Digital Research 52x24x52 running slow

by **kevincott** on Wed Feb 26, 2003 8:52 pm

I have a Dig Research 52x24x52 that runs slow on speed Nero tests and during burning - it never gets over 23x. I have tried about ten different discs, data and audio, and each disc tests correctly in my DVD drive (averaging over 30x).

I am not running other applications during testing, I am letting the tests run alone.

Dig Research says to use standard WinXP drivers and offers no drivers on their website. Any help about my drive would be greatly appreciated. I do not know how to upgrade firmware or where to find it.

This drive is also a resource hog typically taking 3x the processor of other drives I have seen reviewed.

By the way, who makes this drive, Lite-On?

Thanks.

by **BuddhaTB** on Wed Feb 26, 2003 9:13 pm

Have you tried enabling UDMA if you haven't already done so?

How to Enable UDMA Under Windows XP
http://www.cdrlabs.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=7625

As for your question about wether or not your drive is made by Lite-On. The only way to tell is if you give us the firmware version/number it uses. This info can be found when you run Nero's InfoTool.

by **kevincott** on Wed Feb 26, 2003 11:14 pm

I have tried several times to actuate DMA. I choose DMA if available yet every time I click 'OK' it is still on PIO mode.

NERO says 'CDWRITER IDE5224 V000O'. This does not help.

by **Erik** on Wed Feb 26, 2003 11:55 pm

BestBuy is advertising the Digital Research 52x24x52x for $25.99 this week after rebates. Is it a Lite-On for sure or is there any way to tell? I need a replacement for my sister because I gave away her Lite-On 16x to someone that paid me for computer tech support. I purchased a Memorex 52x24x52x for $15 from Office Depot which I successfully flashed to Lite-On firmware and it's been the best CD-RW I've had in a while. I had bought a Verbatim 48x12x48x from OfficeMax for $20, but when I called saying the drive was failing half the CDs it wrote, the tech agent sent me a firmware upgrade which disabled the drive for some reason, don't ask me. It was a really bad drive, not the Lite-On Verbatim. I returned it later on because I had got my Lite-On. If the Digital Research isn't a Lite-On, I'll just wait for one to go on sale. Sorry about my rambling, thanks for your help.

by **cfitz** on Wed Feb 26, 2003 11:56 pm

kevincott wrote:I have tried several times to actuate DMA. I choose DMA if available yet every time I click 'OK' it is still on PIO mode.

Check the other half of the DMA FAQ:

http://www.cdrlabs.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=6645

cfitz

by **cfitz** on Thu Feb 27, 2003 12:00 am

Erik wrote:BestBuy is advertising the Digital Research 52x24x52x for $25.99 this week after rebates. Is it a Lite-On for sure or is there any way to tell?

It could be made by a number of different manufacturers. BuddhaTB listed a number of the possibilities here:

http://www.cdrlabs.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=9440

Unfortunately the only way to tell for sure is to buy it and see what you got.

cfitz

by **cfitz** on Thu Feb 27, 2003 12:04 am

kevincott wrote:NERO says 'CDWRITER IDE5224 V000O'. This does not help.

BTC made this drive, I think.

Does it look like this?

(from http://www.btc.com.tw/btc2002_e/product_3.html#52 )

By the way, BTC's home page is www.btc.com.tw. Don't forget the .tw suffix, as I learned the hard way. :oops:

cfitz

by **kevincott** on Thu Feb 27, 2003 12:05 am

I just tried to put the 52x24x52 on separate channels (IDE controller) from my DVD. Some other posts suggested this for other people. This did not help and still insists on PIO mode when I try to enable DMA.

Any suggestions?

Erik - with the trouble I am having, I would not get a Digital Research. I thought this would be a LiteOn, which has done well in reviews and in my previous experience. I doubt this is made by LiteOn, save maybe some internal parts.

by **BuddhaTB** on Thu Feb 27, 2003 12:12 am

kevin,

What are the specs of your system? like cpu, mobo, drives, and etc.

by **cfitz** on Thu Feb 27, 2003 12:19 am

kevincott wrote:Any suggestions?

Did you try the other FAQ as suggested in my above post? Also check the picture I added to my other post after you posted. Does yours look like the BTC?

cfitz

by **kevincott** on Thu Feb 27, 2003 12:27 am

I tried the uninstall/reinstall twice as the second part says.
Still no dice, PIO mode not DMA.

