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Got my DVD burner goin, in a rhythm, and something is amiss
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stab5150
Newbie
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12. April 2006 @ 13:21 _ Link to this message    Send private message to this user   
Hello. I never wanted to get involved with DVD burning because it seems like a pain.. but I took the plunge. Of course I live on the moon where there are no copyright laws.

So I took my mooncraft to CostCO and bought a HP940 for $120. I know, it's no "BenQ" or whatever... but I just needed an external drive for my laptop and I just wanted to see if i had the patience for doing DVD burning. Of course if i didn't like it i could (and still can) take it back.

So I only have 3 old laptops, none with USB 2.0, so i had to get it cranking on my Dell.. throug a 2.0 PC Card. The burner wouldn't burn with Nero or with Roxio EasyDVD. I can read from the drive and the drivers appear fine, but I can't update the Firmware either- so basically nothing seems to write to the drive. When i try to burn something, it just runs the timer at 1# and nothing writes (the burner spins quietly). Also, the dvd's arent written on at all, because I did get the drive to work on my old Compaq.

The compaq had a fresh O/S on it, so I assume that my dell is just being a pain because I need to clean the registry.

Anyways the compaq worked every time. I would rip the dvd with DVD Shrink and then, with a fresh copy of Nero, burn each dvd.

So I did 5 in a row. They were all perfect- writing at 8x (the burner is a 16 but no option appeared).

Then one time Nero only gave me the option to burn at 1x, 2x, 4x, or "maximum." Usually, it's "1x, 2x, 4x, or 8x." So I went with maximum, and after 3 minutes it was still at 1%. So i cancelled and removed the disk. It appeared as though something had indeed written onto the disk. I tried the same process again, after closing everything down and restarting. This time I got the options "1x, 2x, 4x, or 8x" as usual. So I continued, at 8x, and again, only 1% after 3 minutes. I let it go 15 minutes and it got through about 4%... so it appears to be writing, but very slow. I left the house at that point and havent gone back (no internet at home). I did notice that the buffer goes between 4% and 97% continuously (every 4 or 5 seconds maybe). I can't remember if it did this when it was working properly.

Can someone tell me if there is an obvious fix to this? I dont' mind using my compaq dedicated to burning becasue i haven't turned it on for 3 months, and it has like 20 gigs free space.

Please don't tell me to buy a new laptop!! thanks for any help!

This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 16. April 2006 @ 04:30

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Senior Member
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12. April 2006 @ 20:57 _ Link to this message    Send private message to this user   
Sounds like you need to defrag, and enable DMA.

Check out this guide

http://bbmayo.home.comcast.net/checking%20DMA.pdf



All men profess honesty as long as they can. To believe all men honest would be folly. To believe none so is something worse. -John Quincy Adams

stab5150
Newbie
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13. April 2006 @ 17:46 _ Link to this message    Send private message to this user   
thanks i'll give that a shot.

the dvd i was burning findally finished at 6 hours and 3 minutes. I loaded Nero CD/DVD speed tool and it read .31x. Restarted computer and burner and it hit 4.03x thereabouts. Then after burning another 3 i got another one going rather slow (not as slow as before, but maybe on par for 3 hours). I stopped it and did DVD/CD speed and it hit 3.43x or thereabouts.

So i'll see if defrag/dma work. I'm burning at 4x right now and getting good results most of the time.
Senior Member
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14. April 2006 @ 10:46 _ Link to this message    Send private message to this user   
DEFINATLEY DMA!!!

DMA stands for "Direct memory Access." Basically just a fast way to move information.

PIO mode is more than likely what your computer is set too. "Programmed Input Output." Just a really SLOW way to move info...

Windows XP downgrades the DMA transfer mode after receiving six errors and drops it down to the much slower PIO mode. This is more than likely why it takes you so long to burn!!

bbmayo has really great guides on his site that will help you fix this problem real fast.

jxp

All men profess honesty as long as they can. To believe all men honest would be folly. To believe none so is something worse. -John Quincy Adams

stab5150
Newbie
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14. April 2006 @ 15:22 _ Link to this message    Send private message to this user   
well i went and checked out the status of the controllers. Primary was already at DMA mode, and the secondary IDE was in PIO. I did what the bbmayo link insructed and removed the driver, and restarted the computer. After restarting the computer, WinXP auto detected the Compaq cdrom (internal); therefore, i assume the primary IDE was already DMA and i did not really change anything.

So far, though, only a couple of foul-ups. I'll check the rest of that site for other checks/hints. thanks!
Senior Member

2 product reviews
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14. April 2006 @ 22:30 _ Link to this message    Send private message to this user   
Have you installed any starforce games lately that may be the culprit.

"Cable thief is a victimless crime."
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stab5150
Newbie
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15. April 2006 @ 16:35 _ Link to this message    Send private message to this user   
no this is an absolutely fresh copy of winxp with NO software excepet for Nero 6 (not the suite, just Nero 6), and dvdshrink, and adobe reader.

the burner has still had this problem.. every few burns- if i don't restart computer and burner, it will have the problem where it drops the speed down WAY far. I don't know what the deal is with that... but EVERY time i re-start the burner and computer it seems to work. Even if i just turn the burner off and on again it works (i also remove the usb card and replace it). I'm not sure where to start to look for the cause of this.
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