write speed problem with nero express 5.5.......please help

[HistoricR9LesPaul]

i previously had musicmatch 7.5 and roxio easy cd creator 5 basic on my XP based pc, all was well and i was able to burn cd`s with my generic freecom 32A 40x32 burner, i then noticed that when i tried to write to cd , all i was getting was write speed 32x 2

my brother is a senior hardware technician and he suggested i bin musicmatch and roxio and instead use windows media player with nero express 5.5 that he gave me. i installed the nero and gave it a go.

curiously , if no cd is in the burner, i get write speed 40x32 , if i put a disc in , regardless of brand i get 32x2 speed , ive tried phillips, tdk, and various others, the result is always the same.

the freecom burner runs from secondary IDE port which has DMA turned off and primary IDE port has DMA enabled, im not pc literate but i thought id mention this.

the firmware for the burner is version 2.41, and the nero express is version 5.5.10 , i simply cannot understand why this has happened.

i used to get a page telling me my musicmatch plus key had expired before the jukebox would let me use it, i just simply clicked on the X to close that page down, dont know if this has any relevance. i make quite a few music compilations and having a burner that previously worked flawlessly at 40x32 running at 32x2 is annoying me desperately.

can somebody please help ?..........thankyou

[HistoricR9LesPaul]

over the phone , my brother talked me through steps listed here to enable the DMA relating to my burner, we got it enabled , the properties on ide secondary show ultra dma mode 2 as you mention on the link you provided, on doing speed check with a disc in the burner , it still reads 32 x 2

what else do you think it can possibly be ?

[CCampbell]

If you have Intel's Application Accelerator program installed, uninstall it. It's been known to cause these symptom where only the Max write speed is selectable.

Regards,

Craig

[HistoricR9LesPaul]

LOL

i PM`ed you dude, never mind, my problem is it only select min speed , you think the intel could cause that too ?

[CCampbell]

Yes, I just got your PM.

Have you tried another brand of media? It could be that the recorder is determining that the media does not support that speed. A firmware upgrade could resolve the issue.

You can also go to our website and download our Dynamic write tool, which will allow our software to ingnore the recommend write speed from the recorder. But then the resulting CD may not be readable by other drivers or even the drive that created it.

Here is the link for that tool.

http://www.nero.com/us/631938347208129.html

Regards,

Craig

[HistoricR9LesPaul]

CCampbell

only refernce i could find to Intel was intel ide bus master control, i uninstalled it and machine reinstalled it. write speed is still 32x2 .

this never happened before and i simply cant understand why it is occurring.

any other areas you suggest i should look at ? oh and i tried to find latest freecom firmware for the generic freecom 32A writer , no success, any sites i should look at ?

this is proving most frustrating, thanks for your help so far mate.

[CCampbell]

If you had the IAA program installed, you would have found it in the Add/Remove Programs area.

Did you try the Dynyamic write tool?

As for firmware, you would check with the recorder MFG.

You may have the latest, but I did not check to confirm or not.

Regards,

Craig

[HistoricR9LesPaul]

craig

does the fact EXACTLY the same symptoms manifested themselves using roxio easy cd creator AND nero not suggest there is a corruption somewhere i should investigate ?

anything obvious come to mind to you ?

[pranav81]

What is the maximum burn speed in Nero when there is no CD in the drive?



::Pranav::

[HistoricR9LesPaul]

the burner is 40x32 speed , today i uninstalled nero express 5.5 and reinstalled it, without a disc in the burner, it reads 40x32 as it should, when i put ANY blank cd-rom disc in, regardless of brand , it then shows 32x 2 speed , something is obviously wrong here.

the machine has worked flawlessly in the past and i just cannot think of what is causing this to happen, ive ensured DMA is on so what else can it possiby be, its as if the burner side of things is saying "where is the disc ? " to me.

you got any ideas dude ?

[pranav81]

I have a hunch that the burner is limiting the speed.My friend has a Sony drive which has similar speed limitation.When there is no CD in the drive,the speed shown is 52X,but when any disc is inserted the speed shown drops to 40X.To override this setting the user has to press the eject button for 5 seconds and then we are able to read/write at 52X speed.I have a hunch that your drive is limiting the speed.


::Pranav::

[HistoricR9LesPaul]

hmmmmmmmmm..the burner has burned flat out in the past, today i also tried burning a cd using windows media player 9 , i followed the instruction to the letter, right at the end when you select audio or mp3, it told me there was no media device present , as if it couldnt locate the blank cd rom that was in the drive. i wonder what bearing this would have on things ?

[HistoricR9LesPaul]

i also tried using nero info kit the speed test and got power calibration error, dont know if there is any relevance here

[HistoricR9LesPaul]

now this is just getting plain ridiculous !! ,.................


i checked the event logs which were full of errors for cd rom about paging errors and bad blocks, i then did a search for mmjb.exe and found one in prefetch , i deleted that file and hey presto speed returned to a full 40x32 and i was sur i had fixed it as i did a full burn at flat out speed.

i shut my pc down and rebooted to make sure all was ok and DAMMIT !! it was back to 32 x 2 !!

i then opened the loading drawer and took the cd out, i got 32x32 write speed and upon refresh it stayed at 32 x 32 but will still revert back to 32 x 2

I just do not know why this darned thing is behaving like this , does any of this give anybody any ideas here ?

[dodecahedron]

can you calrify what you mean by getting a speed of 40x32, or 32x2 ?

i used to get a page telling me my musicmatch plus key had expired before the jukebox would let me use it, i just simply clicked on the X to close that page down, dont know if this has any relevance

i checked the event logs which were full of errors for cd rom about paging errors and bad blocks, i then did a search for mmjb.exe and found one in prefetch , i deleted that file and hey presto speed returned to a full 40x32 and i was sur i had fixed it as i did a full burn at flat out speed.

it seems that MusicMatch has left some stuff on your system that could be interfering with other burning software.

it's still not clear if you have the Intel Application Accelerator installed on your system. ifyou do you should uninstall it. like Craig said, if you do it should be listed in the Add/Remove programs list, uninstall it there.

a good idea at this point would be to take the burner out of your computer and install it in another computer, see how it works there.

also, not pleasant but something to think about - reinstalling windows.

[HistoricR9LesPaul]

i think the full windows xp re-install is going to be my problem solving choice ...............sigh

thanks for your help and i dont have the intel program you refer to.

[pranav81]

Reinstalling WinXP will solve all the problems.



::Pranav::