DVD drive problem

[AAR.oner]

installed a new PX716A DVD drive about a month ago...no problems...then in the last day or two, i noticed my burn times and even read times were slow...so i watched it and noticed that the drive's buffer level when burning keeps bouncing up and down between ~20% and 100% [not the Read Buffer level]...i've had this happen on old drives that were dying, but never on a new drive...

searchin online right now, but thought if any of ya'll have had this issue before and know the problem/fix, then werd...thanks!

[saltman]

check and see if DMA is enabled. sometimes they do it with poor media... but it sounds like a bad drive. rare for that one.
my old sony would do that when burning to -r media too. are you using the same brand of media as always?

[Five]

how do you enable DMA? Nero express is always hounding me about it but I've never found where the setting is

(sorry for the hijack)

[saltman]

on xp

right click on my computer>click hardware tab>device manager>expand IDA ATA/ATAPi controllers>right click on chanel dvd drive is installed on>properties>advanced settings>change to DMA if available

[saltman]

instructions above assume it's an ide DVD drive and not external or SATA.

[TheMamba]

how do you enable DMA? Nero express is always hounding me about it but I've never found where the setting is

(sorry for the hijack)

Good Q.

Aaron: I had similar symptoms when my system hard drive was failing. I was having serious problems with starting up Windows so when I finally got it to start up....I started burning to DVD whatever I could. Well, since it was using my C drive as it's swap file...I was getting the same wild swings you were and it was taking forever to burn. Luckily, I got what I wanted off the drive and then it TOTALLY died.

So...sounds like something is dying in your machine. If the rest of the computer is working fine...I'd guess it's your burner too.

[AAR.oner]

alright...cdfreaks forum :clap:

my problem wasn't the DMA issue, its a problem with some plextor's and the nVidia drivers i had running...uninstalled the nVidia drivers, burned a disc, and everythings back to normal...

so for future reference, anyone having "device/drive buffer level" issues with their plextor PX-??? drives, if you have nVidia installed, uninstall the drivers and use the defaut windows drivers.

Five--assuming yer runnin XP:

-right-click My Computer > Hardware tab > Device Manager
-expand IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers -- look for yer IDE Channels [there's probly a Primary and a Secondary]
-double click the Primary IDE Channel > Advanced Settings tab > change Transfer Mode to "DMA if available"
--repeat for the Secondary IDE Channel [no need to mess with the Controllers tho]

[AAR.oner]

ya beat me to it salt :D

[saltman]

wow that's obscure.... hard drive issues that TheMamba posted are also a common problem. I should've mentioned that also as a troubleshooting measure.

[AAR.oner]

only thing that seems to suck is now when scrolling down the page here, its choppy instead smooth...but the burners working smoothly it seems...never figured it'd be a display driver :wtf: :hmm:

[TheMamba]

And I'd bet that the display driver is what's making you all choppy and shit.

There's gotta be a way you can have both. Were they the most recent drivers for both or older versions?

[AAR.oner]

older i'm sure...however the cats at cdfreaks say that this is a "permanent" nVidia/Plextor issue...i'm sure i can find some sorta newer windows display driver tho that'll fix it...

it says the default display driver in use now is "VgaSave" [Non-Plug & Play drivers]...but i don't know anything about pc display drivers so...

and this is why i prefer Macs ;)

[TheMamba]

it says the default display driver in use now is "VgaSave" [Non-Plug & Play drivers]...but i don't know anything about pc display drivers so...


Yup...the default windows video driver sucks for just about any video card.

[Five]

thanks very much, guys...

I'm using win2kpro if you have any extra tips for me... hopefully I can find the setting

[saltman]

instructions are the same on win2kpro for the dma. if it is enabled then then it gets complicated to fix the problem.

[AAR.oner]

Five--it should be still be in yer Device Manager i think...what yer lookin for is all of the IDE Channels...you should be able to just doubleclick em and adjust their settings from there

[AAR.oner]

so anyone know of a display driver i can d/l to get better results, other than the nVidia one i'm sposed to be using? i'm in newbie territory on this :D