Toubles with the new pc's dvdr....?

[Sid]

Dimension 8400


Pentium® 4 Processor 660 with HT Technology (3.60GHz, 800 FSB)


Operating System:
Microsoft® Windows® XP Media Center 2005 Edition WMCE


Memory:
1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz (2x512M) 1GB5


Hard Drive:
250GB Data Security RAID 1 (2 x 250GB SATA HDDs) 250R1


CD ROM/DVD ROM:
Dual Drives: 48x CD-RW Drive+ SAVE $109! 16x DVD+/-RW w/dbl layer write CDR6DVP

drives>

SAMSUNG CD-R/RW SW-252S

PHILIPS DVD+-RW DVD8631

=====================================

whenever I burn an audio disc(DAO) with the SAMSUNG CD-R/RW SW-252S I have no gaps..

BUT
whenever I burn an audio disc(DAO) with the PHILIPS DVD+-RW DVD8631 I have .0763 gap between every track....AAaarrrrr

same software & settings used with both drives

using same files also -to test

WTF?

[wazoo2u]

Upgrade the firmware on the DVD for starters.

[saltman]

is it possible that the philips is also on the same ide channel as the samsung instead of attached to a separate ide card? if it is the slave, hope not, could contribute to the problem. update your firmware, eide drivers, etc. make sure it has dma mode 2 turned on.

[wazoo2u]

The DVD SHOULD be on the same IDE (secondary) channel as the CD recorder. What you don't want to do is pair an optical drive and a hard disk on the same IDE channel because the data transfer of the slowest device (the optical) becomes the speed of the bus, slowing your HD to crap. DMA or PIO mode won't be the cause of gaps. Saltman is correct that both DVD and CD drives should be set to DMA mode, but it's a seperate issue.

[saltman]

disagree with you SHOULD but whatever. would ALWAYS be better to have it plugged into a separate IDE card as posted above. sometimes when the eide drivers aren't right or dma isn't set you can get skips 'cause the info. can't keep up... thought he might be getting skips throughout but I probably should've read more carefully.

[Sid]

Seems that this drive PHILIPS DVD+-RW DVD8631 is a total POS upon investigating
but until I can get DELL out here to replace it with a NEC I'm going to try to get it working correctly.

I just updated to the newest firmware ,
question> how do I check if the DMA is enabled or not?

easy now because I'm not a tech guy

[saltman]

rt click on My Computer. click on properties. open system properties window
click hardware tab, click device manager.
expand Ide/ATA/ATAPI controller
click on which ever channel your DVD is plugged into, Secondary?? for you.
rt.click on secondary. click advance settings tab
you should see if dma is available.

If your DVD burner is plugged into a sep. IDE card it will show up in the manaher in a different place.

sounds like a lot of steps but its REALLY easy.

[Sid]

looks like both are set >ULTRA DMA MODE 2
&
both are in the PRIMARY IDE CHANEL

[Sid]

I'm going to try burning a disc with the new firmware in place....be back after lunch.

thanks for all the help so far

I'll be back

overview of the firmware>

Overview

This article provides instructions to download and update the Philips DVD8631 HH 16X DVD+/-RW firmware to version CD21. This update corrects the problem where the drive fails to read a CD-ROM disc, like a program CD or audio CD, when used for the very first time. The drive will read a CD-R, CD-RW or a DVD disc, but not a CD-ROM disc, on the first insertion.

[wazoo2u]

Your optical drives are installed on your primary IDE because your computer is using Serial ATA (SATA) drives on the SATA Bus. Your IDE controller channel will default to whatever the lowest level of DMA a device on the channel is capable of running. If your drives have different DMA capabilities, then you could seperate them and see a slight perfromance increase. Traditionally, in systems that use only IDE devices, the hard disks (which run UDMA 4 or 5) live on the Primary, and the Opticals (which run UDMA 2 - 5) live on the Secondary, so they don't slow down the HD's.

[Sid]

I have tried everything including reinstalling the program.

Same outcome....

tried DELL tec support
tried cust. serv. because there's obviously(sp) issues with this drive according to many tech forums.
they said scince it's past 21 days( it's 30days old) that they're unable to help & I have to go directly to Philips...

F*CKERS..!

[Sid]

I should have listened & purchased the HP

[wazoo2u]

So RMA it to Phillips. Buy a Pioneer 108 or 109, and Fleabay the Phillips replacement. Sorry we couldn't help, but it really sounds like a drive firmware problem.

One more thing, have you checked out the forums at www.cdfreaks.com or www.dvdhelp.com ? They're both good resources for drive specific issues.

[Sid]

UPDATE
I Blew a gasket on DELL's customer service & they're coming out to replace the drive tomorrow.
The tech on the phone did not no it's replacement yet but he highly doubted it to be another Philips ,posb. a NEC..