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Thread ID: 100955 2009-06-27 02:06:00 Optical drive dying? the_bogan (9949) Press F1
Post ID Timestamp Content User
786180 2009-06-27 02:06:00 It's not often I have the drive reading a disk while I have audio going, but I noticed a week or so ago that when I was burning a song through I-Tunes, Winamp distorted the sound. It was fine once the drive stopped reading date.

At the time I just put it down to Itunes being annoying. Today, while I had Winamp open again, and installed a game off the drive, the sound distorted again. Also, I would occasionally get "connection interrupted" messages in firefox while loading a page.

I thought it might just be Winamp, so I loaded up VLC, WMP classic, WMP, Itunes. They all had the same problem.

Any thoughts as to the culprit? It never used to do this, but I can't tell for certain when it started. I'm thinking Itunes.
the_bogan (9949)
786181 2009-06-27 02:54:00 Classic sign of the drive being put in PIO mode by windows.

In PIO mode, when the drive is reading, CPU usage will be very high.

This will cause sound to lag.

Go into device manager and reset the channel it's on to DMA mode

More info here: winhlp.com
Agent_24 (57)
786182 2009-06-27 03:01:00 Classic sign of the drive being put in PIO mode by windows .

In PIO mode, when the drive is reading, CPU usage will be very high .

This will cause sound to lag .

Go into device manager and reset the channel it's on to DMA mode

CPU usage is generally about 43% . Didn't think that was too high .

Thanks for the idea, where abouts do I reset the channel . Nothing obvious in Device Manager .
the_bogan (9949)
786183 2009-06-27 03:29:00 Assuming you are using XP

In device manager, expand the section called "IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers"

Open the properties for the channel that your drive is on

go to the "advanced settings" tab

under "Current transfer mode" the drive will probably show PIO

So under "Transfer mode" change it to "DMA if available"

You may need to reboot.

If this doesn't work, download the resetdma.vbs from the above website and run it. Then reboot your PC.
Agent_24 (57)
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