This is a message for the sake of anyone frustrated by the Windows ‘feature’ which leaves you unable to get your IDE controller out of PIO mode, i.e. your computer will run like a lame dog so forget about smooth audio recording…
This happens which Windows detects failures in the hard drive which, in my case were caused by old version of Gigasampler (the filesys f’up), and prevents you from resetting the IDE controller to DMA mode.
After locating two sites offering solutions and having no success I eventually found the final fix by checking the registry settings of the secondary IDE controller and making adjustments to the primary controller that had the fault. Here’s what worked for me:
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. Check the DriverDesc value to see which one it is.
Delete MasterIdDataChecksum or SlaveIdDataChecksum, depending on whether the device in question is attached as master or slave
1. On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.
2. Type ResetErrorCountersOnSuccess, and then press ENTER.
3. On the Edit menu, click Modify.
4. Type 1, and then click OK.
1. On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.
2. Type UserMasterDeviceTimingModeAllowed, and then press ENTER.
3. On the Edit menu, click Modify.
4. Type ffffffff, and then click OK.
Exit the Registry Editor, open Control Panel
1. Double-click Administrative Tools, and then click Computer Management.
2. Click System Tools, and then click Device Manager.
3. Expand the IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers node.
4. Double-click the controller for which you want to restore the typical DMA transfer mode.
5. Click the Driver tab.
6. Click Uninstall.
7. When the process completes, restart your computer. When Windows restarts, the hard disk controller is re-enumerated and the transfer mode is reset to the default value for each device that is connected to the controller.
Go to the device manager again and check the IDE controllers Properties - right click Properties. You should have DMA mode back and be off to the bar for a celebration drink. If not, select DMA if available, reboot, and check again. You should have noticed the increase in speed by the time you get to check if you’re in DMA mode.
Sir