Device buffer keeps dropping to 10%

[dkazaz]

Hi all,

 

When burning DVD+R DL disks, my device buffer keeps dropping to 10% every minute or so. I notice this coincides with a sudden drop in I/O activity.

 

It is not related to any other use process running i.e. applications etc. I don't know about services or system processes.

 

My system is an Intel Quad q9300 oc'd to 3GHz, 4GB RAM, Asus P45 motherboard, ATI HD3650 VGA card, WD Velociraptor as system drive and WD Caviar as data drive (imgburn reads data from this one). OW is Win7 RC x64.

 

The rsult of this problem is burns which are OK, but much worse than before it started (I have not made any system changes to account for it).

 

Any idea what could be causing it?

 

Is there something I can do by playing with the buffer size or the I/O settings?

 

Thanks a lot for any help!

[mmalves]

Please post the log from that burn (look in ImgBurn's Help menu).

 

It may be worth doing what this post from the FAQ says (removing controllers/etc) as it sounds like a DMA problem

[dkazaz]

Hi, and thanks a lot for your reply!

 

Here is the log from two recent burns - one on LS and one on DL media. Both were pretty good burns, but both exhibited the weird drops in device buffer (the imgburn buffer was steady) so it was something else getting in the way.

 

No real complains about the burns, but without these dips the drive burns almost perfectly. I doubt a DMA problem as the device is currently on UDMA5.

 

Any ideas?

 

; //****************************************\\

; ImgBurn Version 2.4.4.0 - Log

; Sunday, 07 June 2009, 03:58:11

; \\****************************************//

;

;

I 02:42:33 ImgBurn Version 2.4.4.0 started!

I 02:42:33 Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate x64 Edition (6.1, Build 7100)

I 02:42:33 Total Physical Memory: 4,193,332 KB - Available: 2,794,040 KB

W 02:42:33 AnyDVD can interfere with ImgBurn's ability to verify accurately, please ensure it's disabled!

I 02:42:33 Initialising ElbyCDIO...

I 02:42:33 ELBYCDIO.DLL - Elaborate Bytes CDRTools - ElbyCDIO DLL - Version 6.0.9.0

I 02:42:33 Searching for SCSI / ATAPI devices...

I 02:42:33 Found 2 DVD

[LIGHTNING UK!]

The dips might be perfectly normal.

 

A lot of drives perform WOPC type functions during the burn to check on the quality and then adjust where necessary.

 

Each WOPC will cause the device buffer to empty out.

 

The IBG graph would make the whole thing more obvious.

[dkazaz]

OK, I can live with it, though I suspect its some windows thing interferering with the i/o.

 

Thanks a lot for all your replies!

[Cynthia]

All my Nec/Optiarcs always have a sudden drop in buffers, due to recalibrating.

 

If your graph looks like this - it's normal.