Slow CD Drives?

G'day all,

This is more of a general question than a problem (IE: Not a problem that needs to be solved, but I won't complain if it is :D )

I've had a look at how fast the CD Drives in my comp have been running, and they seem to be SERIOUSLY under-performing, much to my disappointment. :(

From the 52x CD reader, I was lucky to get speeds of around the 12-14x mark, and the 48x burner seemed to be about the same. :(

I'm just wondering why they wouldn't be running at full pace, I was using quality CDs (IE: No marks, scratches, not burnt etc.) and the tests were performed when it'd just finished starting up this morning, which should all but rule-out heat as a cause.

Any ideas people?

Thanks in advance,

Pottsie

what type of power supply are you using????/ it could be a problem of not having enuff power..... believe it or not, it does contribute!!!!!

To be dead-set honest mate, I wouldn't have a clue.

If I had to take a shot I'd say it'd be about the 400w mark - 'bout normal isn't it?

Cheers,

Pottsie

drives are prolly running in PIO mode instead of UDMA - also are both cd drives on the same cable? if so which is jumped master?
- the other thing is if its a non intel chipset, try an update for the chipset drivers

Yeah, they're both on the same cable, and the burner is set as the master.
--Edit--
CD Drives are running off one cable, the two hdds on the other.

As for it being a non-intel chipset, I've got no idea (Still pretty new to all this stuff :oops: ) As far as updates go, I'm not sure where I'd need to look (I'm guessing Windows Update won't do the job here)

Thanks,

Pottsie

check the drive modes in device manager

Not sure where you are there mate, but I checked to verify that where they're connected, and the burner is set as the master, leaving the reader as slave.

Is that any help?

Cheers,

Pottsie

control panel > system > hardware > device manager

in the screen that opens expand ide/atapi drivers branch, then open the secondary(?) ide channel (right-click, properties or dbl click)
go to the advanced settings tab and see what they are set at...

Thanks, got it right this time round...

Secondary IDE Channel:
Device 0 (Burner)
Transfer Mode: DMA If available
Current Transfer Mode: Ultra DMA Mode 2

Device 1 (Reader)
Transfer Mode: PIO Only (Although can select DMA If Available)
Current Transfer Mode: PIO

Hope that helps

Pottsie

worth a try - set the reader to dma if available and reboot - what chipset is in the system? if not that wot mobo is it?

Alrighty, I'll give that a shot, be back in a few minutes...

As for the mobo, all I know is that its a MSI KT266A, running a AMD 1800+ CPU, is that any good to ya?

Cheers,

Pottsie

also, what type of ide cables you using..... the newer cd/dvd roms/burners are using 100 and 133 cables..... if your using an older cable, it could be limiting it to 33 or 66. other than that, and what skulls is getting at, can't think of anything atm. other than that the cdrom and burner may be getting old and burning out..... happens to them all

yeah but 80-conductor cable enables udma 100 and up, 33 or 66 is fine for speeds on CDR and CDRW drives, a pio settings on a channel means all drives drop to that speed afaik thats why i always keep my develish old cdrom away from hd's :)

and if thats a KT266a mobo (via chipset) might be worth getting the retro-friendly via service pack if all else fails

link: http://downloads.viaarena.com/drivers/4in1/VIA_4in1_443v.zip

Ok, the results are in...

There's been a small improvement by setting the Reader to DMA (Both are now supposedly UDMA2)

But still, they're both running at below the speeds of a 20x drive! :(

As for the cabling, I'd have no idea, but I'll pick up some of the newer cables at the next swap-meet up here.

As far as the mobo is concerned, you're suggesting heading to the site and getting the latest drivers? Or some that are a bit dated?

Thanks again,

Pottsie

the ones ive linked are the best for the generation of the chipset u have, the new via hyperion dont make any updates for your chipset they are more tweaked for the newer shiznat

So I'm guessing that if I was to update (using the newer hyperion ones) its either going to make no difference, or even decrease performance?

thats the way ive known it to be :)

Well, you've been told by mr info himself :P. If Sks don't know, theres prolly not to many that would

Alrighty, I've just found out that the drivers I'm using at the moment are newer (451) as opposed to the ones you directed me to (443)

What sort of risks would be associated with going backwards here? Anything that can go wrong?

I seriously owe you guys a beer for this :D

Cheers,

Pottsie

Hmmm. I had drives that used to under perform too.

My old DVD drive used to rip movies @ around 1-2x.

I installed Adaptec ASPI layer, and it jumped up to around 8x. You could try installing the ASPI layer and see if that helps.

You can d/l it from adaptec website.

I can't guarantee that it'll help you out, but it did help me out tho.

force aspi is better if thats the problem, i forgot about that one tried drivers yet potts?

Yes as sks mentioned. Force ASPI is actually better. Did a little checking around the net, and Force ASPI supposedly runs a lot better than the Adaptec ASPI layer.

This was something that I never knew about. Thanks sks! I'm gonna go check out Force ASPI.