cd/dvd burner bogging down PC

Brandish · 02-18-2006, 07:29 PM

Hi,

I have a strange issue that cropped up recently... Whenever I'm using my cd/dvd-rw drive, it seems to bog my system down, almost as if it's taking up a lot of CPU power to access it. I especially notice this when burning cds or dvds. Before I could easily write at 40x for cd-rs, and 8x for dvds, but now it seems to have trouble getting past 10x for cd-rs and 2x for dvd-rs. The CPU load level in Nero and Alcohol are constantly bouncing up and down, which never used to happen before. Whenever I'm writing or accessing the drive, the mouse pointer gets jittery and the system just seems to bog down.

Currently I have my dvd-rom drive and burner drive on one IDE channel, and the other is connected to two hard drives. I don't know for sure, but I think this problem started happening at around the time I added my 2nd hard drive. Both hard drives are set to cable select, and AFAIK so are the cd/dvd drives. I'm planning on formatting my hard drive soon, so maybe that will clear up the issue... Hopefully. But of not, then I would appreciate any suggestions. Thanks!

**please** · 02-19-2006, 08:23 AM

@ Brandish
Check to see if your DMA is enabled for your DVD drives and your HDDs. In 'control panel>system>hardware>device manager' under "IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers, double click on 'Primary IDE..>settings' and 'Secondary IDE...>settings'(whichever is the channel your DVD-RW resides on) and see if the 'current transfer rate' is 'Ultra DMA Mode 2' or 'UDMA4'. For your HDDs, the setting should be at UDMA5 or UDMA6. If it is not, then right click on 'Primary IDE channel' or whatever channel the drive is on, and choose 'uninstall', then reboot your computer. Windows will redetect your drive and reinstall your drivers. Hopefully it will restore the DMA level that is appropriate. Go back and check.
Also defragging your HDD could help matters. If you are burning from your DVD-ROM to your DVD-RW drive and they are on the same IDE channel, that could also cause the buffer underuns that you are seeing.

Keep us posted with your progress

Brandish · 02-19-2006, 12:58 PM

Thanks a ton... That fixed the problem. Somehow the cd/dvd-rw drive got set to PIO mode. Windows corrected it when I re-installed the driver. Thanks!

02-18-2006, 07:29 PM	#1 (permalink)
Brandish Registered User Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: Canada Posts: 18 OS: Windows XP	cd/dvd burner bogging down PC Hi, I have a strange issue that cropped up recently... Whenever I'm using my cd/dvd-rw drive, it seems to bog my system down, almost as if it's taking up a lot of CPU power to access it. I especially notice this when burning cds or dvds. Before I could easily write at 40x for cd-rs, and 8x for dvds, but now it seems to have trouble getting past 10x for cd-rs and 2x for dvd-rs. The CPU load level in Nero and Alcohol are constantly bouncing up and down, which never used to happen before. Whenever I'm writing or accessing the drive, the mouse pointer gets jittery and the system just seems to bog down. Currently I have my dvd-rom drive and burner drive on one IDE channel, and the other is connected to two hard drives. I don't know for sure, but I think this problem started happening at around the time I added my 2nd hard drive. Both hard drives are set to cable select, and AFAIK so are the cd/dvd drives. I'm planning on formatting my hard drive soon, so maybe that will clear up the issue... Hopefully. But of not, then I would appreciate any suggestions. Thanks!

02-19-2006, 08:23 AM	#2 (permalink)
please TSF Enthusiast Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 1,186 OS: WinXP SP2	@ Brandish Check to see if your DMA is enabled for your DVD drives and your HDDs. In 'control panel>system>hardware>device manager' under "IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers, double click on 'Primary IDE..>settings' and 'Secondary IDE...>settings'(whichever is the channel your DVD-RW resides on) and see if the 'current transfer rate' is 'Ultra DMA Mode 2' or 'UDMA4'. For your HDDs, the setting should be at UDMA5 or UDMA6. If it is not, then right click on 'Primary IDE channel' or whatever channel the drive is on, and choose 'uninstall', then reboot your computer. Windows will redetect your drive and reinstall your drivers. Hopefully it will restore the DMA level that is appropriate. Go back and check. Also defragging your HDD could help matters. If you are burning from your DVD-ROM to your DVD-RW drive and they are on the same IDE channel, that could also cause the buffer underuns that you are seeing. Keep us posted with your progress __________________ P4P800E-D:~:P4 3.0C@3.75GHz:~:Zal7000AlCu:~:OCZ4001024ELDCPER2-K@250MHz 2.5-3-3-7 WinXP SP2>2X160GB Samsung SATA ICH5R RAID1:~:2x80GB Samsung SATA Promise RAID0 ATI A-I-W X800XT~SB Audigy2 ZS~2X BenQ1620~Antec SLK3700AMB~Antec SmartPower2.0 500W

02-19-2006, 12:58 PM	#3 (permalink)
Brandish Registered User Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: Canada Posts: 18 OS: Windows XP	Thanks a ton... That fixed the problem. Somehow the cd/dvd-rw drive got set to PIO mode. Windows corrected it when I re-installed the driver. Thanks!