My Pioneer DVR K17LA is Stuck in PIO mode by VISTA Home Premium

Oct 18, 2009

- Please note that there is no known way for me to enter the true BIOS on this ACER 9410Z Aspire laptop. This is the first PC I have owned where the BIOS is hidden from the user. I would also like to know how to actually get into the real BIOS.

Oct 18, 2009

- bob_computer, thank you for the response. My computer is an ACER 9410Z Laptop so there is no cable that I can change, no switches to set, etc. I simply plug the DVR K17 into the drive bay. There are no motherboard drivers that I can update. I cannot even find a method to enter the REAL Bios on this machine. Any other thoughts?

Oct 18, 2009

- Thank you for the suggestions, but since this is an ACER Laptop, the only option I have is to plug the device into the existing drive bay. There are no cables to swap and I don't have any way to update the chipset drivers in this laptop. I cannot even enter the real BIOS on this ACER 9410Z. During POST, I have tried holding every funtion key, ESC, DEL, and various combinations of normally used to enter the BIOS, but I cannot get at the REAL Bios of the machine to see if that would help. By the way, the original, but now nonfunctional for reading or writing, DVD R/W from TSST corp can be inserted into the drive bay and it is set automatically to UDMA 2 mode. Very frustrating.

Oct 18, 2009

- Thank you for the suggestions, but since this is an ACER Laptop, the only option I have is to plug the device into the existing drive bay. There are no cables to swap and I don't have any way to update the chipset drivers in this laptop. I cannot even enter the real BIOS on this ACER 9410Z. During POST, I have tried holding every funtion key, ESC, DEL, and various combinations of normally used to enter the BIOS, but I cannot get at the REAL Bios of the machine to see if that would help. By the way, the original, but now nonfunctional for reading or writing, DVD R/W from TSST corp can be inserted into the drive bay and it is set automatically to UDMA 2 mode. Very frustrating.

Oct 18, 2009

- The BIOS you can enter by entering F2 is not a real BIOS. I can view information as to what devices are installed. But the only thing that can be changed in that pseudo BIOS is the boot order of the drives. It is not a true BIOS where you can change settings of the drives, etc. I went to the Acer sight for the drivers. The only one that I can see that might be of use is called the Intel Chipset Drivers. Would you say that is the correct one to try? Regarding flashing the BIOS, do you know the procedure for that if there is a new version?

Oct 18, 2009

- I was able to upgrade the BIOS quite easily from V 1.18 to the latest version available V 1.24. That in itself did not make a difference regarding the DVD R/W problem. Awaiting your response to see if upgrading the Intel Chipset drivers makes sense now.

Oct 18, 2009

- After upgrading to the latest BIOS version and also upgrading to the latest chipset drivers available, I still cannot set the Pioneer DVR to anything but PIO mode in the hardware manager. I also removed the ATA device connected to the DVD device in the hardware manager and then it re-installed on boot up. Still no change. In other words, no change from the start of the current attempts to fix the issue. They certainly all made sense to try. Any other suggestions?

Oct 18, 2009

- After upgrading to the latest BIOS version and also upgrading to the latest chipset drivers available, I still cannot set the Pioneer DVR to anything but PIO mode in the hardware manager. I also removed the ATA device connected to the DVD device in the hardware manager and then it re-installed on boot up. Still no change. In other words, no change from the start of the current attempts to fix the issue. They certainly all made sense to try. Any other suggestions?

Oct 18, 2009

- By the way, as a side note, Acer America refuses to tell me how to get into the real BIOS of my laptop without paying them more than I actually paid for the DVD R/W.. Pitiful. I have no idea what I can try next.

Oct 18, 2009

- I checked the ACER web site and the Pioneer web sit and there is nothing I can find about updating the firmware on the Pioneer DVR K17. There was a utility on the Pioneer web site that I downloaded which allowed me to find out that the firmware version on flashed on the DVD drive is version REV 1.05. But there is no updated firmware listed on the ACER site or the Pioneer site.

Oct 18, 2009

- The only firmware that I could find for a DVR-K17 was regarding a DELLL computer. I found the same firmware on several driver websites. I even tried to flash that firmware, but the utility would not work, saying that it could not find a valid target. Am I out of options?

Oct 19, 2009

- Yes, I have removed and replaced the device. It is detected, reinstalled, but still only shows up as being able to run in PIO mode.

Oct 19, 2009

- Yes I have checked in the device manager. That was my first step when I started all of this and discovered the problem. The box for DMA is greyed out and cannot be checked to enable DMA. All of the other things we have tried were to try and allow me to check that little box for DMA.

Oct 19, 2009

- To summarize what I have tried so far. I have deleted the ATA hardware chain , as well as the DVD from the HW manager and let it reinstall. NO change I have done that many times along the way. I have also upgraded the PCs BIOS and motherboard drivers. I investigated all possible solutions in the registry that have been published, etc. etc... Still cannot set it to DMA mode in the device manager. By the way, there is NO method in this notebook to get at what I call the real BIOS and set things like disk size, DMA mode, etc. It is automagic ( or ACER simply will not tell me the dirty little secret). The pseudo BIOS you can get by hitting F2 on boot up simly shows what hardware is in the machine and lets you change the boot order of the devices.That is it. That is why I think the firmware in the DVD device is conflicting with the ACER "internal" BIOS and the drive defaults to PIO mode. I cannot find any other firmware for the drive. Unless there is something else I have missed?

Oct 28, 2009

- It appears that there is no solution to the problem of getting the Pioneer DVR-K17LA to work in DMA mode in my ACER 9410Z notebook running VISTA home premium. I will have to put the drive on the shelf and purchase a different unit and hope that will work. Thanks for the help, but this problem looks like one without a solution.

Nov 02, 2009

- To get to the Acer mother board drivers go to this web site: http://gd.panam.acer.com/home/ You should then be on the drivers and downloads page. Then select "Notebook", then "Aspire", then "9410Z". The driver to download is the following one: Chipset Intel Chipset Driver 8.1.1.1010 568.1 KB 2008/12/08 Good luck on that. I have not found the solution and am now considering what drive to purchase that will work automatically.