DVD rom has problems reading Cds in Windows

**format c:** · March 4th, 2006, 12:20 AM

OK before I yack on here is my system specs

Asus A8N-SLI premuim
Athlon xp 64 3200+ W Zalman cooler
Dual EGA gforce 6600 gts in SLI W Zalman coolers
Soundblaster XFI extreme music ( This card rocks )
Both hard drives are SATA
One WD Raptor 36 gig eventually for Linux, used for storage now
One WD Caviar 16 250 gig drive , Boot drive one big partition
Two DVd burners
Primary master is Pioneer DVR 109
Secondary Master is a Pioneer DVD 110D
Antec 550w power supply
OS is Windows XP pro sp2

I have no problem booting to my windows cd, Once I get windows installed it seams to take forever for my dvr 109 drive to recognize that I have placed a driver cd into it ( Another drive on the same cable would not even recognized the Asus drive cd )
If it does it is very slow to read the cd , I may try another ribbon cable, I am using the 80 wire cables for both drives
Is this a controller issue with the nvidia chipset or a drive issue, I have had problems with nvidias ide driver in the past so I don't load it ( Disk Io errors )
I am almost thinking of trying a DFI board because my video cards need the spacing with the zalman coolers , Maybe DFI builds a better board, and I did not have this problem on my Gigabyte board, I had to discontinue using that board since I installed the Zalman coolers
Anyone got ideas, should I try that game fix ?

**minos** · March 5th, 2006, 01:44 AM

check your BIOS.maybe the cd-rom doesn't recognized in BIOS....or your line were not linked well....or your system file broken or missing.....all cause your problem as I know

**Mayet** · March 5th, 2006, 03:37 AM

Moving this to cdrom/dvd section

and i'd replace the cable before anything else is looked at.

**confus-ed** · March 5th, 2006, 03:57 AM

Yep swapping the cable out sounds well worth a shot & if you have an old 40 sense cable you know is ok, try that, as I've discovered nvidia chipsets, when also connected to sata, suffer from a condition very similar to what used to happen if you mixed up speeds on IDE before we got IDT.

Which (p)ata driver are you using for IDE ? The standard M$ one - or one of nvidia's ? (if its nvidia quote the exact wording, as there's a few varieties ).

I think I'm concluding lately that most chipsets just don't 'like' sata/pata mixes, & nvidia especially

**format c:** · March 6th, 2006, 03:44 AM

Right now I am using the MS driver for the PATA dvd burners, I had issues with the nvidia ide driver
I would hate to have to buy two plextor SATA dvd roms as they are expensive

**confus-ed** · March 13th, 2006, 07:10 AM

So ? did you try a fresh cable ? & did you try it with just one dvd drive at a time ?

What software have we got installed at this point ? Any burning software that might be causing problems ?

**format c:** · March 16th, 2006, 04:13 PM

I'm back finally
The problem is with both drives one is the dvr110b and the other is the dvr 109 , both are by poineer
This prolem arrises under a fresh windows installation, I have swapped the drives around and still slow reads from both drives, Each drive is on its own PATA channel , When I switched to a new DFI board the cables were switched, same problem, I sitll have to reinstall Windows
I switched to a DFI lanparty board with the same chipset , I am seriously considering the new SATA Plextor drives, this would tidy up my case a lot
I wonder if it is a chipset issue , Darn and I need a newer power supply for this DFI board

**clauded** · March 16th, 2006, 06:56 PM

as ED sais before trying a 40 sense cable sometimes works wonders in situation that you have now,this is what i would try first,my 2 pfenning

**Poseidon** · March 16th, 2006, 07:22 PM

Stupid question, but I did not see it mentioned anywhere. Same problem with different cd's? Is the windows boot cd a slipstreamed you made or original from Microsoft? - different brand media - same issues?

Do you have another DVD burner you could try besides a Pioneer? (dam good drives btw - I use the same two on my personal gaming machine).

I have run across similar before and like you and confused said, it was a issue with nvidia's drivers. I have also seen this type of behavior with certain brands of media.

