Is my DVD burner dead?

[EatMoreChickens]

I have a TDK (rebadged Plextor 708) and lately I haven't been able to burn DVD discs faster than 0.8x. I have a Dell Dimension 4400 1.6Ghz w/ 512mb memory.

I've updated the firmware, updated Nero to 6.6, and defragmented my harddrives, but it's still burning at 0.8x speed (results from CD-DVD Speed). It seems to burn CD-Rs fine and is able to read DVDs.

Is the DVD laser misalligned or something? Is it time to buy new drive? Any suggestions would be appreciated. TIA

[ghoster]

is dma enabled?

[EatMoreChickens]

yeah, dma is enabled... doesn't sound good does it? I remember overburning a CD-R a couple weeks ago, perhaps this is what started it.

[crichtonjohn]

This has happened to me a few times with my Plextor. Somehow the dma gets turned off without me doing anything. Check it and turn it back on. Also sometimes turning off the computer ( don't use restart ) and then turning it back on fixes the problem.
One time nothing would fix it until I pulled the drive out and reinstalled everything.

Good Luck :)

[budz]

do the self diagnostic test on the drive. check plextor's website on how to do the test. if it fails then time to buy a new dvd burner. BENQ 1640 is a good drive.