UDMA problems

[nwg]

I have recently had to replace the motherboard with the same model as it start smoking and burned out.

Everything seems ok with the new board except for one thing. MY DMA has changed to multi word DMA 2. Whatever, I do I cannot change it. Both two hard disks and LG DVD writer is on that setting.

I have -

Updated BIOS
Tried another cable
Removed and installed the IDE channels.

I am using the same cables as before in the same IDE socket (IDE 1 for hard disks and IDE 2 fo LG).

I have managed to burn CD's and DVD's ok and otherwise, the computer is running ok.

Any Ideas?

[Alien Bay]

I have managed to burn CD's and DVD's ok and otherwise, the computer is running ok.

Any Ideas?

Yea. Be happy that you changed your mother board, your burning CDs and DVDs and everything is running ok.

[nwg]

Yea. Be happy that you changed your mother board, your burning CDs and DVDs and everything is running ok.

Definitely.

I may change the IDE cables. My computer has a blue/silver theme. I have seen some nice blue IDE cables that would look good under my blue LED heatsink fan.

It also only cost me £30 for the board of ebay (the first one was £130 18 months ago). I think that is cheap for getting the computer up an running again.

[cynthia]

Checked on my own.

CD/DVD devices is set to Ultra DMA Mode 2.

A new hard disk is running as Ultra DMA Mode 5. A very old one - 6GB - is running as Ultra DMA Mode 2.

I think that you are confused to the fact that your old motherboard only showed the word DMA. Can it be so?

Was it an AMD that burned up?

[nwg]

Checked on my own.
I think that you are confused to the fact that your old motherboard only showed the word DMA. Can it be so?

Was it an AMD that burned up?

All CD and DVD drives are UDMA mode 2 max (66MB/sec).

The DMA setiing is Multi-Word DMA mode 2. It was more common with win95/98 before faster speed could be obtained. It can only do up to 16MB/sec compared to UDMA mode 5 which is up to 100MB/sec. Apparantly, I read somewhere that if one drive is multi-word then they all have to be.

The older motherboard was definitely a UDMA mode. I can't remember the number though. The DVD writer was UDMA mode 2 as expected.

It was a Athlon XP board that went. See pic.

http://www.apah20.dsl.pipex.com/computer/damage.jpg

[cynthia]

The only thing I remember is that for UDMA 5 you need a 80 conductor cable. If you only have a 40 conductor cable - you end up in a lower UDMA setting.

[Experi-Mentor]

nwg - if the drives were in use in the system with when the burnt m/b happened, then concider the possibilty that the drives interfaces "may" have been damaged (slightly).
&, if you're still using your older (burnt m/b cables) cables - change them too.

whist you're at it, examine your p/sup more carefully (inc. all the plugs & wires). these switchmode p/sup's can be a pain (when they start playing-up).

[nwg]

I can only think the cables might be the reason. They were in the computer when the board went. Obviously, the IDE sockets are new on the new board.

I had to take the PC apart bit by bit and then put it back together. The power supply seems fine.

I probably get some cables anyway. Even it didn't fix the problem. They would look nice in the case.

[awesomeincalg]

Check your jumper settings in the install manual, nwg. You may have them set wrong and by passing a crucial circuit...

[awesomeincalg]

Oh yea...go into the bios at boot and check stuff there too!

[nwg]

Already done all that. I have found something that is promising. I unzipped raid drivers and there was a ATA133 driver. I have installed it and will restart after I finished burning.

[awesomeincalg]

Have you done a mother board driver update? VIA Hyperion ( or Intel) drivers? It might be the IDE and/or busmaster drivers...

[nwg]

Have you done a mother board driver update? VIA Hyperion ( or Intel) drivers? It might be the IDE and/or busmaster drivers...

Yes.

[awesomeincalg]

Let me know what happens with the RAID drivers...I'll ponder in the meantime... LOL!

[nwg]

They didn't work. I am using the HDD as drive C as before so it should be ok and at least the same UDMA.

I will be changing the cables sometime.