How do I enable DMA in XP Pro

[mikepg]

I am running Win XP Pro on a MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum MOBO, AMD 64 bit 3200, (4) 512Mb PC3200, ATI AIW X600, (2) WD 74Gb Raptor's, 200Gb WD IDE, NEC DVD+-R/RW. I have upgraded to the new ATI Media center and drivers. Windows has all of it's updates as well.

Here is my problem. When I start the ATI TV program, I get a pop-up message that tells me:
"Warning: DMA Not enabled. PVR abd TC-on-demand Performance will be degraded on this system as DMA for the HD is not enabled" It then tells me that I can go the the control panel and access my system information." It then has a drop down box that lists my 200GB drive first, and then my 2 74Gb drives. When I click OK it starts up but does run slowly sometimmes.

My question is:

1. Does DMA improve my drive performance?

2. Is it worth it to enable it?

3. How do I enable DMA?

4. Can DMA hurt the performance of my PC?

Thank you very much for any help you can provide.

 

[jeremy]

1) yes,alot
2) absolutly
3) look here http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=101616 ,however its not windows only depended it mainly depends on the dma configuration in the bios
4) no , only improve it

 

[mikepg]

Thank you very much for the info!!

 

[EricB]

uninstalling your ide drivers and rebooting the computer does the same thing.

I fixed a friend's problem exactly like yours a few weeks ago