Pioneer 108 only writing at 2 X !! Help !!

[bigbilly50]

Hi there,
I've just upgraded from my Pioneer A04 to a spanking new Pioneer 108. The problem I have is that its burning speed is not getting above 2 speed !

Actually 'reading a disc' goes up to about 12 x (which is great !)

I have tried the following media - Ritek printable G04 and Datawrite 8 X (fujifilm 03) that came with the drive in a special offer. According to several websites this media has been confirmed to burn at 4 x and 8x on the new pioneer.

Software I have tried are latest versions of DVD Decrypter/ Nero 6 / Alcohol.

The 108 is the Master on the secondary IDE channel. (A Cd-rom drive is the slave - I tried unplugging this but same results, also tried making the CDrom the master!).

Ultra DMA mode is enabled on all drives. The current protocol on the 108 is UDMA 4. This is according to Device Manager. Nero infotool also confirms that DMA is enabled. I updated the SiS IDE drivers and the SiS utility confirmed that UDMA is enabled on all drives

In desperation I have done a completely factory re-install of windows XP and defrag but nothing changed.

Choosing to burn a full disk at 4,6 or 8 speed will result in the same - takes 30 minutes to complete. I can see during the burn (in DVD decrypter) that the burning speed makes its way up to 2 X and stays there....
Strangely, the device buffer % in DVD Decrypter is constantly up and down during the burn and occasionaly the speed drops to 1 X. However, if I actually CHOOSE to burn at 2 x then the buffer stays constant and I get a smooth burn.

Does anyone have any ideas ? Could it be anything to do with the IDE cable ? Could it be a power issue ? (I have a GF 5900xt taking power from the motherboard). Does not having Aspi installed matter ?

Iam about out of ideas - next week, if I have no success, I will give the drive to a m8 to trest on another PC.

Does anyone have any thoughts ?

System is a P4 2.53

ta !

[budz]

try changing the ide cable. you could also post your problem at cdrlabs.com forum or at cdfreaks.com pioneer forum. at the moment cdfreaks site is down.

conflicts can happen if using like INTEL APPLICATION ACCELERATOR, NFORCE CHIPSET DRIVERS, & VIA CHIPSET DRIVERS. the recommendation is to use the MICROSOFT DRIVERS instead.

go to device manager and click on your IDE ATA/ADAPTI CONTROLLERS to expand it, click on where ever your 108 is connected to then click on the DRIVER TAB & click on UPDATE DRIVER. a box will popup telling you other drivers have been found check off that box. then you should be able to see MICROSOFT DRIVERS just click on that to install it.
hope this helps!

[bigbilly50]

Thanks for the advice !

Will try both ideas (changing IDE cable and installing Microsoft IDE drivers) tonight.

I will post on the suggested forums if I still have no luck.

Ta !

[tompika]

Yeah, try to install an ASPI driver and check the jumper setting.

[bigbilly50]

Tried installing ASPI drivers at lunchtime - no change

Tried forcing install of Microsoft IDE drivers - installed ok but drive would not write at ANY speed - just gave me coasters after writing lead-in. I reverted back to SiS drivers.

Heres the log file from DVD Decrypter. As you can see, 4 X chosen for a G04, maximum write speed ends at 2 X : -

13:26:59 DVD Decrypter Version 3.2.3.0 started!
I 13:26:59 Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition (5.1, Build 2600 : Service Pack 1)
I 13:26:59 Initialising SPTI...
I 13:26:59 Searching for SCSI / ATAPI devices...
I 13:26:59 Found 1 CD-RW, 3 DVD-ROMs and 1 DVD±RW!
I 13:28:08 Operation Started!
I 13:28:08 Source File: C:\040802_1846.MDS
I 13:28:08 Source File Sectors: 1,673,508 (MODE1/2048)
I 13:28:08 Source File Size: 3,427,344,384 bytes
I 13:28:08 Destination Device: [1:0:0] PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-108 1.06 (Q
I 13:28:08 Destination Media Type: DVD-R (Disc ID: RITEKG04) (Speeds: 1x, 2x, 4x)
I 13:28:08 Destination Media Sectors: 2,297,888
I 13:28:08 Write Mode: DVD
I 13:28:08 Write Speed: 4x
I 13:28:08 Test Mode: No
I 13:28:08 BURN-Proof: Enabled
I 13:28:08 Filling Buffer...
I 13:28:11 Writing LeadIn...
I 13:28:43 Writing Image...
I 13:49:37 Synchronising Cache...
I 13:50:10 Operation Successfully Completed! - Duration: 00:22:02
I 13:50:10 Average Write Rate: 2,669 KB/s (1.9x) - Maximum Write Rate: 2,838 KB/s (2.0x)


Ho-hum.... will try another IDE cable later.....

[DVD Polizei]

Have you done a speed check with a regular movie DVD? Or maybe used different media? This is certainly odd. Another alternative would be to make the 108 your primary master and unhook the other drives completely.

[bigbilly50]

Not done a speed check on a regular DVD movie, do I need to ? - when making an image it gets up to a 12 X ! (takes just over 5 mins to make an image of a full DVDr)

If I make the 108 the primary master, do I make the hard drive the primary slave or secondary master ? (I take it that it will still boot okay)

Is it possible that the software could be causing a problem ? I have used the latest versions of DVD decrypter / Nero / Alcohol, but the 108 is just out..... would it be fully supported ??

