Pioneer 106D burn speed drop from 4x to 2x

[lynnsabcs]

I thought it was my media. I've been burning Ritek 4X using DVD Shrink and Nero. Started getting 30 min burn times instead of 15 min. Switched to Prodisc 4X and same thing.

Nero shows disk burning at 4X. But when I run the Nero tools, the burn speed tests shows 2X.

I tried defragmenting my hard drive. Do I need to clean the burning eye or is there something else to try?

LynnsABCs

[redwudz]

Have you checked to see if your drive reverted to PIO mode from DMA mode?

EDIT: Nero info tool would tell you if DMA is on.

[lynnsabcs]

One of the drives--the secondary, had reverted to PIO, but I don't know which one is my DVD burner. I changed it back with no change. I also uninstalled Nero and re-installed it with no change.

I recently burned a DVD using Studio 8 and that's about the time the slower speed started. Any connection there?

[lynnsabcs]

I decided to go for broke and backed up downloaded software to my external hard drive and used my re-boot CDs to reload the original settings of my computer.

That fixed my problem. I now have 4X burn speed again!

LynnsABCs

[redwudz]

Now you will never know. Seriously, if you can reformat and reinstall Windows without too many problems, it is sometimes the easiest cure, IMO. It 'flushes' all the accumulated junk. I end up doing it a a couple of times a year, usually after something I do messes the OS up beyond repair.

[lynnsabcs]

Yes, cleaning the computer house has several benefits.

I went from a 7 meg free space on a 30 meg HD to using just 10 meg and I have most of my software re-installed.