[Cialug] OT: DVD drive problem

[Tim Wilson]

On 9/10/07, Mark Hesseltine <markhesseltine at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Install VideoLan on it and try playing an audio CD or DVD. A default
> build of VLC should have codecs for both, which would rule out codec
> issues. If it's still skipping and stuttering, it's probably related
> to the drive.



Good idea about VLC.  The guy said to install something with codecs, and VLC
would probably do the trick.

But I did find something else interesting.  I did a Google search for DVD
PIO, and I found this:
http://winhlp.com/?q=node/10
--------
For repeated DMA errors. Windows XP will turn off DMA mode for a device
after encountering certain errors during data transfer operations. If more
that six DMA transfer timeouts occur, Windows will turn off DMA and use only
PIO mode on that device.

In this case, the user cannot turn on DMA for this device. The only option
for the user who wants to enable DMA mode is to uninstall and reinstall the
device.

Windows XP downgrades the Ultra DMA transfer mode after receiving more than
six CRC errors. Whenever possible, the operating system will step down one
UDMA mode at a time (from UDMA mode 4 to UDMA mode 3, and so on).
--------
If a drive is failing, that would give CRC errors, and would cause XP to
revert to PIO mode.  So I'm still thinking it is a failing drive.  I think
I'm going to pursue the Knoppix idea (thanks Josh), and see what happens.
But, if the Knoppix test succeeds, I'll definitely try VLC to repair the
codecs.  There is also a registry edit to re-enable DMA in the link above.
I might try that to see if that fixes it at least temporarily.



On 9/10/07, Tim Wilson <tim_linux at wilson-home.com> wrote:
> > I know a question about Windows make most people on the list shudder,
> but I
> > think someone at Best Buy is blowing smoke (or has inhaled too deeply).
> >
> > My wife's laptop started experiencing issues a little over a week ago,
> with
> > one of the auto-launch programs saying that a device was not using DMA
> mode.
> >  So I went to the disk controller in Device Manager, and sure enough, it
> was
> > set to use DMA mode if available, but it was using PIO mode.  We also
> > noticed that the drive was making noises, and the laptop was quite
> sluggish
> > when anything was using the DVD drive.  Since it is under warranty, I
> took
> > it in to Best Buy, and the "tech" at Geek Squad said it wasn't a failing
> > drive, it was corrupted codecs.  He played an audio CD, and it skipped
> and
> > hesitated.  So his argument was that it had to be a codec, because even
> in
> > PIO mode, the CD should be fine.
> >
> > I'll admit, that test was pretty convincing, but it still doesn't
> explain
> > the sluggishness of the laptop while the DVD is in use.  That to me
> sounds
> > like a PIO mode issue.
> >
> > Does this sound remotely plausible to anyone?  Would putting a live CD
> > distro in and testing with it prove helpful?
> >
> > --
> > Tim
> > _______________________________________________
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> >
> >
>
>
> --
> Mark Hesseltine
> mailto:markhesseltine at gmail.com
> _______________________________________________
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>



-- 
Tim
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