CDRLabs.com

I used Samsung's Firmware Liveupdate to update the firmware of my SW232B to version R301 from the initial version R300. Before updating, the drive was running fine in DMA mode (I use Windows 2000). After the update, even though "DMA if Available" is still selected for the drive, it will only run in PIO mode. I've noticed that this is leading to extremely low buffer levels during recording at 32x, causing the buffer underrun protection to be invoked frequently. I've not been able to find any information about this on Samsung's websites, and their technical support staff has not answered my queries. Did Samsung purposefully discontinue support of DMA mode for this drive for some reason? Can I flash the firmware back to version R300 safely to recover the DMA functionality?

Try enabling the UDMA Mode 2 in the bios and see if that helps. YOu can always go back to a previous version of the firmware (if it hasnt locked you out from doing so)

look at the FAQ:
Problems enabling DMA in Windows XP
this is for XP, but 2K is similar to XP in many respect, try uninstalling the IDE in device manager see if that helps.

Thank you both for your help! Dodecahedron, the unistall/reinstall of the IDE fixed the problem. Thanks again!

you're welcome!