Buffer stays at 0 to 5%, device buffer stays at an even 100% Log attached

[anchorman]

First time posting here and also first time pc builder. I have a pioneer dvr 216d connected through SATA and I have not had a bad burn with it. All the burns whether they are dvds or dvd dl discs complete sucessfully. The burn speed whcih I usually set at 6x to be safe with most burns usually stays around 6x. But for some reason the buffer in the middle will fill up to 100% and then almost immediately after the burn starts it drops to 0 and jumps from 0 to 5. I have unistalled and reinstalled imgburn and also updated the firmware of the pioneer to the latest. Any ideas out there

ImgBurn.log

[mmalves]

Which one does that, buffer or device buffer?

[anchorman]

the device buffer stays at 100 percent or about 98. but the buffer goes to the zero

[LIGHTNING UK!]

Try and burn a SL disc (a 16x+ one) at max speed.

 

Does it actually reach the maximum?

 

Post the log from that and also the graphdata file.

[anchorman]

ok give ill give it a shot and post back

[anchorman]

ok here you go lightning, thanks for your time by the way. the buffer stayed at zero but the burn speed never actually dropped it just never hit the setting of 16x. here are the log and graph data.

ImgBurn.log

PIONEER_DVD_RW_DVR_216D_1.09_WEDNESDAY_APRIL_22_2009_9_26_AM_ProdiscF02_16x.ibg

[anchorman]

i have to go to work so if you guys need anything from me it will be a little while before I can post anything else. thanks for your help

[Shamus_McFartfinger]

A couple of things stand out that may need your attention.

 

I 09:25:54 Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition (5.1, Build 2600 : Service Pack 2)

 

Service pack 2? You might want to update this.

 

I 09:26:49 Destination Media Type: DVD-R (Disc ID: ProdiscF02) (Speeds: 4x, 6x, 8x, 12x, 16x, 20x)

 

Your media (your blank disks) are garbage. ProDisc are about as bad as they get. Investing in quality media such as Verbatim or Taiyo Yuden would go a long way in solving your problem.

[LIGHTNING UK!]

Weird... I don't really get how it can be on 0 (or near to it) and yet not cause any slowdowns in the burn.

 

If it's on 0 at 6x, you'd expect real problems when it gets to 12x!

 

So what type of controller is your drive C: on?

 

Do you ever run defrag?

 

Are you (or is any program) using C: for other things during the burn?

[Cynthia]

I have the same issue with that burner and Verbatim -R discs.

 

It seems to happen only at 6x speed. The first time I saw the write speed drop to zero and stay there for some seconds I just waited for the nice little window that tells you about a write/I/O error to show up, but it never did, instead the burning continued and rise to 6x as it should. It happens around in the middle of the burn. A disc quality scan shows no issues at all. My guess is that there is some type of re calibration going on.

 

[anchorman]

ok update, i burned a disc whit no other programs running and the buffer stayed full. now the only program I usually have running is grabit and it is downloading all the time. i have 6 sata ports on my motherboard. they are labled as 2_0 2_1 and so on. I have the hdd and the pioneer burner on 0 and 1. would it help if I changed the pioneer to its own channel. any ideas are appreciated

[LIGHTNING UK!]

sata ports are all 'master' ones really. It shouldn't made a difference which one you put them one.

 

What would help is not having everything on the same physical hdd.

 

You might find your machine will provide data to ImgBurn more quickly if buffering is enabled in the Settings. (I/O tab -> File I/O -> Reading - Always Use Buffered I/O)