CD or DVD Drive Slow? Change it from PIO to DMA Mode

When you burn a CD or DVD in Windows, your DVD burner usually uses the DMA (Direct Memory Access) mode. Basically, this allows you to transfer large chunks of data onto your DVD, using as little CPU memory as possible. In other words, it helps you burn your DVDs faster.

However, Windows has this weird concept of switching your drive to a lower mode, depending on read/write errors. This means that after around six errors, your DVD drive will automatically shift to PIO mode. This requires more CPU memory to function, which in turn greatly slows down burning speed. If your drive is in PIO mode, burning one DVD will take you more than an hour.

There are a few ways to switch your drive back to DMA mode, depending on whichever one you choose. I’m going to provide two of them. First, right click My Computer > Properties. Go to Hardware > Device Manager > IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers. Click on the ‘+’ sign next to it and then right click on the Primary or Secondary IDE channel (depending on which one your burner is connected to) option and select Properties > Advanced Settings. Look at the entry in the ‘Current Transfer Mode’. If it says ‘PIO’, you know that the mode has been changed.

The First Method

In the first method to revert back to DMA mode, in the Advanced Settings tab, there is an entry labeled Transfer Mode. Click on the drop-down menu next to it and select the option ‘DMA if available’. Click OK on the Advanced Settings tab when you are done. Windows will ask you if you want to reboot for these settings to take effect. Allow your PC to reboot. Then go back to your Primary or Secondary channel (whichever you changed) and look at the Current Transfer Mode. If it still says PIO, this method is not working for you.

The Second Method (This is a more radical one)

The second method is to simply UNINSTALL your drive. Go to the IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers and right click on the channel to which your drive is connected. Select ‘Uninstall’ and go ahead and uninstall the drive. Then reboot your computer. When it reboots, Windows will automatically detect your drives. Once, this is done, go back and check your drive mode. It should automatically be in DMA mode. If not, select the Transfer mode as DMA and then reboot again. This time it should definitely work.

Note: I realize that most of you will be a little apprehensive about the second method. None of y’all know me and I cannot guarantee you that this will fix your problem. All I can say is that I’ve used this method (more than once and on different PCs!) and it worked for me every time. However, if you don’t want to try uninstalling your drives, that’s fine. I’m not forcing anyone to do anything they’re not comfortable with. Via [onthegosoft]

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