After searching for this a few times before, and trying again (with the search function not working for me) I decided to ask outright.

My question is this: Is there a way to set the write buffer that CD-DVD Speed uses? I believe I have heard of some users incresing this, but I have found no posts (Google or CD Freaks) on if this even truly exists/works. I believe it is a registry tweak, but I only know about the tweak to enable otherwise-blocked MTK drives' scanning abilities. I believe the default is 20 MB.

The reason I ask is that, even when completely defragmented (using programs like Sysinternal's Contig), I will often have buffer issues burning an image. I believe my Seagate 320GB 7200.10 has some sort of reincarnation of STIR (Seek To Improve Reliability) (it will do a random seek while idle or while reading/writing, and cause a slight fluctuation in the software write buffer). My 200GB Samsung SP2004C is my system drive and pretty much always has SOME sort of random seeking, and it, too, causes a buffer issue.

Typically, this wouldn't be an issue for me, but I have recently started using CD-DVD Speed to make sure that the burns don't fall back in speed due to media quality when I get new batches of media. My HP DVD Writer 1040d (OEM LiteOn DH/LH-20A1H) flashed to LL0A FB/EOS has issues relinking at any point during the burn, from any cause, and I would like to minimize the chance that it will drop to 6x/drop to a lower speed/fail to continue burning--all of which have occurred. The SOHW-1693S that it replaces was also the last of a series that potentially had issues relinking from nanosecond buffer underruns (I personally got NEC-like spikes no matter which firmware I used within the past months burning otherwise good-great YUDEN000 T02, TYG03, MCC 03RG20, and SONY16D1).

Probably only the author of CD-DVD Speed can change this setting.

If you are interested in manually modify this option, however, you can use ImgBurn, that allows to set it manually

my 7200.10 reads flawlessly on cd-dvdspeed if anything my raptors more flakey

I adore ImgBurn, and use it whenever I can to solve the issues I have. Buffer in that is set to 256 MB and it makes my burns smooth & spike-free. I also use it (or the SmartBurn utility) to change the HyperTuning/SmartBurn options.
When you say that I may use ImgBurn to modify the setting, are you talking about the afforementioned drive settings or the buffer? I just want to be clear that I haven't missed something. Thanks


I believe that my drive should, too, but I find it often making a random "tick" sound from seeking every few seconds (with no HDD indicator activity), and it doesn't sound like the seek noise of my system drive. It actually does have an effect on my burns, and I don't know why it randomly does this. Used both stock MS drivers and the ATi/Silicon Image drivers (the Intel D101GGC the Xpress 200 chipset which has integrated Sil3112). There is nothing actually accessing the drive in the way of programs on my system.


Thank you for your help and input. Luckily it seems that I have had fewer buffer underruns with my last 10 burns or so (still testing my new 20A1H), maybe once on an 18x burn.

I had some issues regarding the small buffer size used with CD-DVD Speed in the past when compared with programs such as ImgBurn with a larger buffer, actually I think the default size might have been increased because of my request awhile back. Here's the info for adjusting it:

The buffer size which is used for writing images can be changed by adding the following registry value:
Location:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ahead\Nero Toolkit\CD Speed\Transfer Rate
Key name:
Buffer Size (DWORD)
The number is the buffer size in 64K blocks. So for example a value of 160 results in a buffer size of 10 MB (160 x 64KB)

Thanks! I figured, if there happened to be a setting, that would be the name, but I would have had no idea of how to set it. I just hope I don't mess up a simple equation like that and end up with a smaller buffer. Now I don't have to worry about anything but inferior media slowing my burns down.

Thanks scoobiedoobie,
My 5-year old mobo is buffer usage sensitive and this may help whenever I choose to use CDS.