17 replies to this topic

[Charles_E_F]

Hi,

When I burn DVD's, my DVD has a max burn rate of 8x, why are the burns so slow?  I never get anywhere near the max burn rate.  In fact I am lucky if I get 1/4 the rated burn rate.  So, at 8x max, I am lucky to get to 2x and most of the time it hovers between .7 and 1.53.

Can anyone point me where to look in hope of making my burn speeds faster?


Thanks for any help,

Charles

[cdanteek]

Charles_E_F, on 08 November 2010 - 04:45 PM, said:

Hi,

When I burn DVD's, my DVD has a max burn rate of 8x, why are the burns so slow?  I never get anywhere near the max burn rate.  In fact I am lucky if I get 1/4 the rated burn rate.  So, at 8x max, I am lucky to get to 2x and most of the time it hovers between .7 and 1.53.

Can anyone point me where to look in hope of making my burn speeds faster?


Thanks for any help,

Charles

Read through this for your operating system, sounds like XP..

5.Click here Enabling/Checking DMA in Windows Vista, XP, 2000, Me, 9x.

[Charles_E_F]

Hi,

Yes, I do use WinXP Pro and I had already checked DMA mode before I posted.  According to what I see, and the Roxio Diagnostic tool, DMA mode is enabled.

Any other ideas?


Thanks for your input,

Charles

[sknis]

Charles_E_F, on 10 November 2010 - 12:57 PM, said:

Hi,

Yes, I do use WinXP Pro and I had already checked DMA mode before I posted.  According to what I see, and the Roxio Diagnostic tool, DMA mode is enabled.

Any other ideas?


Thanks for your input,

Charles

A lot depends on what you are doing.  If you are burning video discs, the video must be encoded and then burned.  It is the encoding that takes the time.  Most frequent users will tell you, as best practices, to encode to an ISO file or to a folder set first.  This step is totally dependent on your hardware.  Once the ISO or folder set is completed, you simply copy those to a disc.  That will go quickly.

Are you doing videos or are you making a different type of disc?

[Charles_E_F]

Hi,

1 more question, please.  I checked one of your links for a firmware update to my DVD.  The site states there is an update for Dell computers.  I do not own a Dell, I own a Sony VAIO laptop.  The drive model number is the same so, can I still install this firmware update?


Thanks for any help,

Charles

[cdanteek]

Charles_E_F, on 10 November 2010 - 01:04 PM, said:

Hi,

1 more question, please.  I checked one of your links for a firmware update to my DVD.  The site states there is an update for Dell computers.  I do not own a Dell, I own a Sony VAIO laptop.  The drive model number is the same so, can I still install this firmware update?


Thanks for any help,

Charles

If it takes you to the Dell site for your burner then it should be a good firmware update..

Answer sknis questions about burning to disc or encoding..

Question, I don't remember a Roxio Diagnostic tool in EMC 10 that would show DMA settings. Could you post a screen shot of it? What DMA mode (#) is your drive running in?

[Charles_E_F]

sknis, on 10 November 2010 - 01:02 PM, said:

A lot depends on what you are doing.  If you are burning video discs, the video must be encoded and then burned.  It is the encoding that takes the time.  Most frequent users will tell you, as best practices, to encode to an ISO file or to a folder set first.  This step is totally dependent on your hardware.  Once the ISO or folder set is completed, you simply copy those to a disc.  That will go quickly.

Are you doing videos or are you making a different type of disc?

Hi,

I am not making a video disc at all.  I am talking about just copying a data DVD, that I have already created before using CD Creator.


Thanks for any help,

Charles

[Charles_E_F]

cdanteek, on 10 November 2010 - 01:07 PM, said:

If it takes you to the Dell site for your burner then it should be a good firmware update..

Answer sknis questions about burning to disc or encoding..

Question, I don't remember a Roxio Diagnostic tool in EMC 10 that would show DMA settings. Could you post a screen shot of it? What DMA mode (#) is your drive running in?

Hi,

The Diagnostic tool does not show me what DMA mode is used.  It only has a checkbox to enable DMA mode and it is already checked.  Device Manager only shows 'use DMA if available'.  My laptop is at home so I will post a screen shot later tonight.

The firmware update does not take me to the Dell website.  The 'Firmware HQ' website shows a description for the download as 'for Dell Computers'.  Here is the link, if you want to see for yourself.

http://www.firmwareh...A-DD12.zip.html



Thanks for your help,

Charles

Edited by Charles_E_F, 10 November 2010 - 01:35 PM.

[cdanteek]

Charles_E_F, on 10 November 2010 - 01:32 PM, said:

Hi,

The Diagnostic tool does not show me what DMA mode is used.  It only has a checkbox to enable DMA mode and it is already checked.  Device Manager only shows 'use DMA if available'.  My laptop is at home so I will post a screen shot later tonight.

The firmware update does not take me to the Dell website.  The 'Firmware HQ' website shows a description for the download as 'for Dell Computers'.  Here is the link, if you want to see for yourself.

http://www.firmwareh...A-DD12.zip.html



Thanks for your help,

Charles

How about sknis burning encoding question?

Look for a update for your drive on Dell's site using your configuration/service code...

In device manager right click uninstall on the drive, reboot and windows will reassign drivers and DMA mode but check..

[Charles_E_F]

cdanteek, on 10 November 2010 - 01:54 PM, said:

How about sknis burning encoding question?

