I have another computer that the drive on it only allows for PIO Mode, can this be changed in the BIOS or is it a function of the drive? 100 gig WD. Thanks

Most likely you will have to download an updated driver for the IDE card

Sounds like you have an UDMA capable drive it is 100 GB.
The following could be wrong:

1) your BIOS (either in the PC or if you are using an additional IDE card there will be one on there as well) doesn't support UDMA. Upgrade the BIOS or get a new mainboard/IDE card (like the promise models)

2) it is for some reason disabled in Windows (tell us which version you are running)

3) you have another drive (harddisk / cd or dvd player/writer etc.) on the same cable as the harddisk that is PIO mode only. Move this to another IDE channel or remove this drive

4) as Edward indicated you need to install your chipset/mainboard drivers or update these

I'd say 2 or 3 are the most likely cause of your problem.

Thanks, some good ideas there. It's a small form factor computer,
'cube type' for mobility. I'm running XP Pro. The primary IDE is the 100 gig, the secondary is a dvd burner. There is nothing else
in there as there is no more room. I'm actually thinking number (4) that you listed I'm just hoping that they actually have an update that will do this. I really don't want to replace the motherboard if it can be avoided. What would you change in the bios? You said upgrage your bios. I know this is the problem because it was with my main computer (and you guys fixed it with your posts).

Okay, XP Pro. That's good. Go to your hardware list:

- Start -> Settings -> Control Panel -> System
- Hardware -> Device Manager

Then go down into:

- IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers -> Primary IDE Channel
- Right click with the mouse -> Properties
- Advanced Settings

Make sure the "Transfer Mode" is set to "DMA if available"
You can check what it is running under by checking the
"Current Transfer Mode"

Which brings me to a new question. How do you know the drive
is running in PIO mode? Where did you see this?

You might want to disconnect the DVD burner, see what happens.
If that fixes your problem you can always buy an external IDE
housing for it and hook it up through UBS2/firewire?

See I've done that, It says 'DMA if available', click on it and it reverts right back to PIO. I'm going to attempt to get the driver
updates tonight and see what happens, hopefully I won't have to
tear the guts out of this thing, it's actually only about four months
old. One thing that may be different is in the small form factor computers, the motherboards are smaller renditions of regular desktop computers. It's a full P4 computer in a box about the size
of a car battery so it may have limitations I'm not familiar with. I'll start with the simplest thing first, if no luck I'll be pursuing your suggested options. Thanks!

One thing I've heard worked for someone was to delete the controller card, reboot, and let Windows re-add it. Once Windows put it back, it was able to use DMA again. Might be worth a shot.

Wow that would be a great simple fix, I'll try that first. Thanks.

Hi Michael,

Maybe your problem already is solved - if not:

Check the cable - have said it a 100 times :-) UDMA drives requires the new IDE cable type with twice as many wires making up the cable ( every second cable is ground - allowing for higher speeds ). My drives won't go to UDMA mode when connected with and "old" style cable.

// Lazze \\

Thank you - yes, this is definitely a consideration. The cables
inside these 'cube' computers are about a 1/4" wide/layered.
Oddly though, just last night my friend re installed XP Pro and
the bios is now showing UDMA 5. Don't know how this happened
and don't have the computer back yet but I'm hopeful. The cables were the next consideration. I wanted the hard drive completely cleaned off so the re install served two purposes.

Thanks so much for your input

It's working flawlesly. Thanks for all the input.