Speed Problem, HELP!!!!!!

[yuveel]

hey guys, i have got a 10x hp cd-rw drive but i can only burn an 4x. i can select higher speeds in easy cd creator 5 platinum but the cds getted screwed, buffer underrun problems. any speed above 4x messes up, why? i would like to utilise the full speed of my writer, how can i rectify this problem, please help.

cheers
yuveel

[Darren Wilson]

Firstly how is the drive configured on the IDE channels?

Secondly, how are you burning your CD's?

Lastly, what are the specs of the rest of the system (including HDD speed & configuration)

[Radical Dreamer]

Make sure that you shut down any programs that are running the background also, that may be the cause.

[ephmynus]

This primarily depends on your setup and, as the others noted above, what may be running in the background and the configuration of your IDE devices. If possible, leave your hard drive on its own channel if you are burning straight from the hard drive. Also, CD-CD copies, depending on your setup, may have to run at a lower speed. The buffer underrun error you are receiving means that one of your components can't keep up with the others. By changing your IDE configuration or by closing any programs that don't need to be open, you can free up system resources and you may have a better chance of not getting errors at your top burning speed.

[orange]

Is this a recent occurence, i.e has it worked at 10x ok and just suddenly given problems or have you just aquired it and not been able to get above 4x?

[yuveel]

hey guys, the problem has always been here, itz just now that i have decided to fix it. my hdd is pretty old, less than 5200rpm, it is not even ata66 i dont think. but i works fine, i have an athlon xp1600, asus a7v266 m/b, 256mb ddr ram. that should be powerful enough to burn cds at 10x, i dont know anything about ide channels, maybe u could share some light on the subject.

thanx for all the help thus far guys
yuveel

[freddy]

a few things come to mind here ,

is the drive indeed a 10x speed (as most drives go in incriments of 4-8-12-14-24 etc) ,

if the drive is a cd-r are u in fact using re-recordable disk?

and the third is if your h/drive is as u say very old then that could be your problem.

if u have a cd reader in the machine can u not copy from cd to writer?

[condor]

things to check -

1. your hdd (that you're burning from) and the CD burner are not on the same IDE channel (if your hdd is Pri Master set the CD to Sec Master or slave but avoid the same IDE controller)

2. you're running the latest VIA patch (4.38) but not running the VIA mpd IDE driver (if you are running that driver - remove it)

3. your CD and HDD are set to use DMA or UDMA modes

4. your Burner has the latest firmware

5. the cd's you're using are rated for at least 10x recording (try a different brand as well)

6. no anti-virus is running in the background (scanning all files)

7. you've updated Ecd creator to it's latest version and update.

8. the drive you're burning from has no bad blocks and is defragmented..

hope it helps.

[yuveel]

hey, the cd writer is indeed 10x, i will try the advice you guys suggested, i will inform you of the results, thanx for all the help guys, i appreciate it.

yuveel