Look for a update for your drive on Dell's site using your configuration/service code...

In device manager right click uninstall on the drive, reboot and windows will reassign drivers and DMA mode but check..

Hi.

I did answer sknis question.  I'm not creating a video DVD of any kind, just plain old data DVD.

My laptop is a Sony VAIO, not a Dell, hence the question about installing the firmware update.  The DVD model number matches my DVD so I am guessing I should go ahead and install it.  I did check the Dell website and the file download from 'Firmware HQ' is the same file on the Dell website, according to filename, date and size.



Thanks for your help,

Charles

[cdanteek]

Charles_E_F, on 10 November 2010 - 02:13 PM, said:

Hi.

I did answer sknis question.  I'm not creating a video DVD of any kind, just plain old data DVD.

My laptop is a Sony VAIO, not a Dell, hence the question about installing the firmware update.  The DVD model number matches my DVD so I am guessing I should go ahead and install it.  I did check the Dell website and the file download from 'Firmware HQ' is the same file on the Dell website, according to filename, date and size.



Thanks for your help,

Charles

Then you have a DMA or burner problem..

Go to Sony for the firmware update if you have a Sony not a Dell update!

[Charles_E_F]

Hi,

After getting some sleep I took another look at everything.

I went to the Sony Optiarc website but there is no firmware update for my DVD model.

The 'System Diagnostics' that I mentioned before is from Cyberlink not Roxio.  It does state that DMA is being used.

I checked the 'Device Manager - IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers' and found this:

  Primary IDE Channel, device 0 = PIO Mode
Secondary IDE Channel, device 0 = Ultra DMA Mode 2

Primary should be my WD 320Gb hard drive and the Secondary should be the Optiarc DVD-+RW drive.  The WD hard drive is barely a year old and I do not understand why it is using PIO mode.  The laptop BIOS is the most current version available.

Regardless of how I do it I think I will be stuck at these slow burn speeds because my hard drive is in PIO mode.  If I create an ISO image first then it will be slow because of PIO mode.  If I create a DVD from the ISO image the burn will still be slow because the hard drive is in PIO mode.

Maybe if I get an external USB DVD drive to use as a source disc and do direct DVD copies it might be faster?

Does this make sense to anyone else?


Thanks,

Charles

[cdanteek]

You didn't read my # 5 for XP?

• For repeated DMA errors. Windows XP will turn off DMA mode for a  device after encountering certain errors during data transfer  operations. If more that six DMA transfer timeouts occur, Windows will  turn off DMA and use only PIO mode on that device.

In this case, the user cannot turn on DMA for this device. The only  option for the user who wants to enable DMA mode is to uninstall and  reinstall the device.

Windows XP downgrades the Ultra DMA transfer mode after receiving more  than six CRC errors. Whenever possible, the operating system will step  down one UDMA mode at a time (from UDMA mode 4 to UDMA mode 3, and so on).

If the mini-IDE driver for the device does not support stepping down  transfer modes, or if the device is running UDMA mode 0, Windows XP will  step down to PIO mode after encountering six or more CRC errors. In  this case, a system reboot should restore the original DMA mode  settings.

All CRC and timeout errors are logged in the system event log. These  types of errors could be caused by improper mounting or improper cabling  (for example, 40-pin instead of 80-pin cable). Or such errors could  indicate imminent hardware failure, for example, in a hard drive or chipset.

Source: Microsoft Website

[Brendon]

Your WD320 drive should be capable of Ultra DMA mode 5 - both mine run at that. Your system must feel like it's wading through treacle.

This sentence from Cdanteek's post above is the key, The only option for the user who wants to enable DMA mode is to uninstall and reinstall the device. but the site doesn't expand on how to do that. Here is how . . .
Go to Device Manager "Device Manager - IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers"
Uninstall the Primary IDE Channel which is having difficulty
Restart the machine to have Windows reinstall the channel, which should now show a decent DMA rate.

If the channel doesn't come right, or doesn't stay right, then you have problems with either the Hard Drive or the cabling.  Come back and tell us.

[Charles_E_F]

Hi,

cdanteek:
I did read #5 last night but I never looked at my hard drive settings and I did not connect them.

cdanteek and Brendon:
I uninstalled the Primary IDE Channel, had to do 2 reboots but the Primary IDE Channel came back as PIO Mode again.  My laptop has no HD cabling, the HD plugs directly into a 44 pin header.

System event viewer shows 5 atapi timeout errors and 1 controller error.

I am going to run the WD hard disk tools to check the drive.  I will post back once I know more.



Thanks to all for the help,

Charles

Edited by Charles_E_F, 11 November 2010 - 08:48 PM.

[cdanteek]

Quote

System event viewer shows 5 atapi timeout errors and 1 controller error.

[Charles_E_F]

Hi All,

Well, I have come to the conclusion that there is something wrong with the WD drive.  The drive passed all tests I could perform, without actually writing zero's to the entire disk.

I removed the 320GB drive and installed a WD 60Gb (the drive that the 320Gb replaced) and it comes up showing 'Ultra DMA Mode 5' so I know there is nothing wrong with the motherboard DMA controller.

The 320Gb drive is under warranty so I will just replace it.  Once I get everything back together I will create another post if I still have these slow burn speeds.


Thanks to all who helped,

Charles

[Brendon]

Sorry to hear the drive is on the way out, Charles, but very glad to hear it's still under warranty.

Brendon