Sudden, Drastic Reduction in Burn Speed...

[Think Floyd]

...I've searched for hours and hours in Drive, Media, Firmware and other forums with no luck...

 

I've tried restarting...I triple-checked the DMA...I have the 4.60 1021 ASPI(or should I have the 4.71.2?)...checked the hook-ups...tried to find updated firmware(waiting to flash to a BenQ DW1640 for a last resort)...device status says the burner is "working properly"...

 

Hoping someone out there can tell me what's going on...

 

I was just getting comfortable using IMGBURN...had burned almost 50 discs at speeds up to and including 16X with only two coasters...I was just at the point were I was getting confident enough to paste a few of my burns in a post with my thanks and a donation, and all of the sudden everything goes slo-mo...It doesn't matter if I select AUTO, or MAX...or 4X, 8X, or 16X...I can't break the 2X barrier...

 

...Now my best burn speed is 1.8X...with an average speed of about 1.4X, and a usual top speed of only 1.6X....I've used different media, and I went back to the exact same media that I'd gotten 16X burn speeds with, and nothing will burn faster than 1.8X

 

Don't get me wrong...I'm not trying to blame this on ImgBurn...but since I'm using ImgBurn for my burning software, and ImgBurn alone, I thought maybe somebody out there might have had a similar experience and might know what to do...

 

...I don't know if this problem is caused by the burner, or the media, or the Dell PC itself, with the ImgBurn software, or other Dell firmware/software, or a bad combination thereof....I know my OEM burner isn't the best by any stretch, but the DVDs it has burned have been fine(in fact, excellent video & audio quality)...even at the new slow speed the discs play fine with no trouble at all...but it's at under 2X, and I don't really want to be finishing my current burning chores in the distant future from my death bed. This Dell PC was the best I could get quickly enough after Hurricane Rita ate my sweet old but-long-out-of-date custom Pentium MMX/ASUS PC that was made in Port.,OR.(was THE state-of for a year or so after I got it made - everybody I knew was jealous of that PC - many moons ago)...but I needed a new PC asap after Rita, so I had to settle for this Dell...but it was only $600US delivered to my door. I knew within a week after I got it that it was kind of a turd but I'm disabled and right now a replacement is cost prohibitive.

 

The media I've been using is OK...Maxell with RITEK or CMC media codes(mostly RITEK), which puts Maxell on my not-to-do list...but it's all media that burned at 16X with mostly beautiful picture quality and only minor distortion at the end of the disc, and at 8X with beautiful picture quality thru'out.

 

 

This "new" PC=

 

Dell E510

MS WIN XP SP2 (w/ Media Center)

Pentium 4 631 HT 3.0mghz cpu

INTEL 945G Chipset

Maxtor 250gig HD

1024mb DDR2 SDRAM

TSST TS-H352C DVD-ROM (DE06)

Philips DVD8701 DVD+-RW (5D24)

 

I don't know if the two logs below will be of any help or not...one day I'm fine...the next day I'm not. I posted 4X speed attempt logs, but it's the same if I try 8X or Auto/Max...

 

 

Here's one of the latest attempts to burn at 4X...with No Joy;

 

I 22:56:14 ImgBurn Version 2.3.2.0 started!

I 22:56:14 Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition (5.1, Build 2600 : Service Pack 2)

I 22:56:14 Total Physical Memory: 1,038,412 KB - Available: 561,980 KB

I 22:56:14 Initialising SPTI...

I 22:56:14 Searching for SCSI / ATAPI devices...

I 22:56:14 Found 1 DVD-ROM and 1 DVD±RW!

I 23:03:01 Operation Started!

I 23:03:01 Source File: C:\THEPRO.ISO

I 23:03:01 Source File Sectors: 2,043,645 (MODE1/2048)

I 23:03:01 Source File Size: 4,185,384,960 bytes

I 23:03:01 Source File Volume Identifier: THEPROFESSIONAL

I 23:03:01 Source File Implementation Identifier: DVD Shrink

I 23:03:01 Source File File System(s): ISO9660, UDF (1.02)

I 23:03:01 Destination Device: [0:1:0] PHILIPS DVD+-RW DVD8701 5D24 (E:) (ATA)

I 23:03:01 Destination Media Type: DVD-R (Disc ID: RITEKF1) (Speeds: 2.4x, 4x, 8x, 12x, 16x)

I 23:03:01 Destination Media Sectors: 2,298,496

I 23:03:01 Write Mode: DVD

I 23:03:01 Write Type: DAO

I 23:03:01 Write Speed: 4x

I 23:03:01 Link Size: Auto

I 23:03:01 Test Mode: No

I 23:03:01 BURN-Proof: Enabled

I 23:03:01 Filling Buffer... (40 MB)

I 23:03:02 Writing LeadIn...

