Trouble Burning - Erratic buffer level.

[mattb2696]

I use DVD Decrypter, DVD Shrink, and Nero v5.5.10.54. I have a NEC ND-1300a and am using Ridata Ritek G04's. However, when I try to burn at 4x, the recorder buffer lever is very erratic, jumping anywhere between 10% and 97% every few seconds. I applied the real-time burn speed patch to Nero which shows that I average around 3x. This explains why my burns take 20mins instead of 15. I have tried several things including: defragmenting source, updating firmware to 1.09, reinstalling Primary IDE controller, and reinstalling the drive. Also, I know it is not a transfer rate problem, as I can burn cd's at 48x=7000+kb/s, which is faster than the 4x dvd burn rate. What can I do to fix this and get my full 4x burn speed?
Edit: Also, the buffer level/burn speed tend to stabilize to 100%/4x toward the end of the burn ~60% complete

[sereeds]

I sounds like something is eating up your PC resources. Obviously, before you burn, close down all other apps. Hopefully you don't have Kazahh, but if so kill it, and get WinMX.

Another trick is to go to "Start Menu", then "Run", and type "MSCONFIG".

Go to the "Startup" tab and you'll see a list of all the stuff running on startup. Uncheck all the crap in there that's not needed. You can always check it again if it affects something else.

Use the "Task Manager" to kill all the process not needed to burn.

It looks like you computer has enough power, something must be running in background.

[mattb2696]

I don't have anything else running, and task manager shows "System Idle Process" at around 97% right before I burn.

[spiffy]

How fast is your CPU? I am using a Sony DRU-510A on a PII-400 with 1GB of RAM. When burning at 4X, the buffer level is all over the place too, and I seem to get much less accurate burns at that speed. However, if I drop the speed down to 2X, the Record Buffer Level stays constant at 98%, and Used Read Buffer stays at 100%. This is not strictly a DVD burner issue, though. Early last year I bought a Yamaha 40X CDRW, which I almost always burn at 8X instead of the maximum speed because of the same erratic behavior. I can only conclude that my machine is just not fast enough for these newer burners... But until I can get a new computer, I'm going to have to sacrafice speed for accuracy.