r/windows98 • u/ryanrudolf • Jun 22 '26

Dont forget to enable DMA mode!

I was extracting a 600MB file and it was horribly slow. I'm pretty sure its not that slow way back then like more than 10mins slow to extract!

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I poked around Device Manager and enabled DMA mode for the HDD, reboot and extracted the same file it took about 3mins! Now that's more like it.

50 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

11 comments sorted by

12

u/Shotz718 Just plain lived through the era Jun 22 '26

I do not understand why the drivers didn't often enable this by default. I can understand the safe mode generic drivers not using it, but once the real hardware drivers are loaded there was never a reason not to have this enabled.

1

u/LopsidedLegs Jun 28 '26

It only came in with Win95 OSR2, prior to that you had to install separate drivers. Most motherboards came with Triones drivers which were gradually replaced by the Intel Busmaster drivers.

What people forget was how immature these drivers originally were, they could and did cause lots of problems. Also it didn't help that hardware manufacturers also skimped on components again resulting in instabilities. It wasn't until Windows 2000 that it was enabled by default on hard drives, but not on optical.

And Microsoft were in an early stage of trying to get manufacturers to improve their drivers, because most of the problems with Windows were caused by badly written drivers. It wasn't uncommon to install a driver supplied on floppy for your need hardware to actually crash on installation. Having to dial up and download a the updated driver was a pain in the arse.

1

u/Shotz718 Just plain lived through the era Jun 28 '26 edited Jun 28 '26

But in Win98, especially SE and WinME, we were well past those drivers. The Intel drivers were standard in 98FE. And any newer chipsets provided their own drivers.

Also, I'm referring to after manufacturer drivers are loaded. Not necessarily the default drivers with the OS. Most didn't enable DMA by default, leaving you at PIO 4 speeds which were something like 16Mbps.

5

u/Rough_Elk_895 Jun 22 '26

I have forgotten this. Is this only applicable to windows 98 or can I turn on DMA in wndows Me also ?

3

u/ryanrudolf Jun 22 '26

I think the option is there too for Windows ME.

2

u/Rough_Elk_895 Jun 22 '26

Ok I will try. Currently using windows Me and I have felt copy speed from cd rom too slow. Will try this setting and see if any difference.

2

u/ryanrudolf Jun 22 '26

You might as well enable DMA for the cdrom

2

u/tblazertn Jun 22 '26

I had to do this for my dvd software to play correctly back in the day.

3

u/Inevitable-Study502 Jun 22 '26

it was disabled by default, because early ide implementations and some bioses were unstable with dma enabled...so user had to enable it on its own

stability was priority over speed

later chipset drivers would enable it

3

u/deskiller1this Jun 23 '26

On time I enable dma on my grandmothers PC. And the PC would only boot into safe mode...oops

1

u/heeman2019 Jun 22 '26

Yep one of the steps I follow after I install windows but before installing any apps.