Jump to content

Error: buffers and hard disk activity


ElectroGeeza

Recommended Posts

Hello! I'm new here! :homestar:

 

I haven't had any problems with ImgBurn before. Now I do! That's the reason I registered here in first place.

 

Overview

OS: Windows Vista 64-bit

SP: Service Pack 1 for Vista

ImgBurn: 2.4.2.0

HDD: Seagate Barracude 7200.11 ST3500320AS (S-ATA2, 500 GB, 32 MB cache)

ODD: Nec ND-3520A

ODD Firmware: 3.07 (date: 2006-02-09)

ODD Media: TDK DVD-R (4.7 GB, 1-25X, 25 disc spindle)

 

Nec ND-3520A details

Field                       Value
Optical Drive Properties
Device Description          _NEC DVD_RW ND-3520AW ATA Device
Serial Number               51JA632S111
Firmware Revision           3.07
Firmware Date               2006-02-09
Buffer Size                 2 MB
Manufacturer                NEC
Device Type                 DVD+RW/DVD-RW
Interface                   ATAPI
Region Code                 2
Remaining User Changes      4
Remaining Vendor Changes    4

Writing Speeds
DVD+R9 Dual Layer           4x
DVD+R                       16x
DVD+RW                      8x
DVD-R9 Dual Layer           4x
DVD-R                       16x
DVD-RW                      6x
CD-R                        48x
CD-RW                       24x

Reading Speeds
DVD-ROM                     16x
CD-ROM                      48x

Supported Disk Types
BD-ROM                      Not Supported
BD-R                        Not Supported
BD-RE                       Not Supported
HD DVD-ROM                  Not Supported
HD DVD-R                    Not Supported
HD DVD-RW                   Not Supported
DVD-ROM                     Read
DVD+R9 Dual Layer           Read + Write
DVD+R                       Read + Write
DVD+RW                      Read + Write
DVD-R9 Dual Layer           Read + Write
DVD-R                       Read + Write
DVD-RW                      Read + Write
DVD-RAM                     Not Supported
CD-ROM                      Read
CD-R                        Read + Write
CD-RW                       Read + Write

Optical Drive Features
Buffer Underrun Protection  Supported
C2 Error Pointers           Supported
CD+G                        Not Supported
CD-Text                     Supported
Hybrid Disc                 Not Supported
JustLink                    Supported
LabelFlash                  Not Supported
Layer-Jump Recording        Not Supported
LightScribe                 Not Supported
Mount Rainier               Not Supported
SMART                       Not Supported
CSS                         Supported
CPRM                        Supported
AACS                        Not Supported
VCPS                        Not Supported
BD CPS                      Not Supported

Device Manufacturer
Company Name                Sony NEC Optiarc Inc.
Product Information         [url="http://www.sonynec-optiarc.com/products/index.html"]http://www.sonynec-optiarc.com/products/index.html[/url]
Firmware Download           [url="http://www.sonynec-optiarc.com"]http://www.sonynec-optiarc.com[/url]

 

Seagate ST3500320AS

Field                            Value
ATA Device Properties
Model ID                         ST3500320AS
Serial Number                    9QM04FVK
Revision                         SD15
World Wide Name                  5-000C50-0027D478B
Device Type                      SATA-II
Parameters                       969019 cylinders, 16 heads, 63 sectors per track, 512 bytes per sector
LBA Sectors                      976771055
Buffer                           Unknown
Multiple Sectors                 16
ECC Bytes                        4
Unformatted Capacity             476939 MB

ATA Device Features
48-bit LBA                       Supported
Advanced Power Management        Not Supported
Automatic Acoustic Management    Not Supported
Device Configuration Overlay     Supported
DMA Setup Auto-Activate          Not Supported
General Purpose Logging          Supported
Host Protected Area              Supported, Enabled
In-Order Data Delivery           Not Supported
Native Command Queuing           Supported
Phy Event Counters               Supported
Power Management                 Supported, Enabled
Power-Up In Standby              Not Supported
Read Look-Ahead                  Supported, Enabled
Release Interrupt                Not Supported
Security Mode                    Supported, Disabled
SMART                            Supported, Enabled
SMART Error Logging              Supported
SMART Self-Test                  Supported
Software Settings Preservation   Supported, Enabled
Streaming                        Not Supported
Tagged Command Queuing           Not Supported
Write Cache                      Supported, Enabled

ATA Device Physical Info
Manufacturer                     Seagate
Hard Disk Name                   Barracuda 7200.11 500320
Form Factor                      3.5"
Formatted Capacity               500 GB
Disks                            2
Recording Surfaces               4
Physical Dimensions              146.99 x 101.6 x 26.1 mm
Max. Weight                      530 g
Average Rotational Latency       4.16 ms
Rotational Speed                 7200 RPM
Max. Internal Data Rate          1287 Mbit/s
Average Seek                     8.5 ms
Track-To-Track Seek              0.8 ms
Interface                        SATA-II
Buffer-to-Host Data Rate         300 MB/s
Buffer Size                      32 MB
Spin-Up Time                     20 sec

ATA Device Manufacturer
Company Name                     Seagate Technology LLC
Product Information              [url="http://www.seagate.com/products"]http://www.seagate.com/products[/url]

 

ImgBurn log

I 16:00:16     ImgBurn Version 2.4.2.0 started!