**format c:** · March 17th, 2006, 03:57 AM

All the cds I have issues with are factory cds including Windows XP pro
With the new mobo I decided to see if the Asus cd would autorun and it is the same, very slow, the drive seems to quit, then go again and load the launch screen, I also tried it with the DFI cd and it is basically the same
I have tried this with both drives , with the nvidia driver which I am running now and with the driver that comes with Windows
This also happened with my LG combo drive, I could not load any drivers off of the motherboard makers factory cd
Also according to my mobos bios my chipset is at 45 dgrees with the fan at full noisy throttle, Maybe it's time to go back to Intel based systems, even though I like my athlon 64

**confus-ed** · March 17th, 2006, 09:26 AM

Bah, nvidia chipsets do my head in !

Have you tried any bios flashes on your motherboard ? Generally these will help - there's a very new bios, on Asus's site for these boards, showing as 'Beta Version 1011.006 2006/03/07 update '..

**format c:** · March 18th, 2006, 04:11 AM

I have changed my motherboard and installed a DFI Lanparty UI expert , It took a while to get used to he bios
I have tried swapping the drive cables and all the other suggestions, This new board I have flashed with the latest bios from DFI
For the heck of it I hooked up and old LG 52x cd rom drive, It was just a read only drive, It spun right up and read both cds in seconds , Go figure
I tried the Pioneer dvr110d in my Intel based system and it was still sluggish, Maybe they ought to say 2x cd rom speed instead of the higher speed they advertise
I am almost to the point of giving up on optical drives , Maybe I should just go back to a basic system with just a cd rom, hard drive and one video card
I sitll have to reinsall XP on this new board , I wanted the activation to work on it first before I format and reinstall

**confus-ed** · March 18th, 2006, 04:35 AM

Originally Posted by format c:

.. For the heck of it I hooked up and old LG 52x cd rom drive, It was just a read only drive, It spun right up and read both cds in seconds , Go figure ..

Ahhh well that's light (at the end of this here tunnel), & points me at the firmware for your Pioneer's being responsible, so I did some more googling on that idea, & found lots of folks struggling not only with pioneers but lots of other 'Dual & Double Layer media capable' drives & SLI capable chipsets & might explain why I'm always puzzled about matters, as the prices for those are roughly 10x a 'normal writeable' dvd & I just don't put them in for customers normally because of this ..

Another more prosaic answer might be to buy yourself a DVD rom to fit internally & then maybe buy yourself a usb caddy for either or both of your writters ?

**format c:** · March 18th, 2006, 05:08 AM

I think that light we see at the end of the tunnel is a train !
With those usb enclosures I find that they do not have enough amperage for a dvd writer, I tried my benq in one and it would not even show or detect in Windows
I was looking at this Plextor DVDRW SATA drives , they are pricey , I an wondering if running one or two of these would clear up my issue, since all my drives woulr be SATA drives
I think nvidia better do something with their chipsets , but remember this drive was slow on my intel system

**confus-ed** · March 18th, 2006, 05:51 AM

Sata DVD drives oughtn't to be any more expensive than those with an ide interface, disk drives certainly aren't

(sata is cheaper, most times) - however not many folks make 'em as yet, as even 16X dvd isn't filling up 'ata 33' so why do you need something faster ? Well you don't - but soon, in the not too distant future, we'll see motherboards with just sata (on cost grounds) & if you want IDE connections you'll need to buy your own controller, but in the meantime, besides Plextor - MSI also make sata capable DVDRW's (infact MSI put out the first sata connected device, a cd/dvd combo).

I'd maybe though try some judicious firmware flashing on the pioneers.

(btw I didn't mean a self powered usb drive, I meant one with a plug !

- as your comments about voltage are 'fair play' ).

On the subject of 'will all sata fix it ?' - err maybes not - as the only time I've got either an MSI or Plextor sata drive working correctly is on Intel's ICH5/ICH6 southbridge, so pretty much the answer to all of this is 'the technology is immature' - but that's not much flaming help is it ?