Technoslick wrote:
No breakage. What I have noticed is that a CD-ROM drive becomes unreliableWell I guess you have a point because my msi mobo comes with a bios
in reading. It works sometimes, other times not. Can't tell that the
contents of the drive has changed. Or stops working. With storage mediums
that you write to, like hard drives, it will begin to scramble it, until you
are not able to use it. I have not seen any drives actually harmed. I ended
up having to start over again in loading Windows.
I tend to forget as much as I remember anymore, so when Tom Brinkman
mentioned the problem was actually stemming from the motherboard's chipset,
I remembered reading about that a long time ago. If you are using an older
motherboard, especially one that happens to be a cheap brand, there is a
chance that applying DMA witll cause a Read-Only device to not work properly
or a hard drive to scramble its data.
You need to keep in mind that I still use a lot of old equipment and
therefore am more sensitive to these issues than those who are working with
equipment less than a few years old. I am using EPOX, MicroStar and some
VxPro boards, that have not been avaiable for years. The same goes for my
peripheral cards and stuff. I have too many computers, and not the wallet to
justfy replacing everything I own every few years to "keep up with the
Jones'." I agree with what has been said by many here that there shouldn't
be any problems with today's equipment using DMA. My question is..."How many
users throughout the world are trying to use Mandrake Linux on an older box
that may have problems activating DMA?"
I'll take some heat and good-natured debate over this if someone takes my
advice and backs up their data first before taking the plunge on old
equipment, knowing that it could be a problem. :-)
Technoslick wrote:
setting by default is DMA disabled. I don't suppose they do that for nothing.
So I for one will keep the substance of this discussion stowed away at the
back of my mind. Just in case.
John
--
John Richard Smith
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
