Hello,
So i bought this DVD writer - SONY DRU-840A a few months back, I use Nero 8 and was pretty happy with the performance untill recently i read somewhere that it takes 5ish mins to burn an entire 4.7 gb dvd @ 16X, Which is the same speed at which i burn but it takes me 10-12mins.
Now my dvd can burn at 20x but its hard to find 20x media where i live.
So my Question:
Why is it taking me double the time to burn a DVD than others 
& how can i fix it ?
Thanks in advance
Welcome to CDFreaks. 
and report back with your results.
[QUOTE=Albert;2056760]Welcome to CDFreaks. [/QUOTE]
thanks 
[QUOTE=Albert;2056760]Try this: http://club.cdfreaks.com/f61/troubleshooting-enabling-checking-dma-windows-vista-xp-2000-me-9x-101616/
and report back with your results.[/QUOTE]
So i went through those links & basically im to switch to [I]DMA if availabl[/I]e on all IDEās yes ?
Well i have a bunch of IDEās here :
and i went through all of them and it looks like they were already on [I]DMA if available[/I]
The important bit is just below the DMA if available thing: the Current Transfer Mode.
If any of those are in PIO Mode, post back here and tell us which IDE channel 
alrit both the Primary IDE Channelās show [I]Not Applicable[/I]
The first of the two Secondary IDE Channelās show this :
The second of the two Secondary IDE Channelās show [I]Not Applicable[/I]
What speed is your current media rated for and in the burning time, do you also count in the verify time (donāt know if you use that or not).
[QUOTE=Gummigutta;2056822]What speed is your current media rated for and in the burning time, do you also count in the verify time (donāt know if you use that or not).[/QUOTE]
i use 16x media & by verify time you mean when nero checks the data again just after burning right ? ā¦well no i donāt have verify data enabled
Oh & i donāt know if this matters or not but both my DVD-RW & my HDD are on the same IDE cable and my DVD-RW is set to primary boot device in my BIOS.
Can you run a little test? Use cd-dvd speed and run the ācreate discā test. Itās not necessary to actually burn a disc: you can use the āsimulateā feature 
To be reliable, however, the test must be done using an ISo image as source. You can easily create an ISO image using DVD Shrink for example, making a backup of one of your movies
With this test we can see graphically what happen during the burn. If being both the HDD and the burner in the same IDE channel is the cause of the problem, in the graph you should see frequent emptying of the buffer.
Can you post here the test result?
Iām all out of blanks atm as soon as i get some Iāll post resultāsā¦ in approx 2 days
oh and how long does it take yaāll to burn a 4.7gb @ 16x ?
like multiple files(sequential is it called?) @ 16x
Thanks
@ makaveli-313
Oh & i donāt know if this matters or not but both my DVD-RW & my HDD are on the same IDE cable and my DVD-RW is set to primary boot device in my BIOS
If i were you i would put my harddrive on the primary with an 80 wire ide cable. And leave you burner on the secondary.
[QUOTE=makaveli-313;2057171]Iām all out of blanks atm as soon as i get some Iāll post resultāsā¦ in approx 2 days
oh and how long does it take yaāll to burn a 4.7gb @ 16x ?
like multiple files(sequential is it called?) @ 16x
Thanks[/QUOTE]
If you use the āSimulateā option, the blank disc will be not actually written, but to run the test you need anyway to use a blank media 
Usually, to burn a full disc @16x requires about 5 minutes to complete the writing. Of course, if the disc is not full, the required time can be lower
I second the Donewellās suggestion: itās better to have the HDD and the burner on separate IDE channels if possible 
[quote=makaveli-313;2056832]
Oh & i donāt know if this matters or not but both my DVD-RW & my HDD are on the same IDE cable and my DVD-RW is set to primary boot device in my BIOS.[/quote]
Yes it will make a difference. It would be better to have each on their own channel.
Another note, it takes awhile to reach 16x. The burn process has to get to the outer regions of the disc to burn at that rate due to how a circle acts during rotation. The inner portion of the object spins less while the outer portions spin more.
hmm does anyone else think i should dedicate an ide to the dvd-rw as well ?
im getting blanks tomorrow so should i switch the dvd drive to a different ide before i go ahead with the nero disc testing thing?
Hi,[quote=makaveli-313;2058749]hmm does anyone else think i should dedicate an ide to the dvd-rw as well ?[/quote]If possible, why not?.
I second the recommendation to connect the HDD to the primary IDE (check your mainboard manual to locate it) and the DVD writer to the secondary. Set the jumpers to āMasterā position and hook the drive to the end connector of the cable. Please note, that an 80 wired IDE cable is mandatory for your DVD writer.
im getting blanks tomorrow so should i switch the dvd drive to a different ide before i go ahead with the nero disc testing thing?
Yes. Please note that the simulation mode does only work with DVD-R.
Michael
@ mciahel
Please note, that an 80 wired IDE cable is mandatory for your DVD writer???
I believe it is mandatory for the hard drive, To get max Dma
Hi,[quote=Donewell;2058875]@ mciahel
Please note, that an 80 wired IDE cable is mandatory for your DVD writer???
I believe it is mandatory for the hard drive, To get max Dma[/quote]Since this unit has UDMA4 interface, using a 40wired cable will cause issues. That said, an 80wired cable is mandatory for UDMA4 drives, regardless of type (HDD or ODD).
Pioneer (their drives are also UDMA4) mention that in their product documentation. Sony seems to have missed that.
Michael
erm how do i find out if i have a 80 or 40 cableā¦something written on the ide perhaps ?
You need to look at the cable. The link below explains the differences and shows you what it looks like.
http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/if/ide/confCable80-c.html
[QUOTE=Dialysis1;2059676]You need to look at the cable. The link below explains the differences and shows you what it looks like.
http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/if/ide/confCable80-c.html[/QUOTE]
thanks
alrit heres what i saw and did:
Iāv got one of those 80 cables (blue,grey & black connector) & one cable which has all black connectorās, Iām guessing thatās a 40 cable.
Anyways there were some problems I came across when i went with the orignal plan of setting master on both my DVD-RW & HDD and connecting the HDD (via 40 cable) to the Primary IDE & connecting the DVD-RW (via 80 cable) to the Secondary IDE. For some reason my computer wouldnāt boot up that wayā¦some error about connecting the right removable boot device in DOS.
So tried connecting the HDD to the primary ide via the 80 cable this time but it still wouldnāt boot
So currently this is how its setup
[B]PRIMARY IDE>80 IDE Cable > DVD-RW
SECONDARY IDE > 40 IDE Cable > HDD[/B]
should i go ahead with the nero thing or is there anyway of setting the HDD to the Primary IDE ?
Thanks
oh & i thought yaāll might need to know the DMA Transfer mode entries and heres what they show now:
Primary IDE
Secondary IDE
The non-highlighted options show [I]Not-Applicable[/I] in Current Transfer mode.
