Dell 4550 with A05 Bios and slow DVD Burner performance

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

I'd bet the media/drive combination. Nothing special about a 4550 that
would limit you.

I'd put it back to Cable Select though.

Oh, one thing. The drive is AUTO in the BIOS, not OFF, right? It works
with OFF, but not well.

Tom
"Patrick L. Parks" <TryThis@WontWork.com> wrote in message
news:M4mdndn_x9q3tt7cRVn-tQ@comcast.com...
> Quick question for anybody that can help.
>
> I have a Dell 4550 (p4 @ 2.4, 1GB DDR, Western Dig 120GB 8mb cache HD and
> NEC ND-3500A DVD burner (16x DVD burner).
>
> I purchased some FujiFilm 8x DVD-R media and am trying to simulate an 8x
> burn to this media with Roxio Easy Media Creator and Nero (both newest
> versions) and cannot get any performance over 4x with this drive and
> media.
>
> I have chatted with several members of www.cdfreaks.com and they indicate
> no problems burning 8x to this media with this NEC burner. So, I am down
> to trying to troubleshoot any hardware problems that might be causing this
> problem.
>
> Things I have tried.
> Set drives to master and slave instead of Cable Select
> Changed IDE cable
> Tried Nero as well as Roxio
> Made sure Ultra DMA2 is selected.
> Tried a different physical Fuji disk.
>
> Things I have thought about
> upgrading BIOS from A05 to A08 (hesitate cause I have read about firewire
> card problems and I run a firewire card in this pc).
>
> My machine is running Windows XP with all latest hotfixes (with exception
> of SP2.....still waiting on that one).
>
> Any ideas?
>

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

Patrick L. Parks wrote:

> Quick question for anybody that can help.
>
> I have a Dell 4550 (p4 @ 2.4, 1GB DDR, Western Dig 120GB 8mb cache HD
> and NEC ND-3500A DVD burner (16x DVD burner).
>
> I purchased some FujiFilm 8x DVD-R media and am trying to simulate an 8x
> burn to this media with Roxio Easy Media Creator and Nero (both newest
> versions) and cannot get any performance over 4x with this drive and media.
>
> I have chatted with several members of www.cdfreaks.com and they
> indicate no problems burning 8x to this media with this NEC burner. So,
> I am down to trying to troubleshoot any hardware problems that might be
> causing this problem.
>
> Things I have tried.
> Set drives to master and slave instead of Cable Select
> Changed IDE cable
> Tried Nero as well as Roxio
> Made sure Ultra DMA2 is selected.
> Tried a different physical Fuji disk.
>
> Things I have thought about
> upgrading BIOS from A05 to A08 (hesitate cause I have read about
> firewire card problems and I run a firewire card in this pc).

I tried the A08 BIOS on my 4550 and had problems (it was a while ago,
IIRC my 4550 wouldn't boot afterwards), so I backed it out to A06, which
I'm still running. My DVD write performance is fine, although my Sony
DRU-530A is limited as to which DVD-Rs it will write at 8X.

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

>
> I tried the A08 BIOS on my 4550 and had problems (it was a while ago, IIRC
> my 4550 wouldn't boot afterwards), so I backed it out to A06, which I'm
> still running. My DVD write performance is fine, although my Sony DRU-530A
> is limited as to which DVD-Rs it will write at 8X.

I've been running A08 since a few days after it came out. No problems.
Also running SP2. Also no problems.

Tom

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

On Sat, 11 Sep 2004 12:43:22 -0400, "Patrick L. Parks"
<TryThis@WontWork.com> wrote:

>Quick question for anybody that can help.
>
>I have a Dell 4550 (p4 @ 2.4, 1GB DDR, Western Dig 120GB 8mb cache HD
>and NEC ND-3500A DVD burner (16x DVD burner).
>
>I purchased some FujiFilm 8x DVD-R media and am trying to simulate an 8x
>burn to this media with Roxio Easy Media Creator and Nero (both newest
>versions) and cannot get any performance over 4x with this drive and media.
>
>I have chatted with several members of www.cdfreaks.com and they
>indicate no problems burning 8x to this media with this NEC burner. So,
>I am down to trying to troubleshoot any hardware problems that might be
>causing this problem.
>
>Things I have tried.
> Set drives to master and slave instead of Cable Select
> Changed IDE cable
> Tried Nero as well as Roxio
> Made sure Ultra DMA2 is selected.
> Tried a different physical Fuji disk.
>
>Things I have thought about
> upgrading BIOS from A05 to A08 (hesitate cause I have read about
>firewire card problems and I run a firewire card in this pc).
>
>My machine is running Windows XP with all latest hotfixes (with
>exception of SP2.....still waiting on that one).
>
>Any ideas?

I'd suspect the media first. Fujifilm sells 2 different grades of
DVD-R 8x media. The 8x Taiyo Yuden (TYG02) are made in Japan and
considered Grade A. The 8x FUJIFILM03's are made in Taiwan and are a
lower grade. The packaging is the same, the only difference is the
"Made in" on the label. You may have just gotten a bad batch too.

