Help - LG GSA-4163B writes DVD's only at 1.5x to 1.8x

[NewYorker]

How do I get the LG GSA-4163B to write at 16x or least 12x (12x would be less prone to errors)? I've updated to the latest firmware succesfully.

I got the drive 1-2 yrs. ago and was using 3x DVD-RAM's till recently, so I didn't notice if it was writing at 1.5x or 3x, since the difference is not so great.

But now I began to use 16x Verbatim DVD+R (write once only) because I need the speed, and it writes only at 1.5x to 1.8x. So I uninstalled the Nero Express 6 that came with the drive & bought Roxio EZ CD & DVD Burning, but the results are the same slow speed as w/Nero. Recently I uninstalled Roxio because I like Nero better, and Nero has more tools, though I don't understand many of them.

I have DMA set to ON. Went thru the manual and tried some other settings, but still only 1.5-1.8x.

When I open Windows Explorer, the drive shows up as "CD Drive." When I insert a fresh DVD+R the drive shows up as "DVD...something [I forgot the exact label], but after a short while it reverts to a "CD" name. So I uninstalled Nero's InCD, but that didn't help either. I've junked about ten DVD's so far.

Can anyone help, please????

[Ian]

Do you have the drive hooked up directly to your motherboard's IDE ports or via an addon card? Are you using Microsoft's IDE drivers or ones from say VIA or Nvidia? Have you tried reading discs? Are they limited too?

[NewYorker]

The drive is directly plugged in to the IDE port as Master, with no other device on this port. The driver is by Microsoft (Driver Date: 7/1/2001, Driver Version: 5.1.2535.0). I'm running WinXP w/SP2. Win XP was installed from scratch (not installed over a previous Windows installation), and SP2 was installed after WinXP had been installed.

Windows shows "This device is working properly."

I have another hard drive that I sometimes boot from, which also runs WinXP w/SP2, and which gives the exact same results as the first drive, with both Nero & Roxio.

I did not try reading the Verbatim DVD+R's yet - I just recently started using them. However, both Nero Express 6 and Roxio EZ CD & DVD Burning succesfully did the verifications - which took the same extremely long amount of time as the writing did (which I think is a good sign that the writings were accurate).

I think about a year ago or more I read from my old DVD_RAM discs, which I no longer use - but I'm not certain. I always did a "Verify" when writing them and never had a verification notify me of any error.

Any suggestions?
Thanks for your help & support.

[SithTracy]

A couple things... make sure your IDE channel has DMA enabled... and take a look at Microsoft KB article 314060.

[Wesociety]

It's definitely some type of throughput issue due to either DMA being disabled, HDD problems or something else.

Make sure DMA is enabled.