what is my burn speed problem?

[rmrpbutt]

Hi all.

I am having a problem with my Lite-On LDW-411S dvd+/- combo drive. It seems like it is VERY slow when burning both DVD-R's and CD-R's. I understand the DVD's only burn at 4x, but the CDRs are supposed to be burning at 40X (my CD media is rated at 48X) but it takes about 10 minutes to burn a data cd. I can do the same burn on my older machine using just a regular cd burner in about 4 minutes.

This is my set up and what I think might be problems that I can't seem to figure out:

1) My dell came with a dvd-rom and when I installed the burner, since the existing drive was set to cable-select, I did the same on my burner (they are on same IDE). Should I set them up as master/slave?

2) When I look at hardware properties, the dvd-rom is set to dma, but the dvd burner is PIO (whatever that is) and there doesn't appear to be a way to set DMA on. I would think this is definitely a problem, but I don't know if it affects burn speed.

3) I am using Sonic software that came with the drive, but when I look on the sonic site, it doesn't mention my drive as a supported drive. Is this software any good? I use Nero on my older machine. After hunting around on this and other forums, I am using dvdshrink/imgburn to make "personal backups" of my movies.

My system specs if they matter:
Dell 4450 P4 2.53 w/ 533Mhz FSB
768MB PC2700 ram
40 GB HD & 120 GB HD (also both cable select on same IDE channel, but DMA is on for both of these)

 

[BunnyStroker]

Your problem is having the DVD writer set to PIO. This will most certainly cripple your burning speed.

You need to set the DVD Burner to DMA. This can be tricky due to a rather questionable "feature" in Windows. Here's what to do:

1. Go to control panel/system/device manager. Find the IDE channel with your burner, make sure it is set to "DMA if available". Restart. Check device manager again. If your writer comes up as DMA, problem should be solved.

2. If it still comes up as PIO, then Windows is messing with you. Windows, if an optical drive gets something like 4 or more CRC read errors (which is not uncommon, and nothing wrong with a drive necessarily - happens all the time with audio ripping) will force the drive to PIO no matter what. You can fix this by going to the device manager, right clicking the the IDE channel that your drive is on and deleting it. DO NOT DELETE THE IDE CHANNEL FOR YOUR HARD DRIVE (I'm not sure how windows will handle it). Once you have deleted the secondary IDE channel (assuming that that is your DVDR channel) restart. On startup, Windows should find and reinstall the secondary IDE channel. Repeat part 1 above to force DMA.

3. If neither 1 nor 2 solves your problem, look maybe for updated IDE drivers?

Hope this helps.

<b>1.4 Ghz AMD T-Bird underclocked to 1 Ghz...just to be safe!</b>

 

[rmrpbutt]

Wow...thanks a lot microsoft for that feature! I already know that I can't do #1 because I see that it says pick dma if possible but it is grayed out and forced to PIO. I will do the #2 tonight when I get home.

Thanks for the answer!