I'm trying to install a CD RW drive. In instructions about getting the computer configured for the drive, it says to make sure DMA is enabled. What is DMA, what does it stand for, and how do I get it enabled? I didn't see it in Control Panel>System>Device Manager>Drive Properties. Thanks for any help.

Ray Control Panel>System>Device Manager>CD-ROM>your CDRW drive>Properties>Settings tab>DMA "check"

Hi These urls should help http://www.digidesign.com/compato/98me/51198dma.html http://www.2e.org/dma.htm

DMA (1) (Direct Memory Access) Specialized circuitry or a dedicated microprocessor that transfers data from memory to memory without using the CPU. Although DMA may periodically steal cycles from the CPU, data is transferred much faster than using the CPU for every byte of transfer. On PCs, there are eight DMA channels commonly used as follows. Most sound cards are set to use DMA channel 1. DMA Used for 0 8-bit transfer 1 8-bit transfer 2 Floppy disk controller 3 8-bit transfer 4 Cascaded from 0-3 5 16-bit transfer 6 16-bit transfer 7 16-bit transfer PIODMA.WMF

Make sure that your motherboard drivers are installed.

ray96, Assuming that the unspecified CD-RW drive is being installed in the computer whose SPECS are given above[Win95/166 MHZ (I guess it is the CPU speed)] the following factors need to be considered: 1. ONLY OEM versions of Win95 and NOT all Retail versions have DMA support for IDE devices. Release Version File dates DMA support Windows 95 retail 4.00.950 7/11/95 no Windows 95 retail SP1 4.00.950A 7/11/95 no OEM Service Release 1 4.00.950A 7/11/95 no OEM Service Release 2 4.00.1111 (4.00.950B) 8/24/96 yes OEM Service Release 2.1 4.03.1212-1214 (4.00.950B) 8/24/96-8/27/97 yes OEM Service Release 2.5 4.03.1214 (4.00.950C) 8/24/96-11/18/97 yes Some currently availabl, high speed CD-RW drives (52X32x52x) may not work with CPU less than Pentium /Celeron 266MHz. Check the Product documentation BEFORE installing the device.