Techie help required please! *bats eyelashes* : comments [Scribblings from the Mitchy Side]

Hi! Tech here :)

First thing to do:

Go to Start/ Settings/ Control Panel/ System/ Device Manager/ IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers/ Primary IDE Channel/ Advanced Settings.

Look under Device 0, and it should be set to "DMA if available." If it says "PIO only" instead, change it, click OK, save settings, and reboot. If that doesn't work, then follow what I say in my next reply *s* Just making 2 posts so the instructions don't get mixed up ;)

[parent entry] [link] [reply]

So, if that first thing hasn't worked...

Click Start, go to Run, type in REGEDIT and click OK. Navigate to the following key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\
{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318} (make sure you match the key exactly, as there may be many similar surrounding it).

Expand this key/folder and you'll notice a number of subkeys, numbered 0000, 0001, 0002, and so on. There may only be a couple, though there could be several. Click on each one and look for the item "DriverDesc" in the right pane, and to the right of that, find the ones that say "Primary IDE Channel" and "Secondary IDE Channel." If it says anything other than that, you are in the wrong subkey.

Once you identify the Primary IDE Channel key, scroll down in the right pane till you find MasterIdDataCheckSum and/or SlaveIdDataCheckSum. If you know for sure whether the drive you need to fix is set to Master or Slave, delete the appropriate key (MasterIdDataCheckSum for Master, SlaveIdDataCheckSum for Slave). If you don't have any idea, it can't really hurt to delete both. Windows will simply re-identify this information on the next reboot.

And that should fix it if the first thing hasn't.

If it hasn't fixed it, theeen... I'll look for more stuffs. But, if it has, then I'll be posting a thankyou over at this article, because it had the best laid-out walkthrough of the two methods I could find to fix it *g*

[link] [parent] [reply]

Yay techie help! *snugs*

OK, first of all, should I be worried that under ATAPI controllers, I have 2 Primary IDE channels (and 2 Secondary and 2 Standard Dual Channel)?

Also, I checked the properties for both Primary IDE channels and the settings are different. Both Device 0 are set for DMA if available though, but one has Current Transfer Mode as "Not Available", and the other has CTM as "Ultra DMA Mode 6" Would this be affecting anything?

[link] [parent] [reply]

should I be worried that under ATAPI controllers, I have 2 Primary IDE channels

Shouldn't be a worry - I assume that you have more than one drive (DVD and CD, or somesuch?). Even if you don't, that could be a leftover from an older piece of hardware - and that might be something to come back to if these two don't have any effect :)

one has Current Transfer Mode as "Not Available", and the other has CTM as "Ultra DMA Mode 6" Would this be affecting anything?

It's the "DMA if available" that's most important - the remaining settings should be fine. And, seeing as you're on the "DMA if available" already, then best to try the second fix... Good luck!

[link] [parent] [reply]

Tried the second thing, didn't work :( I thought we'd cracked it, I certainly got to watch for longer but eventually the choppiness returned.

BTW, there were six subfolders, but only one said it was the Primary IDE Channel AND had a MasterIdDataCheckSum key. The others had various things mentioning Master and Slave (kinky) but not in that format.

[link] [parent] [reply]