I have P4 2.4G, 512DDR, WinXP Pro, compaq mobo (845 chipset), scusi 18.2, 80 gigHD, 2.4 gigHD (for dual boot Win2000).

Primary:.......0 - 2.4HD (Win2000) .......1 - IDE 5224 (CD writer)
Secondary:..0 - DVD Rom ....................1 - 80HD (normal OS XP Pro)

by **cfitz** on Thu Feb 27, 2003 12:29 am

kevincott wrote:I tried the uninstall/reinstall twice as the second part says.
Still no dice, PIO mode not DMA.

Check your BIOS settings. What are they set to?

cfitz

by **kevincott** on Thu Feb 27, 2003 12:29 am

Yes! That looks like my drive. Thanks!

I will go to their site now.

Notice that the box (Digital Research) picture is different than the enclosed drive.

For those of you looking for deals: http://www.gotapex.com/deals.php

If you have not been to this site, visit it.

by **cfitz** on Thu Feb 27, 2003 12:37 am

kevincott wrote:Yes! That looks like my drive. Thanks!

I will go to their site now.

Oh, too bad.

BTC is not know for making good quality drives. BTC is like the Benq of CD-RW drives. Or, rather, is Benq like the BTC of CD-RW drives? :wink:

Well, they both make crummy CD-RW drives. :-?

What's up with manufacturers whose names start with 'B' making bad drives?

Your troubles may simply be the result of having inadvertently purchased a BTC drive. But check those BIOS settings as I suggested anyway, and make sure they are set to DMA or AUTO.

cfitz

by **kevincott** on Thu Feb 27, 2003 1:10 am

I am turning off my machine to pull out this drive. Thursday I will be returning this product and will buy a LiteOn based drive as I have had good experiences with LiteOn.

Thank you cfitz and others, your input was greatly appreciated!

BTW, Digital Research has not returned my customer service email.

by **BuddhaTB** on Thu Feb 27, 2003 1:13 am

kevincott wrote:I am turning off my machine to pull out this drive. Thursday I will be returning this product and will buy a LiteOn based drive as I have had good experiences with LiteOn.

Sounds Good.

by **computation** on Thu May 29, 2003 11:00 am

I have a drive which I guess is the same(CDWRITER IDE5224) but is branded "micro advantage". I bought this week from officemax. The firmware version is 0012. BTC site only has a exe file which including the flash utility and the the firmware 001H. When I tried to update the firmware, gives a file FW.HEX. I'm not sure whther this is the firmware and can be used seperatedly.

by **computation** on Thu May 29, 2003 11:38 am

OK now I'm sure that my "micro advantage" 52x24x52x drive is made by BTC. I just flahsed it to the latest version 001H with the file 5224V001H.exe from BTC.

Here is the cdspeed result:

(you may need to copy http://math.150m.com/ide5224.jpg and paste to your brower if you can't see the picture. Sorry for this).

by **CDRecorder** on Thu May 29, 2003 11:56 am

The link to your image doesn't work, Computation. It says that hotlinking isn't allowed.

by **computation** on Thu May 29, 2003 12:15 pm

LiteOnGuy wrote:The link to your image doesn't work, Computation. It says that hotlinking isn't allowed.

Sorry for that. You can copy and paste. I don't have a better site:(

by **rdgrimes** on Thu May 29, 2003 2:26 pm

Have you tried re-installing the IDE controller(s)? Particularly in XP, this can fix this problem.

by **cfitz** on Thu May 29, 2003 7:08 pm

I don't think there is any IDE controller or DMA problem here. The drive is exceeding 48x transfer rates, it is just that at the end of the disc it is dropping its speed. This is probably indicative of the drive having trouble tracking in the face of the high speeds and wobble at the edge of the disc. The results computation posted are probably the best that his BTC can do. Trying some other, high quality media might improve things somewhat. Beyond that, I think the only thing that might help, short of a new drive, is another firmware update.

cfitz

by **CDRecorder** on Thu May 29, 2003 9:22 pm

I agree with cfitz; you should try some better media, computation.

by **computation** on Thu May 29, 2003 11:31 pm

LiteOnGuy wrote:I agree with cfitz; you should try some better media, computation.

I tried a lot. All the same. But my lite-on works fine. In fact I think that speed drop is normal. Even for my lite-on in the real burning, in the last few seconds it slows down, though this is not reflected in nero cdspeed. I compard the speeds for these two, no big difference. I think I will live with this BTC drive. It's even quieter.