My burning speed on my nec2500a is locked a 2.4. Can anyone help? I've tried cds and dvds, and on the fly it will burn no faster than 2.4. Didn't do it in the beginning, only started a week ago. From hd to burner fine, just on the fly.

is your drive is running in Pio modus?
looks like you must change it to dma

DVDR on-the-fly burning is a tricky beast.
Try updating motherboard and IDE drivers and trying again.

Thanks for the suggestion. I even formatted my entire drive yesterday but had no luck with a fast burn otf. But when I save the files and burn them from the hd, it's burning @ 7.5 steadily. Even on dvd-R. So I'll update those drivers.

does you reader drive have riplock firmware. Sounds like it is what is slowing you down.

I Have A Tdk420n Also. It Was Installed In The Same Enclosure And Burned @ 4x. Never Ever Had A Problem With It. When I Started Encountering These Problems With The 2500, I Installed The Tdk Back In The Same Drive And Left All Of The Settings The Same. And The Tdk Is Still Burning @ 4x Installed In The Enclosure On The Laptop. I Have Absolutely No Idea Of What The Problem Is. Once Again, These Problems Are All On The Fly Problems

i'm have 1.06 (stock)... when i rip movies.. it generally rips about 2.1x - 4x speeds. Would herrie's firmware (w/o riplock) enable higher rip speeds? i always thought rip lock was maxxed at 2x?? how am I usually ripping above 2x?? not that i'm complaining tho.. just wondering

Yes, Herries' firmwares have the riplock limitation removed.

@therockscott, it definitely sounds like your reading drive is the bottleneck.
DVD writers can't read/rip as fast as a DVD-ROM drive.
I would replace the 420 with a good DVD-ROM drive if you plan on doing alot of on-the-fly burns. The LiteOn JMLS 166S DVD-ROM drive comes to mind first.

Thanks for the reply Wesociety. I replaced my 420N just because I came upon this site and read up on the 2500A. I am having NO problems whatsoever with that drive. The problems that I am having is with the Mat"shit"a DVD/CDRW that is in my IBM T30 laptop. I've also noticed that drive, in the Nero CD-DVD speed tests, starts out @ 3.5 with a DVD+R. With a DVD-R, it starts @ 1.05. I even have an extra SR-8176 Matshita DVD-ROM, that I exchanged to see if it would do the same things. Did exactly the same thing. It rips -R's slower than +R's. The 420N is still going strong and does not have these problems of a slower burn in the enclosure kit or internally. I upgraded my chipset and the motherboard is already updated. I'm getting great burns off the hdd, 7.5. So if all fails, then I guess that I'll have to live with that. Now back to my studying.