Sorry for the very late reply -- I'd left it a while and wasn't expecting any more replies to this question.

Quote Originally Posted by Loper
Check your BIOS version -- upgrade it if necessary. It is a known fact that the VIA 686A Southbridge has problems, especially the early steppings, but the right BIOS can patch things pretty well. From a search on Google, there IS a "secondary channel DMA" problem with the 686A
Thanks for the help. I am working on updating the BIOS, but it's proving hard to find exactly the right BIOS version for my motherboard (an Azza, their web site isn't very helpful) and I want to take it slowly for fear of destroying said BIOS. I'd Googled, but found nothing about DMA problems with VIA chipsets. Probably I'd phrased the search badly.

Problems with DMA on the secondary channel would explain a LOT. I put my old 10GB Fujisu hard disk on the secondary channel when I got a new, larger disk -- I was having all sorts of DMA problems with it, culminating in me removing it. Sadly I have too many drives that need/want (U)DMA, and not enough IDE channels. I need to get SCSI!

I will work on it some more.

Cheers.