Technical data

7.4 IDE/ATA/SATA

• The IDE controller/channel is deactivated, e.g. on an onboard IDE controller. Activate the IDE

controller/channel via the BIOS setup.

• Standard IDE controllers (ISA) are not taken into account if PCI IDE controllers are available.

Connect the respective hard disk to a PCI IDE controller in this case or deactivate the PCI IDE

controller or controllers.

• The used controller does not correspond to the PCI IDE standard. Although most controllers

support this standardized programming interface, there are some controllers which have only

a proprietary programming interface. More detailed information can be found in 3.3.1

IDE/ATA controllers. Connect the corresponding drives to another controller (PCI IDE control-

ler).

7.4.3 Problems with DMA

The following general problems can occur with (Ultra) DMA:

• The achieved speed is too slow despite DMA. Please consider that the achievable speed

(Fehler: Referenz nicht gefundenFehler: Referenz nicht gefunden) depends on many

factors and that this is not absolutely due to a problem with DMA.

• DMA mode is not available. When selecting the options (5.9.3 Options for the medium),

the option DMA is deactivated and locked in this case.

• Read, write or verification errors occur when using DMA.

In all cases, the problems can be due to the same reasons. When having problems with DMA,

you can principally use PIO mode at any time. Deactivate the option DMA of the concerned

drive when selecting the options (5.9.3 Options for the medium). Since PIO mode is usually

much slower than DMA, we recommend to try first of all the following hints and help instruc -

tions to possibly be able to use the DMA mode. Please consider the notes in subchapter

7.4.4 BIOS settings as well

• Check if the concerned drive really supports DMA. Some older drives and especially older

CompactFlash media do not support DMA.

• Make sure that from Ultra DMA Mode 3 on an 80-wire data cable is used to connect the

drives.

• Please note that when two drives are connected via the same cable, the DMA mode of the

slower drive is also used for the faster drive. Remove the slower drive temporarily, if possible,

or connect the drives via separate channels or cables.

• Try both connections of the data cable (center connection and connection at the end) in

case of a single connected drive to eliminate possible problems with damping (center con-

nection) and reflection (connection at the end).

• Switch the used UltraDMA mode to a lower value in the BIOS setup (7.4.4.1 Switch to a

lower/higher UltraDMA mode) or deactivate UltraDMA (7.4.4.2 Activate/deactivate Ul-

traDMA). Multiword DMA mode will be (automatically) still available, which offers about a

twice to four times higher speed than PIO mode.