20A1P Burn speed problem

CD, DVD and (Ultra HD) Blu-ray Writers LiteOn / PLDS / Sony Writer
#1

So I recently purchased a Liteon 20A1P.

I am using the latest firmware (KLON)
The drive is UDMA 4 enabled
Using a new 80 pin IDE cable (also tried 2 others)
Bios is up to date.
Using Verbs DVD+R MCCOO4 and TDK DVD-R TTH02 (crap I know)
Tried uninstalling the IDE channel
Drive is set to master

I cant seem to burn faster than x8 or x6. A couple of times Ive had it burn at the speed I selected it at. The graphs shows the burn speed go up to around 10 - 12 but then dies and levels at around 8 - 6.

The cpu doesnt seem to be under an excessive load whilst burning, and the burst speed is right so I cant understand why this is happening. If anyone can shed some light on this I really appreciate it as I (think) I’ve tried everything.

Here’s a benchmark and a graph of the burn. I know the media choice is poor but it does exactly the same with Verb’s so I thought I’d save them.

#2

That looks pretty much like my burn graphs at over 8x over USB2.

You say the CPU doesn’t seem to be under excessive load, what exactly are you running whilst burning?

Other than that, no idea, but I just thought I’d comment how similar that looks to my attempts at high-speed USB2 burning.

#3

Hi Arachne, not running anything whilst burning. I reckon this drive is shagged personnally.

#4

The graph shows CPU usage reaching 100% and signs of buffer
starvation starting at 1.4GB.

Have you got the DVD drive and the HDD on the same
cable? Sorry, but I have to ask :slight_smile:

What mainboard/chipset are you using? It could be
a problem with IDE drivers.

Is another program causing the heavy CPU usage at
the end of the burn?

#5

Can you run a burst rate test and post result here?

Insert a disc on the drive (not a blank one) and select “Run Test” --> “Burst rate”

#6

He’s done it, Geno - 39MB/s :slight_smile:

#7

ooooops :o

#8

It doesn’t look like a drive problem. The speed drops coincide with
large dips in the buffer level. It looks more like an IDE or DMA
problem. Check the DMA settings for the LH-20 and the hard-drive
before and after each burn. If you are using Nero, try saving a
log file and posting it here. Don’t forget to remove your serial
number from the top of the log first.

#9

OK. master and slave drive both on one IDE cable plugged into N2PAP ultra mobo on IDE 2 slot. Ive tried before to change the nvidia IDE drivers to M$ one, didnt seem to work. Only have firewall, AV on whilst burning. I could try changing the IDE drivers again I suppose. This is all on a fresh install of windows, because I got so ragged off with this problem. U DMA mode 4 is always on the DMA settings in Device manager.

#10

If you have the HDD drive on the same cable as the LH-20,
this is likely to be the cause of your problem.

#11

Both burners, or an IDE HDD alongside the Litey? If it’s the second option, are you burning from that HDD?

#12

Hmm. Just to clarify, if my HDD are plugged into IDE port 1 on the mobo that will be the primary channel in device manager yes?

This is what I see in device manager:

Nvidia nforce MCP2 IDE controller
Primary IDE channel device 0 +1 = U DMA 2 (this is my HDD I believe)
Secondary channel device 0 = U DMA 4 ( this is the 20A1P I believe)
device 1 = U DMA 3 (this is my slave burner I believe)

#13

OK, looks like both your burners are on the Secondary channel, so that’s not it.

#14

To Clarify : IDE 1 consists of 2 HDD going into IDE 1 on mobo
IDE 2 consits of 2 burners going into IDE 2 on mobo

#15

That should be OK.

UDMA2 seems very slow for the HDD. This will limit it to 33MB/S.

#16

You might want to double check that the cable going to your HDDs is an 80-wire one. From where I’m sitting it looks like it could be a 40 wire one.

#17

Ok I’ll check now, thanks guys!

#18

Just compare it to the one going to your burners :wink:

Good luck, that may be the problem!

#19

You beat me to it Arachne. The replies are flying very fast tonight :slight_smile:

#20

WOW, changed the HDD IDE to another one I had now shows as UDMA 5. will this solve my probs? BTW thanks for all youre swift and helpful replies!