DVD-RW now using PIO mode

[Jerrinfla]

Anyone have any idea why this might have happened?
System is an AMD socket A board running XP home.
Primary IDE has two hard drives both running in ultra DMA mode 6.
Secondary IDE has a TDK CDRW running in ultra DNA mode 2 as a master, and a Pioneer DVD-RW 111-D running in PIO mode as a slave.
The Pioneer DVD burner worked flawlessly for a few months and quite a few burns. It is still burning just fine, although it is running inexorably slow without using DMA access.
It was running nice & fast using Shrink, RipIt4Me, Fab Decrypter, and DVD Decrypter up until yesterday.
The only new program I installed in the last several months (besides updates for Fab) was a program to use PAR files with. However, that was a month ago. Just in case there was any relevance, I completely removed it using System Restore so anything added to the registry by installing it would be taken out.
I then removed the dvd drive in safe mode and restarted, letting windows redetect and install the drive.
The drive shows properly as a Pioneer 111-D DVD-RW drive, However, it is still the only IDE drive in my system using PIO access mode. I checked the BIOS and it is set to automatically select DMA if it's available.
Even though the drive still works fine, is this a sign that the drive is starting to fail?

[soup]

See if this will help.

http://forum.digital-digest.com/showthread.php?t=64967.

[Chewy]

it only takes 5 glitches with a drive to put it into pio mode if you haven't
upgraded to sp2 with windows xp, it takes 5 errors consecutively with sp2 to do the same.

A bad cable or non-optimal setup can aggrevate this. Having a newer drive slaved to an older drive can cause errors also.

The pioneer is obviously a better drive than the old TDK cd burner, if you have to keep the tdk it should be slave.

[Jerrinfla]

it only takes 5 glitches with a drive to put it into pio mode if you haven't
upgraded to sp2 with windows xp, it takes 5 errors consecutively with sp2 to do the same.

A bad cable or non-optimal setup can aggrevate this. Having a newer drive slaved to an older drive can cause errors also.

The pioneer is obviously a better drive than the old TDK cd burner, if you have to keep the tdk it should be slave.

Thanks for the response - I'll post the results when I get to running the Pioneer drive standalone.

[Jerrinfla]

it only takes 5 glitches with a drive to put it into pio mode if you haven't
upgraded to sp2 with windows xp, it takes 5 errors consecutively with sp2 to do the same.

A bad cable or non-optimal setup can aggrevate this. Having a newer drive slaved to an older drive can cause errors also.

The pioneer is obviously a better drive than the old TDK cd burner, if you have to keep the tdk it should be slave.

Thanks Chewy - I didn't pull the tdk or switch the jumpers, but your comment on errors prompted me to look into that being the cause further.
I found an article by microsoft here

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/817472/

and while I did not use their hotfix, I ripped out the secondary ide controller in device manager and restarted, which of course meant I then had to reinstall my via 4 in 1 drivers so the secondary controller would be detected and reinstalled correctly.
That fixed the problem. The drive is now back up to speed, and writing a DVD dropped back down to about 7 minutes, rather then the 25 minutes it was taking while the drive was running in pio mode. Previously I had only ripped out the dvd drive itself in device manager, rather then the ide controller it was on, and that provided no joy.
Another question for you, if I may ask. As far as the cumulative errors go, if I am backing up one of my personal dvds with arcoos protection, and I get a read error in shrink, would that count as one of the 6 cumulative errors?

[Chewy]

and I get a read error in shrink, would that count as one of the 6 cumulative errors?

that would be a definite yes, if you don't have sp2 installed, I would seriously reccomend it

which of course meant I then had to reinstall my via 4 in 1 drivers so the secondary controller would be detected and reinstalled correctly.

au contaire mi lady, xp has better drivers than the via 4 in 1, especially with sp2 and a socket a mobo

those alone could be your major source of errors

[Jerrinfla]

that would be a definite yes, if you don't have sp2 installed, I would seriously reccomend it



au contaire mi lady, xp has better drivers than the via 4 in 1, especially with sp2 and a socket a mobo

those alone could be your major source of errors

Not a lady, but I sure agree with those via 4 in 1 drivers being abysmal. When I first built this box a few years ago (pre sp2), there were serious problems with the bus drivers or ide controllers and the creative soundblaster live card I installed. Any data transferred or downloaded was corrupted beyond usability. This resulted in creative and via merely pointing figures at each other and neither working on correcting the issue.
I then put a turtle beach sound card in this box & it's run like a champ ever since.
However, the situation put me off Via enough that I will never buy a motherboard using their chipset again. I switched to Nforce for the 6 computers I built for family members and for my second pc afterwards. I even used the creative sound blaster live in my second pc to see if the card was flaky, and it had no problems residing there at all.
BTW, I do have sp2 installed, but when I reinstalled the secondary ide controller, windows saw it as an unrecognized device until I reinstalled the Via drivers. Probably because I did not rip out the entire via bus driver, but being as the system has been running very well for so long as is, I'm reluctant to pull the ide controller and try native drivers in it now.