DMA Settings in PC DAW

[SongwriterCM]

Hi all,
This is my first submission so please forgive any minor lapses in etiquette until I become familiar with your ways!
I know that checking the DMA box significantly improves hard drive performance but what if you have no DMA box to check ?!?
My daw ( which in every way performs brilliantly in terms of audio quality and stability.....except.... ) is based on an Athlon 800 ( just pre Thunderbird ), 256 ram, an IBM 30mb 7200 for audio only, and a Piccobird 28mb system drive. I use CWPA 9.03 with Win '98 se, a Gadgetlabs Wave/8.24, and an SB Live for midi only not audio. I also extensively use Wavelab 3.03, Acid, and various plug ins including Waves, Acoustic Mirror, and various others.
I have an extensive outboard set up including TLA Ivory, Joemeek, Lexicon, a brilliant Fat 1, and Behringer ( much underated ), together with a Mackie VLZ Pro ( for the pre amps only ) and an 01V. All my efforts are finally reproduced through a magnificent pair of Behringer Truth powered monitors.
So what's my problem? I know that I'm not getting either the number of tracks or the performance re plug ins that I should be and it's really frustrating. I've got no problem at all with the quality of recording that my daw produces but I get to, say, 24 tracks with a couple of plug ins on the buss out only and I'm reaching the edge of the dropout zone! If I try using realtime plug ins on individual tracks or conversely, I try using multiple output ports ( which was the whole point in having an 8 in 8 out system ) then I have to be really careful......
I know that others have experienced this exasperating "thing" and I know that someone, somewhere must have solved it.
Any help would be so much appreciated. I'd just love to see all those tracks with their plug ins rolling across my screen !
Apologies for the oh so long post. I promise it won't happen again!

 

[sonusman]

Usually, when you don't have DMA available to select from Device Manager, that means you have a seperate Hard Drive Controller. Many newer motherboards have seperate hard drive controllers on them. If you hard drive is installed on one, it will make it DMA by default. Only drives on the regular IDE ports will have a DMA option. WARNING!!! This has been MY experience. I have NOT used every motherboard on the market. But, I suspect this is the case here.

There are other settings that can effect performace. Buffer size will come into play with high track counts. Attention to your softwares buffer size is important. The softwares manufacture will be VERY helpful when you call their support to find out what Buffer sizes will work on your hardware configuration.

I am sure that others with a little more DAW experience will chime in with some minor tweeks that may help here. Remember though, not all hard drives and controllers are created equal. Sustained throughput of a hard drive, how it handles sequential and random transfers, etc...have a big play on your total track count.

Make sure you have the latest drives for your soundcard. This too can sometimes make a difference.

Good luck.

Ed