Hello

I have a dell workstation with dual p4 1.4g xeon processors. My operating system is windows 2000 Professional. Two gigs of memory

I am using Nero 5.5.9.16.

There are no other cd writing programs on the computer. Pinnacle DVD Impression Pro and TMPGEnc DVD author are installed.

On the primary IDE channel, I have two hard drives. On the secondary IDE channel, I have a pioneer dvd 105 and a hard drive. All of the drives are set to cable select, including the dvd 105.

The main HD [c] is set to DMA on, the other hds have the dma off [these are western digital drives]. The DMA is set to on and autorun on for the Pioneer DVD 105.

In entering the control panel, I have no option to set or change the DMA setting.

In burning discs, all complete stating that the burn is successful; however, several discs burn half way through and the recorded surface looks blurry, as if the dye has been smeared--these discs will play with out eror half way through the program. The picture quality is unaffected but the program is only half recorded.

Yet the identical program when reburned will play well and the burned disc surface looks sharp and clear revealing a serious of finely etched grooves.

This problem is random and does not always happen. This happens with all media tried. Currently I am using Ritek GO4 printable discs purchased from the supermedia store.

If there was an error log generated then I might have an idea of where to look.

I must admit ignorance as to issues pertaining to DMA--must all of the drives be set to on?

Thank you