"using_dma" flag does not turn on

tunity5_at_yahoo.com
Date: 07/28/03 

Date: 28 Jul 2003 09:58:57 -0700

In trying to have Mandrake 9.1 run at a decent speed on my system with
a Seagate SATA disk drive, I have followed the group's suggestions
with various hdparm parameters. Unfortunately none have worked. I
believe this is due to the system's refusal to change its "using_dma"
flag. The following snippet shows the system response:

# hdparm -d1 /dev/hdb

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

Any ideas why this "operation is not permitted"? What are my alternatives?