I 16:00:16 Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium x64 Edition (6.0, Build 6001 : Service Pack 1)

I 16:00:16 Total Physical Memory: 4

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This normally happens because the program is unable to read quickly enough from your hdd.

 

Try to make sure it's not being used (very much) by any other software whilst you're burning. Random access on the hdd will kill the transfer rate.

 

Don't forget to defrag it too.

 

Hey there!

 

As I mentioned before, I recognized the graphical user interface of ImgBurn as soon as I started using it. It reminded me about the one used in DVD Decrypter. But it was only recently that I realized that you were the man behind this wonderful software project as well. Lightning UK, you're my hero! :rolleyes:

 

I have just played the movie that I've created today. I didn't watch the whole movie, I only played parts of it. I just wanted to visually inspect it to make sure there is no video distortion or sound clipping on it due to errorous recording. I couldn't find any such errors in the actual content of the movie. After that, I opened up a new instance of ImgBurn and made a new bit-by-bit comparison of the DVD media with the original image file. The operation completed successfully.

 

From that I conclude that the disc is OK, I don't need to record another one. So I guess the buffers were recovered successfully and the hard disk activity reached the threshold level during the burning process.

 

The only thing that I can think of that might have played a role in this issue is that I had uTorrent running in the background. But prior to even starting ImgBurn in first place, I have limited the upload bandwidth to 300 KB/s in uTorrent settings (no downloads). I don't know, but maybe 300 KB/s was too much as well. However, when I burned the second part of the same film series (Karate Kid 2), I didn't have uTorrent active at all, and the operation completed successfully without any errors. Then I burned the third film in the series (Karate Kid 3) with uTorrent active again and a stable uplink transfer speed of 300 KB/s. This time the same errors appeared again, but only once and at the end when the burning process was like 98% finished. But regardless of how many times the errors appear, it sure has to do with uTorrent being active in the background. Still, I don't get it why a 300 KB/s read operation on the HDD from uTorrent can have such impact on the performance of ImgBurn. I'm sure other such software like Nero Burning ROM would deal with it without these issues, or perhaps they wouldn't show any messages about these events of recovering buffers to the user.

 

To be on the safe side, I will remember to terminate uTorrent when doing things in ImgBurn. Thanks for your reply!

Edited by ElectroGeeza
Link to comment
Share on other sites

What you have to remember is that a drives 'fast' transfer rate speed is one where a large amount of data is accessed sequentially.

 

Reading lots of little bits from all over the place is going to 'thrash' the hard drive and the overall transfer rate will drop significantly.

 

Use something like HD Tune to get the top speed of your drive. A 16x burn needs a steady transfer rate of over 20MB/s.

 

If you want to leave uTorrent running, I suggest you increase ImgBurn's buffer to something bigger than the default 20 / 40MB... i.e. 256MB.

 

Ideally though, keep your images on a totally different hdd from the one most other apps would / could be accessing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank you for the information!

 

I have increased the buffer size for Img Burn from 40 MB to 256 MB as you suggested. I chose Tools, Settings, Build, and set Read Buffer Size to 256 MB. Is that the correct procedure?... is that the buffer for writing images?... under the Build tab?... or is there another buffer I have to set to the 256 value? Why I ask is because the changes won't apply. I mean the new value of 256 MB does get saved, i.e. when I enter the settings and the Build tab again it's there, but when I burn an image file it still says "Filling Buffer... (40 MB)". Do I have to re-start the computer for the changes to take affect?... I have done that as well, but it still says "40 MB" when burning a image file. What do I have to do, or what have I done wrong?

 

It's true that I have the image files stored on the same physical drive as the operating system and applications. They are only separated by the different partitions they use. I currently have to have it set up this way, but I will bear your suggestion in mind for the next time I re-configure the drives on the computer.

 

As for the speed of the disk drive, I have two of the above mentioned Seagate drives - one for OS system, and another for storage of personal files. I have just tested them both with HD Tune.

 

The average transfer speed for the system drive was 88.1 MB/s, minimum is 51.9 MB/s, maximum is 111.1 MB/s, burst rate is 163.1 MB/s, and access time was 13 ms.

 

The average transfer speed for the storage drive is 85.3 MB/s, minimum is 51.4 MB/s, maximum is 106.6 MB/s, burst rate is 162.9 MB/s, and access time is 12.6 ms.

 

During the test no additional software application was running, except for the autostart objects and services.

 

Are these values sufficient enough? I know it's little bit off topic, but is there any place I can compare them with results from others?

post-17347-1235758624_thumb.jpg

post-17347-1235758635_thumb.jpg

Edited by ElectroGeeza
Link to comment
Share on other sites

As LUK said above ~20 MB/s is enough for 16x DVD burning, so even at the slowest area of your HDs you still have enough for ~36x DVD burning :blink:

 

By the way, you should leave the Build buffer at the default 40MB value and change the I/O buffer (in the I/O tab respectively) to 256MB.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.