NEC ND-3540A Reading Problems

n1ght5urf3r

Guys, i need help...
I bought my 3540 on May and by that time i had this pc configuration:
Pentium 733 Mhz on Intel 810e Chipset with 32mb integrated graphics, 128MB Ram, 80GB Maxtor HD on Primary Master, ACER 16x DVD-ROM on Primary Slave, my new NEC ND-3540a on Secondary Master & LG GCE-8310B CD-RW on Secondary Slave, running on WinXP SP2...I know, it was an old pc but at least everytime i did a Transfer Rate Test with my 3540 in CD/DVD Speed, i could reach 16x read speed...btw, i wasn't using MS default IDE Drivers but Intel's Application Accelerator without having problems...

During the past month i changed pc and my configuration now is:
Celeron 2.20GHz on VIA P4M266A chipset with 32Mb integrated graphics, 256mb DDR Ram, 80GB Maxtor HD on Primary Master, ACER 16x DVD-ROM on Primary Slave, NEC ND-3540a on Secondary Master & LG GCE-8310B CD-RW on Secondary Slave running WinXP SP2...now, i can't anymore reach 16x read speed on my 3540 with CD/DVD Speed Transfer Rate Test...i did a Burst Rate Test and it says it's 21MB/s...i've changed my 80wire IDE Cables in both channels just to be sure...i double checked that DMA is enabled on all drives...i did a test with both MS IDE drivers & VIA IDE Drivers...but nothing...my graph looks like this with all dvd's:

what should i do? ...any help will be greatly appreciated ...thx

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PiracyX

hi n1ght5urf3r... i am not too sure on intel systems but if you say u have tried both sets of motherboard drivers inclusing different version with the same thing happening then maybe the problem is the motherboard? have you tested other devices such as your main hard drive to see what transfer rate that gives and if it doesnt pass the transfer what your drive cant pass? another option is to update the NEC 3540's firmware with the same one or an one of Dee's firmware which you can find a link in my sig.

hope this helps..

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n1ght5urf3r

thx for the reply PiracyX...

i did some tests:

1. Burst rate test on my Acer 16x DVD-Rom (currently set in Ultra DMA Mode 2) and the result is 20mb/sec...

2. Burst Rate Test on LG GCE-8320B CD-RW (currently set in Multi-Word DMA Mode 2 as UDMA is not supported in this drive) and the result is 13mb/sec...

3. Burst Rate Test with a software found on this forum (http://www.steelbytes.com/?mid=20 ) on Maxtor 80Gb HD (currently set in Ultra DMA Mode 6) and the result is:
~25mb/sec with VIA IDE Drivers
~35mb/sec with MS IDE Drivers
...both look low to me..i should try with another software

...my 3540 currently has v1.01 (Fifth Release, dated 17/05/2005 found here: http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=140541) Official Firmware

...just a thought..could it be Daemon Tools SCSI controller that is messing with my configuration?...
EDIT1: Uninstalled Daemon Tools but the problem persists...

n1ght5urf3r

...now i'm getting ~84mb/sec on Maxtor 80GB HD with MS IDE Drivers...

n1ght5urf3r

..i think i've found what was causing this mess...my motherboard has 6 integrated USB ports (4 of them are usable right now, the other 2 need cables). In addition to these, i installed on PCI slot 1, an add-on USB2 (4+1 ports) card i had...
1. Whenever i remove this PCI add-on card, i can reach again 16x read speed on my 3540
2. HD burst rate (tested with HDTach) goes from ~45mb/sec with the card installed to ~80mb/sec without the card...

My questions now are these:
1. Is this a power problem? (current PSU has Max 300W)
2. If i change my PSU with another one with more Watts, will it fix this problem?Will i be able to use the PCI USB2 add-on card & all motherboard's usb ports at the same time?

PiracyX

hey again with all the information that you gave me its sounds like your psu isnt good enough. 300w isnt all that good really and for your system with 4 devices (1xHD 3xDVDs) connected. i would suggest getting a new more powerful psu as soon as you can. the only think i say to this is it just might not be a psu problem and yet your usb add on card. firstly do you need to connect the usb card for devices? to you really need all those extra usbs connections? if it works without the card installed i would suggest not connecting it u. your burst rates are faster without it in so you will have your hard drive which will be faster.

hope this helps

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MOBO: ASUS A8N-SLI CPU: AMD 64 X2 4600+@2.7Ghz | RAM: 1.5GB (2x512 Kingston 2x256 GeiL) 2.5-3-3-6 PSU: Hiper 580W GPU: Shappire X850XT PE@585/1.23 HD: 2xSamsung 80GB (RAID0) | Western Digital 500GB | Maxtor 250GB CD/DVD: NEC7173AD | Sony DVDRWQ28@LiteOn1693S SOUND: Creative X-Fi MONITOR: 19" Samsung 913B TFT 8ms DVI OS: Windows Vista

Quikee

I have a 300W PSU with 3 burners and 2 HD attached.. it also depends a lot (mostly) from the CPU and GPU. =)

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zevia

Well, I have a 250W PSU with 2 burners and 6 HDDs in here.

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Quikee

2 burners and 6 HDDs.. but you forgot about the FDD... Anyway.. does it even work ?
A 250W PSU lol amazing... I wonder what's the purpose of a 550W PSU then ?

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zevia

24/7 power on. Plus ZDD (zip drive) and all slots full.
overkill?

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PiracyX

lol wow 250w! thats impressive!

i am on a 350w psu and have 4xDVDs 4xHDDs. its all in my sig of what i have.

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MOBO: ASUS A8N-SLI CPU: AMD 64 X2 4600+@2.7Ghz | RAM: 1.5GB (2x512 Kingston 2x256 GeiL) 2.5-3-3-6 PSU: Hiper 580W GPU: Shappire X850XT PE@585/1.23 HD: 2xSamsung 80GB (RAID0) | Western Digital 500GB | Maxtor 250GB CD/DVD: NEC7173AD | Sony DVDRWQ28@LiteOn1693S SOUND: Creative X-Fi MONITOR: 19" Samsung 913B TFT 8ms DVI OS: Windows Vista

n1ght5urf3r

thx for the replys guys...the truth is that my motherboard is quite crappy and probably changing that shitty integrated GPU i got performance should raise a bit. I'm not using the add on card as i can live without it...

DeadMan

Not all PSU's are created equal. Thus you see the more expensive ones advertised as 'True' 300 watt etc. No all PSU's can supply their rated output on all the rails at the same time. I just purchased an expensive 480 watt Hyper PSU with ultra silent fan. Cost £46 (Very cheap for this PSU). Best investment I ever made in this PC.

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cnlson

my guess is that the usb card was using up north (or is it south?) bridge cycles which are shared with the i/o such as ata/ide ports since it affected both ide channels.

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-- Retired:

• Maddog DOMINATOR 8x (Nec 2500) x2
• benq 1620 (returned) nice catch quickee , 4012EU
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• LG 8400, 8163
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