I have the burner said above, and I was wonder why it takes so long to burn something. It takes 9:43 to burn a 16x disc, DVD-R, DVD+R, but it takes 13:02 to burn a 4x DVD-RW, DVD+RW. I don't get it, I've used this burner on 4 different PC's, one is above standards and the others are old. I've updated the to the latest firmware a while back.

Anyone else have this sort of problem? Any suggestions?

Thanks.

this an external, then make sure your usb drivers are upto date

I never installed any drivers for it. The disc only had the manual and Nero on it.

EDIT: It's actually the 830ul-t, not the 840u

I'm on their website now and they don't have any drivers available.

drivers for you pc's usb. the drivers for the drive are installed by the operating system

I guess it's updated, I have the disc it came with, but that's over five yrs old. How can I check and see if there's a update?

Hi,13 minutes for a 4x RW disc is okay, nothing to complain about.

The time for your "16x" burn looks as if it were written at 8x only.
This might either be due to the media you're using (16x printed on a box of discs doesn't say anything) or your USB interface may be the culprit.

To sort that out, I'd suggest to burn a disc using Nero CD/DVD Speed and post the screenshot here.
You might also use a DVD-R and check the "simulate" mark so the disc can be used later.

Also tell us, what USB controllers are used. Add-on cards do often max out at 12 or 16 MB/s which would allow max 8x burn speed.
There are also some poor on-chip controllers that aren't much better.

In case you are running Windows XP, it is better to have Windows default drivers installed, since they are often faster than those from the chipset manufacturer or mainboard maker. Having SP2 installed, is another good
idea.

This picture below shows a simulated burn (attempted 18x) on a TS-H652D installed in an external USB enclosure, USB chipset is a recent Intel one. This drive is exactly the same hardware as your DRU830, but with Samsung OEM firmware, which does not support UDMA 4 (your Sony does, and the USB/IDE converter should be optimized for your drive).
This is the reason, why the buffer runs empty after reaching 13x speed causing a speed drop to 8x for the rest of the disc. Burn time was slightly below 8 minutes for a full disc (a real burn might be slightly slower than in this simulation).

Michael

I know the 4x is fine, that's not what I'm worried about, it's just the 16x discs are 4 times the speed and it's only a 3 minute difference?

I don't think it's the discs I use, I tried Sony's, TDK's, Memorex, Fuji, and they all say 16x, whether it's -R or +R it's the same result on all PC's. I thought it was a PC issue, my Daughters PC is a dual core, 2gigs of ram and intergrated USB ports, compared to mine it's a five yr old Dell, and my laptop is a Gateway about 4 yrs old, all my PC's have intergrated USB ports. All my PC's are also running XP SP2.

I'll try that Nero thing you suggested and get back to you.

Thanks.

The same setup with burn speed set to 12x. Looks much nicer - and was faster. Processing time was 6:46

Hi,sorry, I misunderstood then. This is not normal. With an internal drive, a 16x burn would require typically about 6 minutes.

The Sonys should be okay, Memorex is questionable.
It would be useful to know the USB chipsets that are used. Run msinfo32 and have a look under "components/USB" please.
Fine. Also, as additional test (maybe try this at first) insert a written DVD (not DVD video please) and do the Burst Rate test. If all is good, then I would expect about 23 MB/s.

Another idea: Have you already the latest firmware for your drive (SS25, if I remember correctly)?


Michael

Weird, it shows it only took 6:22.

Burst rate is 18MB/s.

Right now, I'm using TDK's for the past few months.

Here's what I got for my USB hub.



The latest firmware came with the drive from the RMA dept. My last drive died when upgrading the firmware.

Sorry, the above USB hub is from y laptop, my main concern is my desktop, so here it is.

Okay, there are clearly interface issues, when reaching 16x, so I'd suggest not to go faster than 12x. Takes 30 seconds longer, but the results should be better.
That unit should normally be capable to do 18x (with selected media), but I have no idea what you could do in order to get rid of the bottleneck we can see here.

EDIT: Your Intel and VIA USB controllers should be fine

Maybe try another USB cable. Maybe disconnect all other USB devices.

Some pictures from my archive (Samsung SH-S182D@Sony DRU830A in Cypress AT2 based USB enclosure, VIA USB controller). Burst Rate was 22 MB/s

I just tried it with a different UUSB cable and with same result. 18mb/s burst rate.

I'm out of ideas then.
Stick with 12x speed and you'll be fine.

Michael

Yeah, that's doable.

Thanks for everything.