Multimedia :: processor maxed

FYI,

Running a hard disk without DMA accelereation will cause the CPU usage to spike during disk access.

Try the following from an xterminal window, where /dev/hda is replaced by the name of your hard drive. It is usually /dev/hda:

sudo su
hdparm -d 1 /dev/hda
exit
exit

Good Luck.

I tried the DMA command and got this response:

/dev/hda:
setting using_dma to 1 (on)
HDIO_SET_DMA failed: Operation not permitted
using_dma = 0 (off)

the prompt reads "root@box:/#"

Thanks!

It sounds to me like DMA is not allowed for either your IDE disk controller or for your hard drive.

You can get more information on your hard drive by typing:

sudo su
hdparm -i /dev/hda
exit
exit

about supported modes. But it appears to me that you are out of luck with regards to DMA.

You guys are missing the point
http://www.rt.com/man/hdparm.8.html

Always go back to the man page if you have trouble...there are tons of options to use...

"hdparm -tT /dev/hda" give you your harddrive speeds in case you wanted to know

More ram might help as well

Brian
AwPhuch

original here.