Read/write speed of DVD-RW in the second bay on Dimension ..

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

Hi, there,

I bought a new Dimension 4600 P4 2.8GHz 256MB in July and added a Mad Dog
Dominator 6-in-1 DVD-R/-RW drive in the second bay later. The DVD RW is
labled 4X writing, however it wrote at 1X on a 4X DVD-R disk and read at
barely 1.5X (2M/sec). It took me more than two hours to rip a DVD movie. I
had suspected that the DVD RW drive was defective until I curiously
exchanged the DVD RW drive and the original factory installed CD ROM (48X)
drive, ie., put the DVD RW into the upper bay and the CD ROM into the lower
bay. Both jumpers were set to Cable Select (as Owner's Manual instructed).
Now the DVD RW drive works with its specified speed but the CD ROM reads at
a considerablly lower speed (<14X, 2.1M/sec). The CD ROM used to read the
same file at about 24X (3.6M/sec). Now I start to wonder if the mother board
has problem. I can't imagine that Dell builds a computer supports a second
optical drive reads only about 2M/sec second. What should I do now? Live
with it or call Dell Support?

Thanks!

Tuanjie

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

I believe the problem is that you never turned on the drive in the BIOS. Go
into the BIOS and you'll see the drive is marked OFF. Change it to AUTO.
Reboot.

This should fix the problem. When a drive is off on a Dell, it still works,
but in PIO mode, not UDMA mode. VERY slow.

Tom
"Tuanjie Liu" <liutuanjie@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:4Ppzd.9885$9j5.8803@newsread3.news.pas.earthlink.net...
> Hi, there,
>
> I bought a new Dimension 4600 P4 2.8GHz 256MB in July and added a Mad Dog
> Dominator 6-in-1 DVD-R/-RW drive in the second bay later. The DVD RW is
> labled 4X writing, however it wrote at 1X on a 4X DVD-R disk and read at
> barely 1.5X (2M/sec). It took me more than two hours to rip a DVD movie. I
> had suspected that the DVD RW drive was defective until I curiously
> exchanged the DVD RW drive and the original factory installed CD ROM (48X)
> drive, ie., put the DVD RW into the upper bay and the CD ROM into the
> lower bay. Both jumpers were set to Cable Select (as Owner's Manual
> instructed). Now the DVD RW drive works with its specified speed but the
> CD ROM reads at a considerablly lower speed (<14X, 2.1M/sec). The CD ROM
> used to read the same file at about 24X (3.6M/sec). Now I start to wonder
> if the mother board has problem. I can't imagine that Dell builds a
> computer supports a second optical drive reads only about 2M/sec second.
> What should I do now? Live with it or call Dell Support?
>
> Thanks!
>
> Tuanjie
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

Thanks, Tom. The problem was fixed as instructed. Dell's Owner's Manual
does't say anything about this. They may want to keep their Customer Support
guys busy.

Tuanjie


"Tom Scales" <tomtoo@softhome.net> wrote in message
news:ENKdnYBquK54DFPcRVn-jg@comcast.com...
>I believe the problem is that you never turned on the drive in the BIOS.
>Go into the BIOS and you'll see the drive is marked OFF. Change it to
>AUTO. Reboot.
>
> This should fix the problem. When a drive is off on a Dell, it still
> works, but in PIO mode, not UDMA mode. VERY slow.
>
> Tom
> "Tuanjie Liu" <liutuanjie@yahoo.com> wrote in message
> news:4Ppzd.9885$9j5.8803@newsread3.news.pas.earthlink.net...
>> Hi, there,
>>
>> I bought a new Dimension 4600 P4 2.8GHz 256MB in July and added a Mad Dog
>> Dominator 6-in-1 DVD-R/-RW drive in the second bay later. The DVD RW is
>> labled 4X writing, however it wrote at 1X on a 4X DVD-R disk and read at
>> barely 1.5X (2M/sec). It took me more than two hours to rip a DVD movie.
>> I had suspected that the DVD RW drive was defective until I curiously
>> exchanged the DVD RW drive and the original factory installed CD ROM
>> (48X) drive, ie., put the DVD RW into the upper bay and the CD ROM into
>> the lower bay. Both jumpers were set to Cable Select (as Owner's Manual
>> instructed). Now the DVD RW drive works with its specified speed but the
>> CD ROM reads at a considerablly lower speed (<14X, 2.1M/sec). The CD ROM
>> used to read the same file at about 24X (3.6M/sec). Now I start to wonder
>> if the mother board has problem. I can't imagine that Dell builds a
>> computer supports a second optical drive reads only about 2M/sec second.
>> What should I do now? Live with it or call Dell Support?
>>
>> Thanks!
>>
>> Tuanjie
>>
>
>