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.

Try this: http://club.cdfreaks.com/f61/trouble...-me-9x-101616/

and report back with your results.

thanks

So i went through those links & basically im to switch to DMA if available on all IDE's yes ?
Well i have a bunch of IDE's here :


and i went through all of them and it looks like they were already on DMA if available

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 Channel's show Not Applicable

The first of the two Secondary IDE Channel's show this :


The second of the two Secondary IDE Channel's show Not Applicable

What speed is your current media rated for and in the burning time, do you also count in the verify time (don't know if you use that or not).

i use 16x media & by verify time you mean when nero checks the data again just after burning right ? ...well no i don't have verify data enabled

Oh & i don't 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 "create disc" test. It's not necessary to actually burn a disc: you can use the "simulate" 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?

I'm all out of blanks atm as soon as i get some I'll post result's.. in approx 2 days
oh and how long does it take ya'll to burn a 4.7gb @ 16x ?
like multiple files(sequential is it called?) @ 16x
Thanks

@ makaveli-313
Oh & i don't 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.

If you use the "Simulate" 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 Donewell's suggestion: it's better to have the HDD and the burner on separate IDE channels if possible

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,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 "Master" 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.
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,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 cable..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/id...Cable80-c.html

thanks

alrit heres what i saw and did:

I'v got one of those 80 cables (blue,grey & black connector) & one cable which has all black connector's, I'm guessing that's 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 wouldn't boot up that way...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 wouldn't boot

So currently this is how its setup

PRIMARY IDE>80 IDE Cable > DVD-RW

SECONDARY IDE > 40 IDE Cable > HDD

should i go ahead with the nero thing or is there anyway of setting the HDD to the Primary IDE ?

Thanks

oh & i thought ya'll might need to know the DMA Transfer mode entries and heres what they show now:

Primary IDE


Secondary IDE


The non-highlighted options show Not-Applicable in Current Transfer mode.

Try this.

HDD with Windows as Master in primary IDE slot.
Burner as Master in Secondary IDE slot.

Both drives connected using 80 wires cables.

Check in BIOS that the boot priority device is set correctly: first boot device usually is the floppy disc, second the CD/DVD rom drive/burner, and third the primary master HDD.

Another thing you can do is get rid of intel IDE drivers and let windows to install standard microsoft ones.

so i need to get another 80 cable..this can't be done using existing 40 one ?

Also, In BIOS currently it shows something like the following even though the DVD-RW is connected via 80 cable to the Primary IDE:

PATA PRIMARY CHANNEL - NONE
PATA SECONDARY CHANNEL - 40 GB HDD

yes when i clean installed windows it was on default microsoft one's but my onboard sound wouldn't work that way for some reason.

Hi,Yes, you need to get another 80wired cable. According to your screenshot, your DVDRW is running at "Multiword DMA 2", which is really poor.
And as you see, using a 40wired cable does cause issues with your drives.
Might be normal, since the BIOS often shows only HDDs.

i see ..well guess ill have to get a new cable then .
Now does it matter which connector on the 80 cable i connect the dvd-rw to?
I think it on the black one right now & i think there's a grey one as well.
Also, Is the Multiword DMA 2 there because of poor quality 80 cable or because my hdd is on the 40 cable.Because if its the former i should just get two 80's then.

Hi,
Yes, it does matter. The blue connector belongs to the motherboard. The black one at the end of the cable belongs to the drive configured as Master, the grey connector is for a second drive on the cable, which should be jumpered as Slave. Since you only own one HDD and one DVDRW drive, you can (should) leave that connector alone.
Getting two new cables isn't a bad idea at all, since the existing one might be bad (not sure about that). Also make sure, the HDD is attached to the Primary IDE port, and the optical drive to the Secondary one.

About the cables: Get a standard 80wired cable, flat ribbon, 18" (46cm) in length. Longer cables are not according to the specs and may cause issues, same applies to many rounded cables.

Michael