I have an NT4 Workstation box running SP6a.

When it was running SP5, I downloaded the utility DMACHECK.EXE and enabled DMA on the IDE channels. Worked like a charm.

When I loaded SP6a, I used the version of the utility provided on the CD to see if all was well. It reports that DMA checking is enabled and in use.

BUT -- it's slow as syrup in Saskatchewan. Bringing up the System Monitor shows that every time it goes to the disk CPU utilization goes to 100%, even though nothing much is running (DOS COPY, for instance). Therefore, whatever DMACHECK says, it's running the IDE channels on I/O commands.

None of the hardware has changed. I don't know enough about the system in general to be able to diagnose it from, e.g. the "SCSI Devices" applet in Control Panel.

Any suggestions, anyone? This is an old, slow box, and I really do need it to be as sprightly as possible. [Yes, I know, I should get some real SCSI disk drives. You can be the one who tells the boss to shell out the shekels.]