I'd try another brand, like an 8x Verbatim. You can also use
DVDINfoPro to check the manufacturer's code of the discs, as well as a
lot of other info.

www.dvdinfopro.com

Dave

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

Patrick L. Parks wrote:
> Quick question for anybody that can help.
>
> I have a Dell 4550 (p4 @ 2.4, 1GB DDR, Western Dig 120GB 8mb cache HD
> and NEC ND-3500A DVD burner (16x DVD burner).
>
> I purchased some FujiFilm 8x DVD-R media and am trying to simulate an 8x
> burn to this media with Roxio Easy Media Creator and Nero (both newest
> versions) and cannot get any performance over 4x with this drive and media.
>
> I have chatted with several members of www.cdfreaks.com and they
> indicate no problems burning 8x to this media with this NEC burner. So,
> I am down to trying to troubleshoot any hardware problems that might be
> causing this problem.
>
> Things I have tried.
> Set drives to master and slave instead of Cable Select
> Changed IDE cable
> Tried Nero as well as Roxio
> Made sure Ultra DMA2 is selected.
> Tried a different physical Fuji disk.
>
> Things I have thought about
> upgrading BIOS from A05 to A08 (hesitate cause I have read about
> firewire card problems and I run a firewire card in this pc).
>
> My machine is running Windows XP with all latest hotfixes (with
> exception of SP2.....still waiting on that one).
>
> Any ideas?
>


Well, I figured out my own problem. It was that I was performing test
burns and not real burns. For some reason, the tests only go 4x and
that is all.

Once I switched to truly burning discs, 8x was no problem at all with
the media that I was using.

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

Patrick L. Parks wrote:
> Patrick L. Parks wrote:
> > Quick question for anybody that can help.
> >
> > I have a Dell 4550 (p4 @ 2.4, 1GB DDR, Western Dig 120GB 8mb cache
HD
> > and NEC ND-3500A DVD burner (16x DVD burner).
> >
> > I purchased some FujiFilm 8x DVD-R media and am trying to simulate
an 8x
> > burn to this media with Roxio Easy Media Creator and Nero (both
newest
> > versions) and cannot get any performance over 4x with this drive
and media.
> >
> > I have chatted with several members of www.cdfreaks.com and they
> > indicate no problems burning 8x to this media with this NEC burner.
So,
> > I am down to trying to troubleshoot any hardware problems that
might be
> > causing this problem.
> >
> > Things I have tried.
> > Set drives to master and slave instead of Cable Select
> > Changed IDE cable
> > Tried Nero as well as Roxio
> > Made sure Ultra DMA2 is selected.
> > Tried a different physical Fuji disk.
> >
> > Things I have thought about
> > upgrading BIOS from A05 to A08 (hesitate cause I have read
about
> > firewire card problems and I run a firewire card in this pc).
> >
> > My machine is running Windows XP with all latest hotfixes (with
> > exception of SP2.....still waiting on that one).
> >
> > Any ideas?
> >
>
>
> Well, I figured out my own problem. It was that I was performing
test
> burns and not real burns. For some reason, the tests only go 4x and
> that is all.
>
> Once I switched to truly burning discs, 8x was no problem at all with
> the media that I was using.

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

Definatly try the BIOS upgrade 1st as thats what Dell will tell you to do
its not an issue
"aleung" <aleung98@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1106190494.111541.308020@c13g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
>
> Patrick L. Parks wrote:
>> Patrick L. Parks wrote:
>> > Quick question for anybody that can help.
>> >
>> > I have a Dell 4550 (p4 @ 2.4, 1GB DDR, Western Dig 120GB 8mb cache
> HD
>> > and NEC ND-3500A DVD burner (16x DVD burner).
>> >
>> > I purchased some FujiFilm 8x DVD-R media and am trying to simulate
> an 8x
>> > burn to this media with Roxio Easy Media Creator and Nero (both
> newest
>> > versions) and cannot get any performance over 4x with this drive
> and media.
>> >
>> > I have chatted with several members of www.cdfreaks.com and they
>> > indicate no problems burning 8x to this media with this NEC burner.
> So,
>> > I am down to trying to troubleshoot any hardware problems that
> might be
>> > causing this problem.
>> >
>> > Things I have tried.
>> > Set drives to master and slave instead of Cable Select
>> > Changed IDE cable
>> > Tried Nero as well as Roxio
>> > Made sure Ultra DMA2 is selected.
>> > Tried a different physical Fuji disk.
>> >
>> > Things I have thought about
>> > upgrading BIOS from A05 to A08 (hesitate cause I have read
> about
>> > firewire card problems and I run a firewire card in this pc).
>> >
>> > My machine is running Windows XP with all latest hotfixes (with
>> > exception of SP2.....still waiting on that one).
>> >
>> > Any ideas?
>> >
>>
>>
>> Well, I figured out my own problem. It was that I was performing
> test
>> burns and not real burns. For some reason, the tests only go 4x and
>> that is all.
>>
>> Once I switched to truly burning discs, 8x was no problem at all with
>> the media that I was using.
>
>