8K7A+ and PIO only problem, help!!!

[madmarios]

i have the epox 8k7a+ motherboard running on XP. i am getting this very annoying problem with my dvd drive (LITEON LTD163D) where the transfer mode changes to PIO and i have to uninstall the IDE driver many time every day. i know i have to install some drivers but i am very confused with these VIA IDE filter and miniport and i haven't installed any because i read that people had problems with them. i installed the newest 4in1 but the problem is still there. Do i need to install any other as well? please, can some one tell me exactly which drivers i need for this motherboard? thanks

[WyrmMaster]

Hey, i have had the same problem with my board. Worked fine for a long time, then reacently my cd drive, which was set to primary slave along with my harddrive went into pio never to return. I moved it to secondary slave along with my burner, and its working fnie sence. I also tried plugging the burner into primary slave and it went into pio. I never though of uninstalling the ide driver though, although i did reinstall the via driver several times. Try putting it on a different chanel, i think it may be a problem with the IDE controller.

[madmarios]

well if that is so then there is problem because all four ide channels are busy with two hard disks, dvd and cdrw. thanks for replying but my question was which drivers i really need to install for this motherboard. i dont want to mess with changing the cables because they are sort and i will need to buy new ones.

[WyrmMaster]

No to the other drivers, and you shouldnt install the entire 4 in 1 pack either. Leave the AGP driver out, install the other two. You probably already know this. If there are any other drivers i havent heard of them, and i have been running this board for a year now.

[madmarios]

ok now i am really lost! i hadn't install any drivers before because the system was working fine but since i replaced my old cdrom with a brand new dvd 16x48 i noticed the problem. if someone was asking me 2 months ago what drivers to install i would say none. but now i have problem and the right drivers are required.
i have managed to gather all four different drivers i could find for from epox and via, these are:

4in1
AMD AGP miniport
VIA IDE filter
VIA IDE miniport

the 4in1 i have already installed did not solve the problem. which of the others i need to install as well?

[WyrmMaster]

The 4 in 1 contains the VIA agp driver as well as the two VIA IDE drivers. If you install the 4 in 1 make sure you dont install the VIA AGP driver, just the other two.

The only other thing i can think of is that it somehow got set to PIO in the device manager, check in the IDE controller advanced settings tab.

[Ikester7579]

Try setting the mode in your bios to 2 or 3 for cdrom. Sometimes doing it manully will make windows set it to dma mode or at least give you the option to change it. Sometimes your bios can have a problem with your hardware.
If you set the mode too high it can mess up how the cdrom reads or writes the cd. Getting the right mode in bios can really speed up your cdroms and burners.

[EPoX Tech]

The only drivers required are the 4-in-1's (with the exception of AGP) and AMD AGP miniport under any O/S for correct IDE operation.

[roders]

Did any of you sort this out, I've got the same problem as you guy's, and the Via 4 in 1's haven't sorted it out.
I've ran with and without the 4in1's @ UDMA2 on my CDRW (secondary master) in the past with the same setup, but I've always only had PIO on my DVD (secondary slave).
I'm currently on PIO for both drives now.
I can only find one option in the Bios for UDMA and thats UDMA CD-Rom enable/disable.

[madmarios]

i installed the AMD AGP miniport from Epox web site and everything works perfect
thanks epox tech!

[roders]

I have had the AMD AGP driver installed for ages, this has nothing to do with my problem!!!!
Is this a EP8K7A or/andXP problem???
I'm obviously not the only one with this prob, and I want it sorted, ripping CD's takes FOREVER now.
Sorry if I seem a bit peeved, but epox UK hasn't replied to any of the four or five emails I've sent them over the last couple of weeks.

[madmarios]

i dont know what to say, epox uk has been brilliant to me when i had a request for a fan replacement couple of months ago.
i flashed the motherboard bios with the newest version they had from their site and installed the drivers the way epox tech explains above.
i also flashed the firmware of the device with the problem.
i didn't have the chance really to test it properly but looks fine until now. i hope it stays that way!
maybe you should try installing updates for everything and be careful with the 4in1 installation. dont install the agp driver from there. use the agp driver from the epox site.
you can also try to unistall the driver from the device manager, restart and then install the drivers required.
are you sure that your dvd support's UDMA2?

[roders]

I've had this Mobo since last November, I have ALL the correct drivers installed, I've got the latest Bios, My DVD drive is UDMA 33, as noted in the Bios, and the DVD makers website (Reliysis & Sony), and there does not appear to be a firmware upgrade available for my DVD drive.
Which one of these fixes gave you UDMA on your optical drives (I'm guessing the drive Rom flash).
As I have stated I have had DMA 2 on my secondary master (whether its the DVD or my Sony CDRW) in the past, with the same setup, so I'm confused as to what the problem is.
P.S I have had ok tech support in the past form Epox UK, and from Epox in general; but Epox UK seems to be selective in which of my emails they reply to, which doesn't help me much.

[Holst]

I have ALL the correct drivers installed

It sounds very much like you ahve a driver problem to me.

Uninstall your drivers then do as ET says and install the 4 in 1 and miniport driver only.

[roders]

Okay, I've uninstalled and reinstalled the drivers I need, and not the ones I don't, quite a few times now.

[madmarios]

have you set the jumpers on your drives properly? also, can you check your bios if the udma is enabled? did you try to uninstall the secondary IDE channel from the device manager and let the pc to restart? you can also try to disconnect the interface cable from your dvd, restart, shut down and connect it again. disconnecting the device and connecting it again does magic sometimes.