Hi, my Plextor CD burner runs only in PIO mode on the second IDE channel, not in DMA mode. I tried to set it to DMA but it still only wants to run in PIO mode. The CD burner is a rather new Plextor drive. All DMA settings in the BIOS are on auto so I can't find how to get my burner to work on DMA again. Burning and reading with it is very slow now. I remember it was faster sometime earlier.

Are you using an older 40pin IDE ribbon cable? If so, get an 80pin IDE ribbon cable. This should resolve the problem. How do you know if you are using a 40 or 80 pin? The 80 pin ribbon cables are much thiner and if you fold them, they hold the shape. The older 40pin cables don't bend as well. Also, are you sure it was always running in DMA? You also might see if there are newer chipset drivers for your chipset. KTTD

Yes I use 80pin Cables on both HDD's and CD-Burner. Also I've just updated to the newest VIA chipset drivers. ... no change! I'm am at least sure that my CD burning was alot faster some time ago, it's a 24x burner and only burns with max 12 now and often has buffer underruns (whose are prevented because burner has burn-proof). And I think I had the CD burner on DMA earlier. But now also reading from CD takes ages. It was not always like this.

How do the drive run if it you slave it off of the Master HDD? Before doing anything else, this is the step I would take. KTTD

Ive had the same problem and cured it by running my burner as master off the second IDE channel then slaving my cdrom off my hard disk.. Its the only way that i could seem to get it to burn at full speed and running DMA.

the burner runs here on the second IDE alone as master. hdd1 and hdd2 are on IDE1. however i've fixed the prob now. i've de-installed the VIA bus master IDE controller. and after it re-installed itself i could use the burner on dma again. =)

SAS, Thanks for getting back to us with your resolution and glad you resolved your issue. KTTD