Burning CDRs

[trwh]

Hi

While burning CDs at speeds greater than 20x, my CD writer drive (a new Plextor budget writer) buffer underruns once every ten seconds or so. The only way I can avoid buffer underruns is to burn at 20x or slower.

My machine has a QDI Kudoz 7 motherboard (on board IDE controller) with an Athlon XP2000+ processor, and 512MB of RAM. The Writer is on a separate IDE channel to my hard drive, and I use Nero 6.

I read hardware reviews where people with similar 'speced machines to mine run burners at 52x quite happily. They don't mention whether or not they are getting buffer underruns, and admittedly the disks I have burnt which have suffered underruns still work fine.

Is it normal to experience so many underruns, or am I likely to have a hardware / configuration problem somewhere?

Thanks,
Tim.

EDIT: Oops, posts in the Off Topic forum don't appear on the home page. Maybe this could be moved to "Everything Else"?

[BCP99]

While CDR is burning, you should not run another program.
OS (windows) should be stable. When you run any program,
if it's slow, you should remove and install OS.

And use SCSI interface for HDD if possible.

[sam9]

I use a CD burning program called "Golden Hawk" that lets you enable an "under run protection feature". I just specify MAX for spead and appearently the software monitors the proceccess and adjusts the actual speed as needed.

[Netlist]

Originally posted by trwh
(a new Plextor budget writer)

Type?

/Hugo

[UrSv]

With buffer underruns do you mean that the buffer goes empty and then is refilled? That seems normal to me and not relly a problem. A buffer underrun is only a problem when it makes the whole burn process fail.

Make sure you have the latest firmware if there is an updated and that your drive is DMA enabled. Latest drivers for the MB is also usually good...

[trwh]

Hi everyone,

Thanks for your replies!

This is a recent install of Windows 2000 SP4, which is very stable at the moment. I wish I had a SCSI hard drive, heh!

Hugo, the model number of the drive is PX-W5224-A, and I am using the lastest firmware revision (1.3). I have also flashed my BIOS with the latest firmware.

Yes, the buffer empties and the drive waits for it to be refilled. Maybe I was using the wrong term for it. You say that the buffer emptying is normal - that is what I wanted to hear! It's just that no one else mentions it in reviews, etc.

How do I enable DMA? I couldn't see anything relating to it in my BIOS screen, nor in the Windows Device Manager. Windows help suggests that it's in Device Manager somewhere, but I couln't find it.

Thanks!
Tim.

[trwh]

Aha! I found a tutorial here:

http://www.2e.org/dma.htm

Interestingly, DMA was enabled for my hard drive, but not my CD-RW or DVD drive. Thanks for putting me onto this, UrSv! I'll report back with how I get on.

[trwh]

Thank you, this has solved my problem. I have just burnt a disc at 40x with no underruns!

Now, according to Nero, I am limited by how fast data can be prepared for writing (about 42-43x equivalent speed apparently). :-)

Thanks for your help,
Tim.

[queens49]

It's in the Device Manager,
In the list you should find a heading called IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers. Under there, you should have Primary and Secondary. If you double click on either one, a window will pop open. Under the Advanced Settings Tab, there's a pull-down menu called Transfer Mode. Make sure DMA if Available is selected. You should do this for both Primary and Secondary controllers.

But if I'm not mistaken, CD burners work in PIO mode, which is usually what the Transfer mode is set at, as a default.

[Netlist]

PX-W5224-A is UDMA2.
http://www.plextor.be/products/cd_re...er%2052/24/52A

Glad you found it.

/Hugo