DVD/CD-Rom Drive problems ; Choppy Audio / Video

I was having problems with DVD-Audio and Video on one of our Laptops in Windows XP, it turned out to be transfer mode for the hardware controller in device manager; below is the solution that solved it for me:

First off, go to:


Start -> Settings -> Control Panel -> System

This will open up a display. From here, on the top of this new window click on
"HARDWARE"

From under this tab, click on DEVICE MANAGER.

Another window should open up with several listings. Look for the one called
"IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers" or something very VERY similier to this.

Click on the + next to the name, a list of other things should drop down under it.

From in here, we ONLY want to look at
SECONDARY IDE CHANNEL

This is because, such things like your CD-ROM, DVD-ROM etc are connected through this.

Now, this is what you need to look for in the Secondary IDE Channel

Right click Secondary and select Properties

Another window will open up, look for the Tab named Advanced Settings and click on it.

Under this tab you should see two box's.

DEVICE 0 and DEVICE 1

NOTE: DEVICE 1 under CURRENT TRANSFER MODE might state it does not apply. If so, ignore it, if it does not state that it is not in use, then do the same for DEVICE 1 as you do for DEVICE 0

In Device 0 it should read out as following, there should not be anything stating PIO unless your computer is fairly old (like... 1999 or older.. it varies):
-----------------------------------------
DEVICE TYPE: Auto Detection
Transfer Mode: DMA if available
Current Transfer Mode: Ultra DMA Mode 5
-----------------------------------------

Now, Current Transfer Mode can say something different.
EX: Mode 1 is a slower form, and Mode 5 is very fast as in Ultra Quick. So it may display something a bit different, as long as it states it is in DMA mode it should be alright. Also, it may say something like.. "Multi-Word DMA Mode 2"

IF
TRANSFER MODE: "PIO Only"
switch that over to "DMA if available" and restart your computer.
Once restarted, come back in and continue the checks from this point
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

IF
-----------------------------
TRANSFER MODE: "DMA if available"
Current Transfer Mode: PIO Mode
-----------------------------
Then we have a problem, if this is TRUE, then click on the Driver Tab in this window at the top.

From here, Uninstall Drivers.
It will give you a warning, no worries, continue on. Once you restart your computer it will automatically detect the devices and reinstall everything for you.

Once done, try playing your DVD and see if it works. If not, go back in and make sure everything is the way it should be.

If not, sorry, you could try this again if you'd wish.

Causes for this changing over to PIO mode:

Disk Errors on the cd/dvd disk itself can cause this. For an example of what caused mine:

I've been playing Final Fantasy IX on my laptop using an emulator. Though, alot of the copies of DISK 2 for the game were bad copies and have corrupted files on it. I kept trying to play past these corrupted parts.

Sometimes, this repeated use to read the disk and it having to skip back and fourth trying to kicked it into another mode.. this usually happens after five or so of these. A dirty lense causing it to have plenty of trouble or dirty disk could also do the same thing.