Slow Burner Problem Any Ideas?

[Gary D]

What did the regedit trick show that Nero was actually burning at???

[MAXIMUS01CAN]

Okay, must have had a brain fart there anyway I've attatched my most recent burn log. Thanks for all the help

Cheers,
Max

[MAXIMUS01CAN]

GDi8ck, I saved your attatchment as speedtest.reg to my desktop, then doubleclicked and went okay and it looked as if it installed it into my registry, but I think I'm lost as to how to see the information that this trick shows. Can you enlighten me..... I've included the pics of what happened during your instructions

Thanks,
Max

[Chewy]

The user used the Fast User Switching capability of windows XP

on that old a computer during a burn?

[Gary D]

Determine maximum speed : TRUE

Try unticking the determine maximum speed box since you are burning at 4X.

Allow pathdepth more than 8 directories : TRUE
Allow more than 255 characters in path : TRUE

Untick those 2 boxes

And read this thread on how to burn with Nero by jmet:

http://forum.digital-digest.com/showthread.php?t=61570

Do exactly as it says and post back with your results

[Gary D]

Nero 6 in manual mode only shows the set speed while burning manually. This trick shows the actual speed while burning manually. The ideal burn is a burn where the speed does not fluctuate. When the speed fluctuates, the disc has to speed up and slow down repeatly. This is where errors occur.

In one of your posts, you said you were burning (and posting a reply) at the same time. When I burn, I reduce the demand on my RAM by disconnecting from the internet, turning off my anti-spyware program, and my internet security. I don't even use the keyboard or mouse while burning because it can put a demand on the CPU. Less programs running the better!!!

Here is some reading on freeing up RAM and speeding up computers:

http://forum.digital-digest.com/showthread.php?t=56373

http://forum.digital-digest.com/showthread.php?t=60313&highlight=proof

[MAXIMUS01CAN]

Chewy, Regarding the Fast user switching.....Yeah, Yeah.......the wife came along and had to look at her email for exams, and you know the rest.......
GD8ck, I never usually use "determine Max speed" I just turned it on for the last burn. I'll follow the directions and do another burn and post the log. Strange thing is I've been burning with this burner and nero for over 3 years now and never.....any problems. Always burnt at 4X and approx. 15 to 20 min /burn and now slow as a snail, but maybe we can figure it out.

Cheers,
Max

[vivadante]

Is there anything else you did to alter the state of your operating system before all that happened? Like installing a MS security patch, a new software, driver or even a new hardware device? What I mean is, is there anything you could make out (at all), that could be the reason for the burner going down with performance. Can you tell when burning speed went down in a manner you would call 'drastic', or did it slow down over a longer period of time?

I did a bit of checking around on the issue. There are several opinions circulating about Sony DVD RW DRU-510a 1.1a. Some users report of the partial loss of ability to burn DVDs but still being able to burn CDs, some have problems to burn any media at all. A big number of people try to find out why the device starts burning slow all of a sudden. As far as I can tell from what I gathered as info from various dedicated boards, nobody was really able to provide any help to solve their problems. The best tip I actually read on one posting, was to get a new burner because this one's livespan seems to be over.

As I can see from those images you posted here, your hardware is allready running on the latest make of firmware. Maybe you want to take a risc and try a newer version of it in it's beta stadium: (Search the page under it's section Firmwares in beta, the newest of the new. ** HIGHER RISK **)

SONY DRU-510A - Currently Auto Reset and RPC1 firmware based on 1.1a. For a detailed instruction on how to flash your firmware go to this site: tastycomputers.com

Another forum's post suggested the use of a Drive Speed Selector program from Sony. I don't know if this would do any better, but you might want to give it a shot: Sony Drive Speed Selector

Sony 'Support' doesn't seem to be of any real help as I found out. But if you want to try their site for manuals and data sheets you might want to have a look: sony.storagesupport.com


Last but not least a couple of links to some postings on the net, that cover either the same problem with this burner or can give you additional insights of some of those other problems people seem to encounter with this piece of hardware:

• Sony dru-510a, nero illegal disc dvd-rw @ cdfreaks.com
• Sony DRU510A ripping slow, even with DSS @ afterdawn.com
• Sony DRU-510A no longer writes to DVD @ planetdvd.net

If you should choose to get yourself a new burner and run into another problem like this again, this link might be of help too then: The Firmware Page @ Forum.RPCL.org


I hope, something of the above mentioned works out!

[jmet]

I have a Sony DRU-510A and it still running as solid as the first day I used it. I also used the DSS add on prog with it.

[MAXIMUS01CAN]

Thanks for the legwork all, I just can't seem to put my finger on why it's suddenly starting to burn so slow. It's always been a solid burner for me over the past 3 years and there was a time a while back when it wouldn't recongize some of the media I had and would error out every time, but after getting some new media away it went again. Like I said before, the only thing I've done in the past month or so was to move the box to a new location, opened it up and blew out some of the dust inside with compressed air.....The only thing I can think of is that I was getting the blue screen of death on startup and I eventually had to uninstall and reinstall my ATI display adaptor (If I remember correctly) as a file seemed to be missing or something was corrupted. Other than that there may have been a few proggies installed, but nothing out of the ordinary that I can think of. No changes with Nero etc. that would directly affect the drives performance. I followed GaryD's advice and used Jmet's guide which in fact is pretty much the same as I've always done with the exception of a couple ticks and did a burn last night. It didn't seem to make any difference on the speed as when I watched the actual burn rate it was staying pretty static at 1.375X to 1.355X and it looked as if it was going to take around 50 some min. to complete the burn so I crashed, but I will post that log later today once I'm back at the hosienda. Would doing a system restore to some point before the move make any sense?

Cheers,
Max

[Chewy]

3 slim possibilities, and that's about the only thing left

the source file and hard drive are extremely fragmented
the G05's are going bad
your power supply is too weak

any combination of above 3

[MAXIMUS01CAN]

I have diskeeper server standard running in the background on low priority and it defrags automatically whenever it's necessary so I have to rule that one out, now there may be something with the second as the Maxell disc I tried last night burnt twice as fast as the GO5's but even at then it took 30 min to burn the Maxell disc. I have played back the burns from the slow speed and they're perfect, but I just don't like having to wait that long to do a burn. The sad part is I got a new external Sony burner for xmas, but found out that it burns perfect for the first hour of the backup and then starts freezing and stalls on playback. It'll work on USB2 or Firewire and Works fine for decrypting, burning cd's and everything else but the last 1/2 of the DVD discs. Doesn't seem to matter what the media is. I think the ol dimension 4400 is just a little too slow for that unit.........should have taken it back for an internal I guess, but don't even know whether that would have worked. Power supply...........well it's a possibility, but I've seen the processor pinned to the max using my Ulead VS9 when rendering out video and if it can handle that it should be able to handle my old burner using the processor at 13% even though it is taking extra power for the laser to burn. So rewinding the clock on the restore wouldn't be worth a try?

Cheers,
Max

[Chewy]

here's a drastic but often useful trick, go into msconfig and disable all startup
items, try a burn at 8x, don't multitask anything, use a better disk.

[jmet]

here's a drastic but often useful trick, go into msconfig and disable all startup items

Here is a guide on how to do just that: http://forum.digital-digest.com/showthread.php?t=56373