the device itself in device manager to find it.

In device manager, click on IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers. Then right click on primary or secondary, whichever you wanna check, and click properties.
Click on the advanced settings tab, and there it is. I think by default, windows enables DMA for hdd's, but not for optical drives.

On your optical drives, it may say PIO only. If it does, change it to DMA if available. Then you need to restart your computer, and go back and check the DMA status again to see if it enabled it. Good luck man!!

you think i'm total lame? it's obvious that device manager does not show anything but groups of hardware. previously by saying that i have no way to enable/disable DMA for controller in device manager i supposed that i have no way to do this under Primary/Secondary IDE/ATA/ATAPI Controllers properties. i simply don't have such tab as "Settings" or whatever under properties of controllers where i can see and set transfer mode settings. suggestions?

Who said anything like that? Some people who had win98 or winme, may not know where to now find these options in XP. Plus, how the heck am I to know how much you know?? This is your first post here, and I should guess how much you know?


I tried one of those Intel IDE softwares, but it was in Win2k, quite awhile ago. I think it did the same kinda thing, the software altered the settings in device manager, so I no longer could change anything. Then same as you, the Intel software would tell me what everything was set to. But it wouldn't let me change anything.

I ended up uninstalling it and never tried it again. Maybe you should too. It didn't seem to make much, if any, difference for me. WinXP can do your IDE just fine and fast, but its up to you. I doubt you'll see much performance difference having it installed.


Don't think I'm calling you "lame" , but have you checked in your bios to make sure DMA is enabled? If thats not on, it's a no go in Windows. Also, were you getting these problems before this Intel software? If not, thats all the more reason to just get rid of it.

of course, DMA is enabled for both IDE channels in BIOS. also i have tried to uninstall Intel Application Accelerator but this doesn't help - i still cannot set DMA mode manually.
maybe it's something related with WinXP Service Pack 2?
i'm planning full system re-install soon, maybe clean installed WinXP with integrated SP2 and not installed Intel Application Accelerator will let me set DMA mode manually. but i really do not remember that under WinXP i ever had chance to set DMA mode manually (but i can do this under Win98).
and actually i do not account this as big "problem". in my first post i have even asked how to check whether both channels ar DMA enabled?

Ya I don't know man. I've got WinXP Pro, service pack 2, and I can turn DMA on or off, and see which mode each device is in, under the properties of primary or secondary controllers

Maybe you're reinstall will fix it for you, who knows.

i re-installed WinXP. now i am i able to set dma mode manually.