Problems with my CDRW

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

:frowning: hey,

I allready put some questions in this forum about a problem which I have with my Lite-on burner (32125W).
I flashed this drive to 48x and used it without problems untill I upgraded my Nero with the buggy version 5.5.10.15 which crashed my system. At a certain point of which I am not sure it was caused by this software my system rebooted and my BIOS settings were put back into their default settings. I reinstalled the whole thing and since that time the burner is sloooooowwwwww.
I checked it out with CDspeed and compared it with my DVD drive.Here is the result of the DVD drive:

Nero CD Speed Test results

General Information
Operating System Windows 98 SE
Drive ASUS DVD-ROM E608
Firmware Version 1.40
Serial Number
Disc Data CD
Capacity 72:54.04

Transfer Rate
Start 18.57x
End 40.38x
Average 30.77x
Type CAV

Seek Times
Random 93 ms
1/3 96 ms
Full 148 ms

CPU Usage
1X 2 %
2X 6 %
4X 12 %
8X 22 %

Interface
Burst Rate 1744 KB/sec

Spin Up/Down Times
Spin Up Time 6.29 sec
Spin Down Time 5.88 sec

Load/Eject Times
Load Time 1.04 sec
Eject Time 1.49 sec
Recognition Time 6.29 sec

the graph of the tranfer rate is a straight line going up from 18 to 40x

the Lite on:

Nero CD Speed Test results

General Information
Operating System Windows 98 SE
Drive LITE-ON LTR-40125W
Firmware Version WS09
Serial Number
Disc Data CD
Capacity 72:54.04

Transfer Rate
Start 4.58x
End 32.90x
Average 17.96x
Type CAV

Seek Times
Random 2439 ms
1/3 2470 ms
Full 3041 ms

CPU Usage
1X 100 %
2X 67 %
4X 100 %
8X 100 %

Interface
Burst Rate 789 KB/sec

Spin Up/Down Times
Spin Up Time 0.07 sec
Spin Down Time 1.53 sec

Load/Eject Times
Load Time 1.36 sec
Eject Time 1.39 sec
Recognition Time 8.66 sec

the drive uses 100% of my CPU (AMD 1800+), the graph of the tranfer rate goes up and down constantly

with an audio CD it plays normally.

I have the following system:

KR7A-raid, 256 MB DDR, Maxtor 80 gig Pri Master, Liton 32125W Pri Sl, Maxtor 80 gig Sec Master, Asus DVDROM sec Sl

Anybody has a clue what might cause this?? I allready reinstalled all the drivers, changed the settings of the drives, put them all on DMA, reflashed to48x, 40x, checked with windows XP etc etc etc…

#2

Hey,

as apparently nobody can give me tips how to solve this problem I have continued searching and there are some wierd things about the burner. The first thing: it is NOT dead. I can burn at 4X. It takes some time but it is more then nothing at all. In my BIOS I changed the transfer rate from ‘auto’ to PIO4.
Further I noticed that when I check it with CDspeed in some cases I get a relatively fair transfer rate, seektime and low CPU usage level but in other cases I get seek time of 2500 ms and CPU of 100%. Anybody knows what is causing this??

#3

It seems to me that your drive is not running in any DMA mode, despite of the settings you made.

If I where you, I’d:

  • re-install Nero (.20) after a complete de-installation (.15)
  • re-install chipset drivers

And try again… also make sure that your BIOS settings are correct. If you can, switching your CDRW drive back to multiWord DMA can solve strange issues you’re having.

#4

hey,

thanx for your reply. I recall that I tried to read some disks I made with my HP8100i burner which used DirectCD. because my Lite-on works with Nero/Incd I could not read them due to the different format of packet writing. So allthough I know this could give problems I tried to install both software packets but this did not work. I deinstalled Adaptec again. I recall that around the same time I got some trouble with Windows Explorer. It constantly froze. I checked this and some other forums about problems with drivers etc and finally formatted drive C and reinstalled W98SE. But this did not solve the problems with the Lite-on.
The long seektimes I get using CDspeed coinside with very long opening time using Windows Explorer.
Is it possible that there are still remnants of Direct CD which interfere with my system? I found something on my D: drive.
What is Multiword DMA?
I allready de and reinstalled Nero, my latest chipset drivers etc.

Nice Judas Priest logo. They were my favorites a long time ago. Saw them life back in feb 81.

Greetingz

#5

When you do a fresh install of your system, programs that are stil on your harddrive, but not installed again (as in your situation DirectCD is), shouln’t interfere, as Windows doesn’t know of their existence (the program is not registered in the registry, no driver are installed, no dlls etc). I hardly doubt that this would be the case.

MultiWord DMA is a DMA mode, just like the different Ultra DMA modes we know (33, 66, 100 etc). MW DMA can handle up to 16,7MB/sec at max (half the speed of UDMA33), but is fast enough for CD Writers.

Although this is no “official” cure, strange issues have been solved by putting a CDRW drive into MW DMA mode. If you can enable it some how (depends on Windows, chipset drivers and drive used), try it and see if it makes a difference. Checking your cables could be wise as well…

[offtopic]
Seen JP live in 2k1… great show! :wink:
[/offtopic]

#6

hey,

just installed the via bus driver for my chipset. it includes a tool with which I can set the drive to MW DMA. Unluckyly it just does not make any difference. As I said before using CDspeed on different Cd’s gives mixed results. In some instances it takes a lot of time just to start up, other occasions give good results. In one occasion speed lined up very well to 43x, then dropped to 4x and stayed there giving very large seek times and very high usage of my cpu.
The IDE cable is the same as before the trouble started so I don’t think it is causing it. I allready changed the IDE plugs: IDE1 to IDE2 and vice versa.
Is there a way to diagnose the precise working of the drive both mechanical and for its electronics?

