Plextor PX-708A problems

[dark_wanderer]

Hello,

I've got mayor problems with my Plextor PX-708A dvd burner...

Setup:
ASUS P4C800 Deluxe motherboard
Primary P-ATA:
- 30 GB Maxtor HDD (master)
Secondary P-ATA:
- Plextor PX-708A (master) newest firmware (1.10)
- LG CD drive (slave)
Primary S-ATA:
- Maxtor 120 GB 7200 RPM Diamondmax 9 Plus

I use Windows XP Pro

Experiencing the following problems:
- Very low read speeds, read errors (even on CD's bought in shop)
- Sometimes Windows error on start-up saying that the correct drivers could not be found.

MAIN PROBLEM:
Writing always crashes, it does the lead-in beautifully, but when writing data, the buffers (both read and write) immedietly drop to zero, resulting in a burnt cd or dvd with 32423423 buffer underrun protections. These problems occur with all writing programs ( I use Alcohol 120% and Nero 6 Ãœltra, both newest versions ).

I think it has something to do with the transport of data from the hard drive to the burner. It happens on both the P-ATA or S-ATA hdd as source. Got 1Gig RAM, 500 MB free while burning DVD's.

Could someone please help me???

Greetz Marco

[zevia]

First check the DMA on the secondary IDE channel where your plextor is. You supposed to get UDMA Mode 2 for the plextor.
Troubleshooting: Enabling/Checking DMA in Windows XP, 2000, Me, 9x

Also check out Plextor FAQ.

Please report back.

[DVD_ADDICT]

make sure in your motherboard BIOS the IDE CONFIGURATION is set to ENHANCE MODE.

[dark_wanderer]

Hello, thanks for your tips, but the problems arent solved yet....

To Zevia, because my motherboard also has some extra IDE controllers, its not very clear which controller I need to check in the device manager. In my BIOS it says its a primary master, so i made screenshots of my primary controllers in the device manager:

The first one:

The second one:

Either way it should be wrong now, because none of the drives are UDMA mode 2....

To DVD_ADDICT, I tired enhanced mode, set it to P-ATA+S-ATA Enhanced, it still doesnt work. Too bad...

Please help

[zevia]

Yes the first Primary IDE Channel that is in PIO mode is where your 708 is. Uninstall the first Primary IDE and reboot, you should be fine. Let us know how it goes.

PS: Is there any other drives in both Secondary IDE channels?

[dark_wanderer]

Damn the problems wont stop!

I removed the first one as you said, but after reboot I got this:

I u cant read dutch, it sais there was an error while installing the driver: The drives is not made for this system.

Looking in the device manager, I now got this:

Please help me further
GRTZ Marco

[zevia]

Uninstall and reboot again.

Once I got that situation and had to uninstall/reboot twice. Let us know.

[DVD_ADDICT]

If you're running XP it should be set in the BIOS on ENHANCED MODE where you can use SATA & PATA. Your motherboard manual is the same as mine ASUS P4P800SE. The setup you have could be why you're having problems with your 708a drive. Hopefully rebooting after deleting the ide your 708a is on will do the trick. Anyway this is what one of my pc's set up looks like.

[dark_wanderer]

Well, its going the right way now.

To zevia, I deleted the IDE channel and robooted again, and now it recognises the channel just fine:

But, when trying to burn a audio cd (80min. philips cd), which consists out of one long track of about 70 minutes, my burner buffer level fluctuates between 90 and 98% all the time, and I also got 1 buffer underrun avoided warning when the burn is completed.

How to fix this (while burning 516 MB free memory)????

To DVD_ADDICT: I did set enhanced mode in the BIOS, and that isnt a problem for now anymore I guess, as the burning almost works fine, except the buffer underrun avoidance explained above.

PLZ help me further
Greetz Marco

[G11]

But, when trying to burn a audio cd (80min. philips cd), which consists out of one long track of about 70 minutes, my burner buffer level fluctuates between 90 and 98% all the time, and I also got 1 buffer underrun avoided warning when the burn is completed.

Fluctuation between 90% and 98% is perfectly normal. As long as the buffer doesn't drop to zero you're fine. It's also common to encounter one or two BURN-Proof counts. What I do see from your screenshots is that the LG drive is set to PIO Mode only. It's not a good idea to use a device that only supports PIO, attached to the same channel as another device which supports UDMA mode (like your Plextor). I would recommend removing it or moving it to a free IDE channel (if possible of course).

Good luck!

En oh ja, welkom op het forum

[dark_wanderer]

Thanks for all the info!

You guys really helped me out!

[vasi54]

I have PX-708A . It works very well with DVD-ROM but, when I try to use CR-ROM
it can't read or write anything.
What can I do ?

[DVD_ADDICT]

I have PX-708A . It works very well with DVD-ROM but, when I try to use CR-ROM
it can't read or write anything.
What can I do ?

do the self diagnostic test on the drive.

[vasi54]

What self diagnostic to do, when I can't load CD with this unit?
I can load and test only DVD.

[DVD_ADDICT]

What self diagnostic to do, when I can't load CD with this unit?
I can load and test only DVD.

then the drive must be dead in terms of cd use. the self diagnostic test is in the manual or look at plextors website on how to do it.