[Cialug] OT: DVD drive problem

[Tim Wilson]

On 9/10/07, dlg at dsrw.org <dlg at dsrw.org> wrote:
>
> On Mon, Sep 10, 2007 at 03:57:50PM -0500, Tim Wilson 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?
>
> Yes.  You should also be able to attempt to force DMA mode from
> within Windows.  If this fails (I assume since it is under
> warranty it is fairly new, and will therefore support DMA) it is
> more data in favor of it being a hardware problem.


She got it last November, so yeah, it is pretty new.  But there's only one
drop-down box, and it is already set to use DMA if available.  I didn't see
a way to force DMA, except to do the registry hack I mentioned in my
response to Mark's response.

"Corrupt codecs" would not explain why the OS made a decision to
> change the hardware from DMA to PIO.  This is not a "codec"
> decision.  All codecs do is enable the OS to decode the data
> coming off the disk, it would not govern the way or speed at
> which the data is read.


That's what I thought.  But the "tech" was convinced that Windows would go
from DMA to PIO mode automatically (and he made it sound like it would go
back to DMA mode too).  The more research I do, the more I think he is full
of it.  I guess I'll be making a trip to a different Best Buy, or stalking
to see when he isn't at work to ensure I don't get him again. :-)

I think the article I found (see my response to Mark's response) pretty much
sums it up.  It was working fine, then all of a sudden it started stuttering
and acting sluggish.  That sounds like PIO mode caused by CRC errors to me.


  --david
>
>
>
> >
> > --
> > Tim
>
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-- 
Tim
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