#7

Originally posted by Dee-ehn

MultiWord DMA is a DMA mode, just like the different Ultra DMA modes we know (33, 66, 100 etc). MW DMA can handle up to 16,7MB/sec at max (half the speed of UDMA33), but is fast enough for CD Writers.

Aren’t Liteon drives UDMA33-capable though? My drive is currently running on MW DMA Mode 2, and it burns pretty slow, 4-5 minutes for a cd ~700mb.

#8

4 to 5 minutes is a reasonable time especially when the lead in and out time is included. You won’t believe it with all the trouble I have but in some cases I burned 700 MB in 2 minutes after upgrading to 48125W

#9

Originally posted by SkYLiNe
[B]

Aren’t Liteon drives UDMA33-capable though? My drive is currently running on MW DMA Mode 2, and it burns pretty slow, 4-5 minutes for a cd ~700mb. [/B]

u haven’t said what drive u’re using or what speed u’re burning at, so how would we know how long it’s supposed to take? :confused:

@angeladevi: are u sure about the 700mb in 2 min? cuz burning 700mb at 52x takes around 2:30.

#10

Originally posted by SkYLiNe
[B]

Aren’t Liteon drives UDMA33-capable though? My drive is currently running on MW DMA Mode 2, and it burns pretty slow, 4-5 minutes for a cd ~700mb. [/B]

Yes, they sure are capable of UDMA33, but in some systems (combination of motherboard, os, drivers and cdrw drive) this can give problems. Some times setting the drive back to multiword DMA mode solves theses problems.

4~5 Minutes can be good speed, if you consider that some programs like Nero often cache files before the burning process starts!

#11

Hey, I actually burned a file of around 700 MB in 2.08. I was stunned myself then. But anyway, regarding the trouble I have now that seems far, far, far away. 4x perhaps 8x is the maximum speed I can get and I still don’t have a clue wat is causing this. Especially the long time to read the content of a CD, the long seek times and the 100% use of my CPU are just being an enigma to me.

#12

Did some more CDspeed tests yesterday. Some original CD’s give smooth graphs like the first one in this thread. However the CD I burned two days ago at 4x speed gives the following error:
Illegal track mode
I understand that this means that there is no good communication with my drive and it could be caused by Nero??? I reinstalled it but haven’t had the opportunity yet to check again. I will download the Lite-on tool for my burner which is announced today on this forum and check tonight. I hope i am getting closer to solve my problems.

#13

thanks for your reply in the other thread, i will be watching for yoiur sucess, you are very far ahead of me technically… thanks again

anvil

#14

I just reinstalled nero 5.5.10.20 but have no differences with the sutuation before. Now about the ‘illegal track mode’ error. It seems that this has something to do with open sessions created with Nero. Now I noticed that some of my problems reading the disks (seek times, windows explorer, CDspeed) can be related to open sessions I created before. Anyone has a clue?

#15

I had similar issues with my burner {see post http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?s=&postid=411381#post411381}

here is what i did:

Changed setup on IDE cables.

Now on Primary channel:
Master - C: hard drive
Slave - Liteon burner

Secondary channel
Master - DVD drive
Slave - D: hard drive

It seems to have fixed the problem, it only pauses on leadin for maybe 2 seconds.

#16

thanx for the tip but I allready changed the IDE plugs:

MAster 1: Maxtor 80 gig
Slave 1: ASUS dVD

Master 2: Maxtor 80 gig
Slave 2: Lite-on 32125W

to

Master 1: Maxtor 80 gig
Slave 1: Lite-on 32125W

Master 2:Maxtor 80 gig
Slave 2 : ASUS DVD

a pity for me but no difference.

#17

Well that does byte…

I would see about just backing up your C drive and going from a clean start of Windows and NERO and test different IDE setups, as well maybe change IDE modes, I have mine set for highest supported mode. It took me about an hour to clean up my drive and another 45min to install and get running, and about 5 reboots to get it right. then after I was sure it worked i screwed everything in and set it back in its dust collecting home to die a slow overworked death.

#18

If you can, try un-installing the VIA IDE drivers and just use the MS ones. If the drive still doesn’t work, un-install the IDE channel that the burner is on in Windows Device Manager and then reboot. This has been known to help with DMA problems in Windows 2000 and Windows XP, and I am nearly certain that this is a DMA problem.

#19

Originally posted by LiteOnGuy
If you can, try un-installing the VIA IDE drivers and just use the MS ones. If the drive still doesn’t work, un-install the IDE channel that the burner is on in Windows Device Manager and then reboot. This has been known to help with DMA problems in Windows 2000 and Windows XP, and I am nearly certain that this is a DMA problem.

hey,

thanx for the tip. perhaps I will try to do this. there is one little thing and that is that I have brilliant graphs using CDspeed on original CD’s but trouble with ‘open sessions’ I burned with NERO. I constantly get ‘open read error’ or ‘illegal mode for this track’ or the extreme sluggish performance. Anyway, i’ll give it a try.

#20

Originally posted by angeladevi
I have brilliant graphs using CDspeed on original CD’s but trouble with ‘open sessions’ I burned with NERO.

That last bit of information was extremely important. Your problem isn’t related to DMA at all. Although you probably shouldn’t be getting the errors, the sluggish performance with open discs is normal. I don’t think there is anything that can be done about this expept buying a drive which supports reading open discs faster.