Is it normal for my Benq DW1640 @ constant 89%

[centrilium]

Dear gurus,

Is it normal for my Benq DW1640(set as master drive) burner's buffer level to hover around 89% most of the time when I burn my DVDs at 4X?I have a NEC burner which is set as slave on the same IDE channel but during the burning process the NEC buffer level surprisingly stays at a constant 94% rate instead.I usuallly burn my medias at 4X and the HDD buffer level for both is most of the time at 100%.

Is anything wrong in my setup?System ASPI drivers are not installed although Nero's latest ASPI is.Both drives have DMA turned ON with the latest firmware(BSJB and 1.01E).

What bugs me is the 89% rate for my Benq 1640's buffer level when I burn my DVDs.All these while all my previous drives(CD burners to my latest NEC ND-3540A) I had had constant >94% buffer level during the burning process.But not this drive.Although the drive doesn't have erratic/inconsistent drops in buffer level,is this normal?

Someone please help me out here.
Thanks.

[tehGrue]

I can't say if it's normal since I don't have one yet, but as long as it's steady there should be no problem whatsoever.

[Qyngali]

Mine does the same thing, I don't think there's anything to worry about.

[geno888]

Probably it depend on the way 1640 manage the buffer. I have also a liteon 1633 and burning data from the same (defragged) hard disc give different buffer behaviour. 1640 goes up and down from 100% to 80%, whereas 1633 is stable at 98-100%

[rahzel]

mine jumped around from 85-100% but it still only took about 8:30 to burn at 8x.

[geno888]

...took about 8:30 to burn at 8x.

This time is normal for a 8x burn

Little buffer fluctuations are normal, and for me haven't never had bad influences on burning quality.

[centrilium]

Yes thanks for confirming this with me.At least now I'm assured that there's nothing wrong with my Benq DW1640.

My burner's burning rate for 8X is also around 8-9 minutes,Rahzel.

But I still feel that the hacked BSHB with riplock removed and RPC1 is still the best firmware out there.

From what I gathered from you guys the average buffer rate for the DW1640 is around 85-89% most of the time.Could it be that it was under utilized?Hope they remedy this with the upcoming firmwares that support Qsuite and SolidBurn.

[rahzel]

yeah, my NEC 3520 takes 9:50 to burn at 8x so im happy =].

another question thats off topic, does your guys 1640 make a whiney sound when it speeds up while reading? and also, is there any special procedure i need to know about while flashing my firmware? all i did was unplug my secondary slave (1640 as secondary master), disabled my anti virus just in case, flashed with the exe and rebooted.

[centrilium]

yeah, my NEC 3520 takes 9:50 to burn at 8x so im happy =].

another question thats off topic, does your guys 1640 make a whiney sound when it speeds up while reading? and also, is there any special procedure i need to know about while flashing my firmware? all i did was unplug my secondary slave (1640 as secondary master), disabled my anti virus just in case, flashed with the exe and rebooted.

Yes it does but I use Nero's DriveSpeed to limit it to something like 6X for reading.Don't want to shorten my drive's lifespan.

Before you flash your drive's firmware just make sure you quit all programs in the background,take out whatever discs that you have in your drive(if there is) and if possible set the drive to master.That's just all you need to do.The rest is very well taken cared of by the flashing software.It will automatically check to see whether your drive identity matches before proceeding to flash it.

Here's the link to the firmware(BSHB with RPC1 enabled)
http://forum.rpc1.org/dl_file.php?site=tdb1&file=BSHBRPC1.ZIP

[Quakester2000]

The reason the Buffer level hovers at the 89-94% is because of WOPC (Walking OPC technology) is being used to constantly monitor the disc.

[zebadee]

Hi
I use BSJB +MCSE
Burniing at 16x no problem buffer reads 98% consistantly time 5.27
8x 98>100% 8.19
Media used MCC 03

[rahzel]

The reason the Buffer level hovers at the 89-94% is because of WOPC (Walking OPC technology) is being used to constantly monitor the disc.

ahh, ic. Do you guys have WOPC enabled or disabled, or does it depend? i know my drive has it enabled by default.

[Quakester2000]

Leave WOPC on in most cases it improves disc quality, turning it off can have some very bad effects on some discs.