[mommama]

So-

From the GREAT dell tech support.

When, after adding another hard drive you can't get the IDE "current transfer" (in the device manager under IDE's) from PIO to DMA (it's greyed out as PIO mode only). Here's the trick........thanks to Lee at Dell.........

You have to go to BIOS, and then make sure the following on your keyboard is lit....

the num lock, the caps lock, and the scroll lock.

then press alt f and wait for beep
press alt e and wait for beep
press alt b and wait for beep.

Computer restarts, and rechecks all device/drive connections. At that point it "sees" and engages the 2nd drive fully. Then go to Device Manager and witness the miracle- the PIO is finally switched to DMA (DMA mode is finally seen by the stupid computer).

This solved my H/W Buffer problems and CPU problems on my Win XP PT 6.1.1 (occuring on slave drive only) I have no other answers but this.

Good Luck and thanks to Digi for trying to help.

Best

K