Sometimes under Windows XP there can be data problems with the computer.  These can be caused by shutting down the computer improperly, spyware/viruses, power issues, faulty hardware, etc.  When this happens repeatedly Windows XP will sometimes set your hard drive into a MUCH SLOWER data transfer mode called PIO Mode.

In order to verify that your drive works in DMA mode, or to change it to DMA mode, follow these steps.

Open the hardware setting dialog of Windows. To do this, right-click on 'My computer' and select Properties.

Then, choose the 'Hardware' tab and click on 'Device Manager'.

Each drive is controlled by an IDE ATA/ATAPI controller. There are probably two controllers in your computer, each with two devices.

The drive letter of each burner determines the controller and device responsible for it. The table below can be used to determine the correct controller for your drive.  NOTE: Machines may vary from the table.

Look for the 'IDE ATA/ATAPI' controllers icon and expand it by clicking on the (+) sign next to it. Select either the Primary or secondary IDE channel, which controls your burner drive, right click on it and select Properties.

Go to the 'Advanced settings' tab, and the device that you want to set (Device 0 or Device 1). The example below shows that drive D: works in PIO only mode. You should modify this to 'DMA if available'  mode, to let Windows select DMA mode if it is supported by your burner (it usually is).

If the transfer Mode says DMA if Available, but the current transfer mode still says PIO Only, then you have the problem.

To force Windows to re-detect the transfer mode and hopefully reset it to DMA :

Run REGEDIT. Go to the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlClass{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}

It has subkeys like 0000, 0001, 0002, etc. Normally 0001 is the primary IDE channel, 0002 the secondary, but other numbers can occur under certain circumstances. You have to go through these subkeys and check the DriverDesc value until you find the proper IDE channel.

Delete MasterIdDataChecksum or SlaveIdDataChecksum, depending on whether the device in question is attached as master or slave, but it can't actually hurt to delete both. Reboot. The drive DMA capabilities will be redetected.

Open Device Manager again and check whether the device is now actually using DMA mode. If so, congratulations, you've made it (at least until the next time Windows disables DMA).

If not, refollow the previous step, but also remove:

MasterDeviceTimingMode
MasterDeviceTimingModeAllowed
UserMasterDeviceTimingModeAllowed

or

SlaveDeviceTimingMode
SlaveDeviceTimingModeAllowed
UserSlaveDeviceTimingModeAllowed

depending on which device is needed.

Reboot. The drive DMA capabilities will be redetected.Open Device Manager again and check whether the device is now actually using DMA mode.

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