DMA for HDD

hdparm -i /dev/hda

check the dma line and make sure that DMA is on. If not try setting it to DMA by doing

hdparm -d1 /dev/hda

If that doesn't work it is probably because the driver that controls IDE chipset(which accesses the HDD) is probably the generic IDE driver. Find out the IDE chipset details and try to compile the driver into the kernel(not as a module). Having DMA is the like the difference between night and day. KDE startups and runs smoother. Video capturing works like a charm without dropping frames.....