Normal reads... slow burns - new drive...

[burf]

I was having problems, a while back, with cd-rws becoming cd-roms after burning... remember

I decided to return the old drive (112D), and got an Optiarc 7200A, as a replacement (always had better luck with NEC than Pioneer).

The new drive seems to be reading ok, but when I did a test DVD burn (with TYG02 media), it burned very slow. I checked everything DMA - I have the drive as Primary Slave - shows up as ULtra DMA4. Uninstalled the IDE Controller (as per the faq). Detached all connections from the drive, and reset them. Then did another test burn... slow again.

The 2nd time, it got up to 10x briefly, then went down & stayed at 4X.

I've done everything I can think of, and am thinking it's a defective drive.

Any ideas? Any tests I can run, that might show it's the drive?

I didn't upgrade the firmware yet, since it's new, and didn't want yo possibly void any exchange.

Any help appreciated... thanks!

 

I 20:36:22 ImgBurn Version 2.4.1.0 started!

I 20:36:22 Microsoft Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600 : Service Pack 3)

I 20:36:22 Total Physical Memory: 785,904 KB - Available: 452,636 KB

I 20:36:22 Initialising SPTI...

I 20:36:22 Searching for SCSI / ATAPI devices...

I 20:36:22 Found 1 DVD

Edited June 24, 2008 by burf

[burf]

I decided to update the firmware. Better speed, but still kind of strange.

Speed would go up and down a lot.

Does this burn look normal?

Again thanks!

Edited June 24, 2008 by burf

[LIGHTNING UK!]

The speed looks ok but your CPU usage is high.

 

Are you running quite an old / slow machine?

[burf]

Awww, don't be so hard on ye olde thing - a finely tweaked Athlon XP 1800

 

Seriously, though, the burn was unlike any I've ever seen. The speed would go in increments of 2X, then go down 4X, stay for awhile, then back down... then up 4X.

Obviously, my ignorance of the burn process shows, but I've never seen a burn with *steps,* like the graph shows. Is that normal with some drives? In my experience, *normal* is a pretty steady max speed.

But I like the drive... it's much quieter than the Pioneer, for whatever quietness is worth.

And that CD-RW issue... all the discs are now again CD-RW, so it WAS the drive.

 

One other question, in my CD-RW thread, I was told to remove the pxhelp20 filter.

Does this remove it from just ImgBurn, or my whole system?

I checked my install logs, and it seems TMPGEnc DVD Author installed it. I use v1.6, since my computer is a bit long in the tooth, and don't want to neuter the program.

 

Thanks again for all your help! Reading a lot of posts here, all you guys/gals are great, unlike so many support forums, where there's so much condescension & impatience. The next brew's on me

 

Later... did another burn, and again, it goes straight to 6x, then goes down to 3, up to 8, down to 3, then up to 10, down, and finishes around 12. Other than that behavior, the burner's great.

Edited June 24, 2008 by burf

[LIGHTNING UK!]

It's only going down whilst stepping, probably just a side effect of the stepping.

 

The stepping is known as z-clv or z-cav I believe.

 

z being zone.

clv being constant linear velocity

cav being constant angular velocity

 

I guess yours is z-clv as the rpm drops off but the speed stays the same. (???!)

 

As I said before, it's perfectly normal and it varies from drive to drive, media to media and speed to speed.

 

Removing filters removes it from the pc. If you actually burn with TMPGEnc, don't remove it.

[burf]

Thanks, LIGHTNING!

I always like the explanations

I never burn with TMPGenc... always ImgBurn.

So, I assume all it can do, is interfere in some way, and it's best to remove it... correct?

You do realize this may be my last question

[LIGHTNING UK!]

pxhelp20 is a very common filter and it's probably best that you just make sure you've installed the latest version of software that uses it (even WinAmp does) rather than removing it.

[burf]

Well then, thank you

[volvofl10]

in your log and 2 x dvdinfo screens, you had the wreite speed set to MAX , try changing that to 8x or 12x and see what happens.

 

If its an older system it may not be able to keep up with the MAX speed setting. By limiting the top speed, it may help to attain a higher average write rate

[burf]

Thanks, volvo. I normally have it set at 8x, but wanted to test the new drive.

My old 112D would always hit 12x, when I set it to max, but speed isn't as essential to me, as a quality burn, so normally I just set it at the speed rating of the media.

I'll be doing a burn a bit later, and will try it at 12, and see what happens.

Next one I'll go back to 8x, for good

[burf]

Well, back to the drawing board.

I did a burn this time set at 12x... stayed 6x or under, the whole burn.

I'm really starting to think I got a lemon, since this seems to be intermittent.

Anyway... here's the log, and graph...

Thanks!

I 20:12:27 ImgBurn Version 2.4.1.0 started!

I 20:12:27 Microsoft Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600 : Service Pack 3)

I 20:12:27 Total Physical Memory: 785,904 KB - Available: 459,212 KB

I 20:12:27 Initialising SPTI...

I 20:12:27 Searching for SCSI / ATAPI devices...

I 20:12:27 Found 1 DVD

[mmalves]

Those are genuine Taiyo Yuden blanks? Do you have Daemon Tools installed?

[burf]

Yup... genuine... and an old version of DT (3.47).

Never have been any problem before.

[burf]

Just wondering, if there's any other ideas about what may be going on, before I ship this drive back?

I just did another burn, this time set at 8X. Other than jumping briefly to 6X, at the beginning of the burn, it stayed around 4.0X the whole burn.

So, any thoughts would be appreciated... thanks!

I 16:40:57 ImgBurn Version 2.4.1.0 started!

I 16:40:57 Microsoft Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600 : Service Pack 3)

I 16:40:57 Total Physical Memory: 785,904 KB - Available: 484,596 KB

I 16:40:57 Initialising SPTI...

I 16:40:57 Searching for SCSI / ATAPI devices...

I 16:40:57 Found 1 DVD

[LIGHTNING UK!]

Burn one with test mode switched on and see if it then reaches full speed.

 

If it does, it would appear the drive is slowing itself down as a result of WOPC (i.e. it's determined the burn quality sucks and it's trying to correct it).

 

How are the buffers up until when it slows itself down? Are they on a steady figure?

[burf]

Finally had a few minutes to do a test burn.

Set at 8x, like my last burn... it went up to 6X, then down and up to 8X, where it pretty much stayed 'til the end. Avg - 7.4X... Max - 8X.

The buffer stayed around 100%... device buffer basically around 88-92%, with a few short burps down.

As far as the buffers during real burns, the device buffer is more active, often going way down quickly, and then back up quickly.

Does any of this suggest anything to you?

The WOPC you mentioned, would that suggest a faulty drive, or bad media?

Obviously, I can't be sure the discs are perfect, but before this, burning around 50 from this batch of TYG02, on my old drive, were all were flawless... not one coaster. Then that CD-RW thing started happening... got the new drive, and then the speed problems.

Thanks for hanging in there with me