I 23:03:14 Writing Image... (LBA: 0 - 2043644)

I 23:35:46 Synchronising Cache...

I 23:36:26 Image MD5: 27e723c17c336cb13dfdb385ed6f31e7

I 23:36:26 Operation Successfully Completed! - Duration: 00:33:25

I 23:36:26 Average Write Rate: 2,094 KB/s (1.5x) - Maximum Write Rate: 2,362 KB/s (1.7x)

I 23:36:26 Cycling Tray before Verify...

W 23:36:34 Waiting for device to become ready...

I 23:36:44 Device Ready!

I 23:36:45 Operation Started!

I 23:36:45 Source Device: [0:1:0] PHILIPS DVD+-RW DVD8701 5D24 (E:) (ATA)

I 23:36:45 Source Media Type: DVD-R (Book Type: DVD-R) (Disc ID: RITEKF1) (Speeds: 2.4x, 4x, 8x, 12x, 16x)

I 23:36:45 Image File: C:\THEPRO.ISO

I 23:36:45 Image File Sectors: 2,043,645 (MODE1/2048)

I 23:36:45 Image File Size: 4,185,384,960 bytes

I 23:36:45 Image File Volume Identifier: THEPROFESSIONAL

I 23:36:45 Image File Implementation Identifier: DVD Shrink

I 23:36:45 Image File File System(s): ISO9660, UDF (1.02)

I 23:36:45 Verifying Sectors... (LBA: 0 - 2043644)

I 00:04:50 Device MD5: 27e723c17c336cb13dfdb385ed6f31e7

I 00:04:50 Image MD5: 27e723c17c336cb13dfdb385ed6f31e7

I 00:04:50 Operation Successfully Completed! - Duration: 00:28:05

I 00:04:50 Average Verify Rate: 2,425 KB/s (1.8x) - Maximum Verify Rate: 2,571 KB/s (1.9x)

I 00:13:05 Close Request Acknowledged

I 00:13:05 Closing Down...

I 00:13:05 Shutting down SPTI...

I 00:13:05 ImgBurn closed!

 

 

...and here we have the same media executing a 4X burn;

 

02:09:58 ImgBurn Version 2.3.2.0 started!

I 02:09:58 Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition (5.1, Build 2600 : Service Pack 2)

I 02:09:58 Total Physical Memory: 1,038,412 KB - Available: 521,712 KB

I 02:09:58 Initialising SPTI...

I 02:09:58 Searching for SCSI / ATAPI devices...

I 02:09:58 Found 1 DVD-ROM and 1 DVD±RW!

I 02:13:46 Operation Started!

I 02:13:46 Source File: C:\AIR_AMERICA.ISO

I 02:13:46 Source File Sectors: 2,285,849 (MODE1/2048)

I 02:13:46 Source File Size: 4,681,418,752 bytes

I 02:13:46 Source File Volume Identifier: AIR_AMERICA

I 02:13:46 Source File Implementation Identifier: DVD Shrink

I 02:13:46 Source File File System(s): ISO9660, UDF (1.02)

I 02:13:46 Destination Device: [0:1:0] PHILIPS DVD+-RW DVD8701 5D24 (E:) (ATA)

I 02:13:46 Destination Media Type: DVD-R (Disc ID: RITEKF1) (Speeds: 2.4x, 4x, 8x, 12x, 16x)

I 02:13:46 Destination Media Sectors: 2,298,496

I 02:13:46 Write Mode: DVD

I 02:13:46 Write Type: DAO

I 02:13:46 Write Speed: 4x

I 02:13:46 Link Size: Auto

I 02:13:46 Test Mode: No

I 02:13:46 BURN-Proof: Enabled

I 02:13:46 Filling Buffer... (40 MB)

I 02:13:47 Writing LeadIn...

