ATA speed problems


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in xp when i go to the IDE channel settings and can enable dma etc for the drives, in the box that says current for both my cd and dvd drive it is only listed as "multi word Dma mode 2", however the cd-rw drive is Ata 33 and the Dvd drive Ata 66, so should it not say dmm mode 3 and mode 4 for the dvd???

and i am using a ATA 100 80pin cable, and my hard disk is runing at mode 5 on the other channel

any ideas??

my mother board is an asus a7m 266

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well, it wouldn't really matter what it said anyways since any device will only operate at the lowest capable setting of connected device. (mmm, confusingly phrased...)

i.e: your DVD is ATA66, but CDRom is ATA33, the DVD will only operate at ATA33 anyways. (since they are connected on the same IDE ribbon)

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huh, that does seem like a step down, are you sure its ata33 and ata66, i could be wrong but i have never heard of an ata66 optical drive (i may be wrong not big on dvd drives)

if you are getting decent speeds i would not compain, there is virutally no difference between ata33 and ata100 and ata133 is a joke

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your DVD is ATA66, but CDRom is ATA33, the DVD will only operate at ATA33 anyways. (since they are connected on the same IDE ribbon)

i have been told this is no longer the case, that most motherboard chipsets can now handel each device at its highest rated speed

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where the hell have you been... LOL this hasn't been the case for years... atleast 2yrs. Chipsets no max out any device connected to it.

The main reason is drivers. Oh and one thing tho, Windows XP (i assume you're using that) will force some drives back down to a lower speed if they don't fully conform to the specification at which they advertise themselves. So even tho in Windows 2k it will operate and operate fine under ATA-33 and 66 Windows XP will (in the case of most CDRW drives) force it back to Multi-Word DMA 2. In any case you don't need it to be much faster than that anyways cuz MW-DMA can handle 16-20MBytes/s (a lil faster than PIO-4 which is 16MBytes/s max) It's a quality issue instead of a speed thing with Windows XP.

GRR well i can't find it but it's in the MS KB Articles online. Windows XP will put the drive at a slower speed if it does conform properly to the spec or something like that but i know it's there.

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