The drive only supports writing these discs at 4x

[BlizzardUK]

I am unsure if it is a coincidence, but about 50% of my Ritek GO5 discs now say "The drive only supports writing these discs at 4x" where-as the other day before I moved a sata controller it was burning every disc at 8x. I had to move a sata controller that the drive runs off from a PCIe x1 slot to a PCIe x16 slot, I heard that x1 can happily go in to such a slot. It shares the same lane as the graphics card but there is more than enough power for a x1 PCIe card as it can go up to x8 PCIe when shared.

 

What is confusing is that some discs work at 8x speed write and others 4x, but they are all GO5 discs. Also my other burner, a USB2 one, records them all at 8x. I am guessing it is too much of a coincidence to not be the sata controller move, but why ? I have moved it to a more powerful socket, not a less powered one. Could it be if both burner and the drive I am copying from is on the same controller ? As I am unsure which HDD is sharing the 2 port sata controller.

 

I also notice I am getting a lot of "Waiting for hard disk activity to reach threshold level" messages when burning on both this drive and my USB2 one at the same time, I usually often do that and never get this message (until now).

 

I guess I can swap leads around so that the sata drive is going to a motherboard sata socket, but I am really curious why ? As I would hate to put a HDD on a port that can't even get 8x DVD writing speeds (and this is what I would have to do as my motherboard is full up with hard drives).

 

I have Windows 7.

 

 

W 14:56:32 Duplex Secure's SPTD driver can have a detrimental effect on drive performance.

I 14:56:32 Initialising SPTI...

I 14:56:32 Searching for SCSI / ATAPI devices...

I 14:56:32 -> Drive 1 - Info: DTSOFT BDROM 1.05 (M:) (Virtual)

I 14:56:32 -> Drive 2 - Info: PIONEER BD-RW BDR-206D 1.06 (L:) (RAID)

I 14:56:32 -> Drive 3 - Info: HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GE20NU11 CN01 (N:) (USB)

I 14:56:32 Found 1 DVD±RW/RAM, 1 BD-ROM and 1 BD-RE!

I 14:58:18 Operation Started!

I 14:58:18 Source File: J:\ISOs\DVD.iso

I 14:58:18 Source File Sectors: 2,207,376 (MODE1/2048)

I 14:58:18 Source File Size: 4,520,706,048 bytes

I 14:58:18 Source File Volume Identifier: label

I 14:58:18 Source File Volume Set Identifier: 40541182RDUS0004

I 14:58:18 Source File Implementation Identifier: Ulead Systems USA Inc.

I 14:58:18 Source File File System(s): ISO9660, Joliet, UDF (1.02)

I 14:58:18 Destination Device: [0:0:0] PIONEER BD-RW BDR-206D 1.06 (L:) (RAID)

I 14:58:18 Destination Media Type: DVD-R (Disc ID: RITEKG05)

I 14:58:18 Destination Media Supported Write Speeds: 4x

I 14:58:18 Destination Media Sectors: 2,298,496

I 14:58:18 Write Mode: DVD

I 14:58:18 Write Type: DAO

I 14:58:18 Write Speed: 8x

I 14:58:18 Link Size: Auto

I 14:58:18 Lock Volume: Yes

I 14:58:18 Test Mode: No

I 14:58:18 OPC: No

I 14:58:18 BURN-Proof: Enabled

W 14:58:18 Write Speed Miscompare! - Wanted: 11,080 KB/s (8x), Got: 5,540 KB/s (4x)

W 14:58:18 The drive only supports writing these discs at 4x.

I 14:58:18 Advanced Settings - Optimal Writing Speed: No

I 14:58:19 Filling Buffer... (40 MB)

I 14:58:19 Writing LeadIn...

I 14:58:50 Writing Session 1 of 1... (1 Track, LBA: 0 - 2207375)

I 14:58:50 Writing Track 1 of 1... (MODE1/2048, LBA: 0 - 2207375)

W 15:04:54 Waiting for buffers to recover... (LBA: 953824)

W 15:05:06 Waiting for hard disk activity to reach threshold level...

I 15:05:07 Writing Sectors...

W 15:05:39 Waiting for buffers to recover... (LBA: 1024224)

W 15:05:54 Waiting for hard disk activity to reach threshold level...

I 15:05:55 Writing Sectors...

W 15:06:24 Waiting for buffers to recover... (LBA: 1085536)

W 15:06:34 Waiting for hard disk activity to reach threshold level...

I 15:06:35 Writing Sectors...

I 15:13:33 Synchronising Cache...

I 15:14:09 Exporting Graph Data...

I 15:14:09 Graph Data File: C:\Users\Me\AppData\Roaming\ImgBurn\Graph Data Files\PIONEER_BD-RW_BDR-206D_1.06_20-FEBRUARY-2012_14-58_RITEKG05_8x.ibg

I 15:14:09 Export Successfully Completed!

I 15:14:09 Operation Successfully Completed! - Duration: 00:15:50

I 15:14:09 Average Write Rate: 4,999 KB/s (3.6x) - Maximum Write Rate: 5,604 KB/s (4.0x)

Edited February 20, 2012 by BlizzardUK

[LIGHTNING UK!]

Media supported write speeds are internal to the drive and its firmware. Moving controllers/slots/channels/ports etc have nothing to do with it.

 

If your drive randomly swaps between saying a G05 disc is supported at just 4x and 4x/8x, it's probably having trouble initialising them properly - due to bad discs or a dirty laser.

 

I don't know how the 'source' drive is connected but the more you have going on with a controller / bus, the slower it'll be working with each individual device/program. You get buffer issues when the hardware can't keep up.