I 02:14:00 Writing Image... (LBA: 0 - 2285848)

I 02:29:00 Synchronising Cache...

I 02:29:40 Image MD5: e84f756dbf6fd34f3c37732548031d80

I 02:29:40 Operation Successfully Completed! - Duration: 00:15:54

I 02:29:40 Average Write Rate: 5,079 KB/s (3.7x) - Maximum Write Rate: 5,592 KB/s (4.0x)

I 02:29:40 Cycling Tray before Verify...

W 02:29:48 Waiting for device to become ready...

I 02:29:58 Device Ready!

I 02:29:59 Operation Started!

I 02:29:59 Source Device: [0:1:0] PHILIPS DVD+-RW DVD8701 5D24 (E:) (ATA)

I 02:29:59 Source Media Type: DVD-R (Book Type: DVD-R) (Disc ID: RITEKF1) (Speeds: 2.4x, 4x, 8x, 12x, 16x)

I 02:29:59 Image File: C:\AIR_AMERICA.ISO

I 02:29:59 Image File Sectors: 2,285,849 (MODE1/2048)

I 02:29:59 Image File Size: 4,681,418,752 bytes

I 02:29:59 Image File Volume Identifier: AIR_AMERICA

I 02:29:59 Image File Implementation Identifier: DVD Shrink

I 02:29:59 Image File File System(s): ISO9660, UDF (1.02)

I 02:29:59 Verifying Sectors... (LBA: 0 - 2285848)

I 02:35:03 Device MD5: e84f756dbf6fd34f3c37732548031d80

I 02:35:03 Image MD5: e84f756dbf6fd34f3c37732548031d80

I 02:35:03 Operation Successfully Completed! - Duration: 00:05:04

I 02:35:03 Average Verify Rate: 15,038 KB/s (10.9x) - Maximum Verify Rate: 22,387 KB/s (16.2x)

I 09:57:09 Close Request Acknowledged

I 09:57:09 Closing Down...

I 09:57:09 Shutting down SPTI...

I 09:57:09 ImgBurn closed!

[cornholio7]

when you say you have checked dma , have you deleted the controller and rebooted as described in the faq? http://forum.imgburn.com/index.php?s=&...dpost&p=967

[Think Floyd]

...oh yeah...while posting those two logs I forgot to say "Thank You"...

 

I tried a lot of burning software, and a lot of it stunk...but I like ImgBurn, and I really want to keep using it...

[Think Floyd]

answer to ch-7...I tried it all two or three times....the DMA has been enabled the entire time...and the screen looks just like the example with it enabled...

 

maybe this will help...I tried to think of a way to compare my DVD-ROM to my burner....I just finished ripping the exact same 5GB disc to my HD with my DVD-ROM and with my DVD+-RW and the DVD-ROM smoked the burner by 100%+....the ROM ripped it in 14 minutes and the burner took a little over 35 minutes to rip the exact same disc....and HD space isn't a problem...isn't a burner supposed to rip as good as or better than a DVD-ROM?

 

I don't know...I'm grasping at straws...

 

Thanks

[cornholio7]

i would go into bios and make sure dma is enabled in there too, it definately looks like a dma issue, check the cables on the burner to make sure it has 80 wires, how is it jumpered?

[Think Floyd]

OK... ...I'll have to wait for my brother to open it up again - I'm disabled and unsteady(the only reason I can type is that my deaf Pop was the most amazing speed-typist I've ever seen - way over 100 words a minute - and I learned a little from him...that, and a lot of back-spacing and correction) and I don't want to make things worse - I haven't stopped searching forums, and I'll keep trying everything I can find...I appreciate your expertise, and I apologize for any bother or inconvenience, but I had to try.

 

Thanks

[Think Floyd]

...and by the way...I didn't just jump on here looking for answers without trying everything I could think of, or find, first....I've been fighting with this for about two weeks or so now.

 

Thanks again

[blutach]

You don't need to open the PC up to check the BIOS. Press Del after a reboot and mess around looking for the DMA settings.

 

Have you installed anything recently?

 

There is also a script which can fix DMA - see http://winhlp.com/?q=node/10

 

Regards