Im begining to hope that it IS a faulty drive..........

[bigbilly50]

Brand new 80 wire IDE cable installed.............. another 2 X burn.

Back to the drawing board...

[lenti_75]

find another pc and try it there.

looks like you have to change it

[iooi]

Did you get it from SVP ? Like me.
If so them the media (Fuji dyd) will only burn at 8X max anyway. See other 108 thread for details of media and speeds that they will burn at.
What is your firmware release 1.06 ? which is the latest.
Mine will burn at 8x no problem using nero or clone dvd but dvdcrypter seems to have a habit of stalling at some point and refuses to burn a full disk. Upgraded to latest version and it worked a couple of time then did it again....
What udma is showing in bios mine is set at 4.

[bigbilly50]

Yip, good deal from SVP.

I cant get the 8x datawrite to burn at 4 X never mind 8 X !

Firmware is 1.06 and UDMA is 4..

Cheers for the info, makes me think its faulty.

[bigbilly50]

Im still waiting results from my mate who has the drive at the moment but just a thought....

Ive just noticed that my PC only has 250W power supply in it. Could this have anything to do with the drive only writing at 2 x ? I've heard that writing at high speeds uses a lot of power.....

ta !

[ice-berg]

the power supply has nothing to do with what's happening with your drive.

[budz]

ice-berg wrote:

the power supply has nothing to do with what's happening with your drive.

It could very well have something to do with the power supply. My first yamaha cdrw wouldn't work correctly because the ps was too low. I upgraded to a 300 watt ps and it worked fine after that.

To bigbilly50: make sure your drive is DMA ENABLED. Here's a guide on setting DMA MODE with XP:

http://www.cdrlabs.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=7625

XP has a funny way of changing the drive to PIO mode which could make burning or ripping dvds at slow speeds. DMA MODE will allow faster burning and ripping speeds. Check to see if the drive is DMA MODE then if it isn't enable it according to the guide. Then once you've enabled DMA, try uninstalling the SIS DRIVERS then try installing the MICROSOFT DRIVERS. I only suggest this because it sounds like your drive is stuck in PIO MODE. If you're using NERO BURN update it to the latest version.

__________________________________________________ ___________

[QuaiBoy]

I also agree that it's probably not your power supply. If you were getting coasters then I would check it.
Put it in an external box or in another computer. Sounds defective.

Best of Luck,
-Evan-

[bigbilly50]

Confirmed that my 108 is writing above 2 x on mates PC so its defo my system.

Ive noticed that CPU usage is above 90 % when writing at 2 X. Is this normal ?? (and this is after closing all unnecessary programs down in Task Manager)

Also Ive noticed that there are NO settings for UDMA in my bios (its a Packard Bell machine that has a BIOS for dummies ie very few options you can change), altho XP is telling me that UDMA mode 4 is enabled.

Thanks again for the feedback.

P.S I did try updating to the hacked firmware but same old story.

[iooi]

Ive noticed that CPU usage is above 90 % when writing at 2 X. Is this normal ?? (and this is after closing all unnecessary programs down in Task Manager)
.

What sort of Specs is your system as 90% seems a bit OTT. I have a duron 750, 512 sdram with a 105 in it and that dont even top 20% burning at 4x.
Will do a burn on my 108 and see what cpu usage is like for you.

[bigbilly50]

System is a P4 2.53 with a gig of ram !! Runs Doom 3 pretty good !

Just tried a burn at 1 speed - CPU usage was about 60 %

Could be on the right track here - 1 X = 60 % / 2 X = 90 % and 4 X = ???

Will be interested to hear normal CPU usages for these speeds....

[gitreel]

What discs are you using?

They may be your bottleneck.

[iooi]

What discs are you using?

They may be your bottleneck.

He's using

I have tried the following media - Ritek printable G04 and Datawrite 8 X (fujifilm 03) that came with the drive in a special offer

I can confirm that the datawrite do work at 8x on the 108 as i have used them myself, from the same source as well.

[gitreel]

Move the 108 to the primary ide-cable and make it the slave.

See if that helps.

What revision of Nero are you using?

The latest version is 6.3.1.20

There might be another firmware upgrade.

[bigbilly50]

Sorry, I've tried every combo of IDE channel, also the latest NERO revision.

This problem may be unsolvable I guess, something to do with my particular motherboard / chipset. Im going to continue investigating this CPU usage / power supply issues.

The good news is that the 108 is ripping great and giving great quality 2 speed burns

EDIT - It wasnt the powersupply.......

[ViRaL1]

WELL worth the investment.

[budz]

this was at cdfreaks.com at the Pioneer forum site regarding 2x spd problem:

http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?p=664204#post664204

It says the problem lies in the SIS chipset.

[bigbilly50]

Yip, looks like its the SiS chipset where my problem lies. Least I know now !! Will be looking into getting a new mainboard - thanks for all the help guys.

[Greasy]

I'm using a Exprex 4x writer, which is equilvent to a BTC drive. And I'm having the same problem on writing speed stuck at 2x, about 30 so mins for a DVD burning. so it rules out that the problem is not about pioneer, and its not about your particular system configuration.
My mother board is from ECS, the CPU combo sold from frys. Im not sure about the chip set on it, but IF it is running sis also, then I believe it is the SIS cauing out problem here.