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Thread ID: 83623 2007-10-07 07:37:00 choppy DVD playback (unsolvable by conventional means) captainsmash (12896) Press F1
Post ID Timestamp Content User
599076 2007-10-08 02:35:00 The error log shows a whole lot of errors from last night before I turned the machine off, the best I can deduce is that a cord is loose inside the computer. Opening it up will void my warranty. Where does one draw the line?

I find it odd that something could have come loose but so far it makes the most sense. Thankyou for your help.

What do the error logs say - look for a common error that relates to when the DVD is playing.
wainuitech (129)
599077 2007-10-08 02:56:00 Sometimes just turning DMA on in device manager doesn't work.

Have you tried manually editing the registry? (always works for me)

Agreed.

Have you tried this? (svp.co.uk)
CYaBro (73)
599078 2007-10-08 11:15:00 Sounds like a hardware issue or the mpeg2 codec is corrupted.

google for ffdshow. its the first result in google. download and install, reboot and see how that goes.
Term_X (560)
599079 2007-10-11 09:51:00 Agreed.

Have you tried this? (svp.co.uk)

Sir (or madam), you are a genius. Thankyou very much, you have saved me from the nightmares at the HP New Delhi call centre.

Please consider this thread closed.
captainsmash (12896)
599080 2007-10-11 18:58:00 Sir (or madam), you are a genius. Thankyou very much, you have saved me from the nightmares at the HP New Delhi call centre.

Please consider this thread closed.

No worries!

Thoughts that what it might be as I have had the same problem on a number of machines and that reg file always fixed it.
CYaBro (73)
599081 2007-10-11 20:01:00 So it was a DMA issue? Agent_24 (57)
599082 2007-10-11 22:20:00 Cyabro beat me to it, was going to suggest the same thing.

An explanation if anyone cares:

Windows XP counts the number of read & write errors and keeps a log. If there are too many errors in a given amount of time it steps the DMA mode down a lvl to try and improve the situation, if enough errors occur you end up in PIO mode, no matter what you set it to and it's very difficult to convince windows to go back, hence the registry edit which resets the error log.

This unfortunately means one overly dirty or scratched disk can totally screw up your DMA settings

Sometimes unistalling the IDA channel and letting windows re-detect it also works, although you may have to toggle DMA mode on and off a few times as well.

As a point of interest XP pro x64 edition and Vista both have fixed this issue by adding an option to use whatever the BIOS DMA setting is.
dugimodo (138)
599083 2007-10-11 22:48:00 Maybe a little off topic, but what IS the optimal settings for an optical drive? (eg: DVD-RW)
I ask this because my HDD (SATA - or supposed to be) is using Ultra DMA mode 5, whule my DVD drive is using Multi-word DMA mode 2.
I was wondering what the difference was between them etc.
Sherman (9181)
599084 2007-10-11 23:52:00 Optimal settings will be the highest DMA mode your drive supports

though afaik, MW-DMA is slower/older - but then maybe your drive works best with that setting

hard drives transfer a lot more data quicker, so they generally support a higher DMA mode than optical drives
Agent_24 (57)
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