I have a Sony DW-Q120A DVD RW drive, which happens to be an OEM drive. It replaced an older AOPEN drive which burned at faster speeds, which had died. After I replaced it with this new drive, which should be able to burn DVD+RW at 16x speeds, the only speed that I can burn at is 2.4x. That is the only selection it allows.
How can I select different higher speeds for burning with this drive? Would Roxio 8 work better with this drive?
Thanks in advance for any help you can offer.

2.4 is an R/W speed.16x is a + or - R speed.Different speeds for different media.

The following are the specs for your burner:

SONY DW-Q120A Specifications: (from manufacturer)

SONY Beige 16X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 16X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 24X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2M Cache IDE DVD Burner

As you can see, the max for RW are 8x for +RW and 6x for -RW. These speeds are the maximum are are not always reached when doing burns. You should check for a firmware update for the burner. Even though you may have just bought it there may already be a firmware update available.

It occurs to me to wonder why the use of RW media.

It's useful for testing, or other short-term usage, but the same qualities that make it erasable cause it to fade to blank over time, no matter how it is stored.

The three kinds of CDs:

• commercially pressed, which have the pits and lands physically pressed into the metal
• R media, with the pits and lands created by "cooking" a dye
• RW media, with the pits and lands created (at a lwoer temperature) by melting and recrystalizing an aluminum alloy, which promptly starts to de-crystalize, taking the data with it

RW media is not "like a floppy". It works the same as R media - if you delete something, you merely remove it from the TOC (Table Of Contents), you don't get the space back until you erase the ENTIRE disc.

Formatting discs for Packet-Writing (Drag2Disc, Nero's InCD, Sonic's DLA, etc) is a great way to LOSE all data permantly. Using RW media for the purpose will speed up the loss of data.

Lynn

Always check your firmware version first, as Walt has suggested. Check the IDE controller that the drives on, that DMA is enabled in device manager. Is it connected with a 40 wire 40 pin connector? Get a 80 wire 40 pin IDE ribbon.

cdanteek

I don't think anyone even makes any DVD+RW media rated above 4x speed. Check your media and, as cdanteek has suggested, your IDE cable.

16x speed is available in DVD +/- R formats only.

Lance
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