CD/DVD buffer under run

[thegig]

First a little description, I have the following on my system.
Pioneer A04
Verbatim 40x12x48
CR-850E
2 x 7200 rpm 100gig hd
1 x 5200 20gig hd (OS)
SIIG CN2487 UDMA 133 IDE controller

The two writers are on the same IDE running of the SIIG board. the other four are running on the m-board IDE.

Every time I try to burn (CDRAO) I get a buffer under run. Whether it be the DVD or the CD writer. I watch the buffer and it never dips below 98%. When I simulate everything is fine. I disabled everything running in background and still no dice.

Any other suggestions?

[Gazorgan]

Generally speaking, it means your not in DMA mode. It can also mean your doing something very CPU/IO intensive at the same time.

1) Check to make sure DMA is working
2) Turn off your virus scanner
3) Kill everything you can think of before burning
4) Defrag your source drive, a fragmented drive can easily cause underrun
5) Try burning immediately after re-booting
6) Try resetting your burner software to default settings. Sometimes you can play with a buffer setting and FUBAR the whole thing.
7) Try using the burner drive as Secondary Master by itself.

[thegig]

Thanks for the response. Heres a break down of the steps you outlined.

1) Have not check this, will take a look
2) Did already
3) Did already
4) Did already
5) Did already
6) Not quite sure to what you are referring. I have removed and re-loaded CDRAO 1.1.5 and 1.1.7, tried several different driver setting.
7) Have not check this, will take a look.

As you can see I have pretty much tried everything I can think of. I'll give those suggestion a shot. There was a suggestion on another thread stating to convert it to a disk image and then do a disk to disk copy. Kinda drastic! My system should be able to handle this- no problem. 2ghz 1gig ram, with nothing running?????? AAARRRRGGGGG!!!! I've toasted PACKS of disks. [/quote]

[dmonty]

You may also want to uninstall your IDE Controller drivers. Windows (especially XP) can sometimes disable DMA without notification. After a reboot the OS will reinstall the controller drivers and re-enable DMA.

[thegig]

Alright, now I'm really pissed.

I have removed and reinstalled the IDE controller.
I have moved the CD writer to the MB
I have removed all the other drives
I have cleaned the CD writer
I have installed new ASPI (Nero, Adaptec, Windows)
I've tried the two different CDRAO with every driver.
I have tried burning at 1x
I tried standing on one foot and performed the CD chant


There has to be something interferring, even though I cntl/alt del all programs running. Like I said before, it starts and the buffer is fine then all of a sudden

I even tried using my A04 and I get the same results. SO something is up with the system (98 SE).

Any other suggestions??

[thegig]

All right here's an update:
STILL NOT WORKING

I disabled autoinsert.
I made it master of its own domain
changed IDE cables
tried different media (cause I ran out of the 40 pack)

I ran a monitoring program to see just how the system was doing.
My resources never get below 70% and the buffer (according to VCDEasy) never dips below 99%.

It starts to write fine, then at arbitrary spots (could be 35 meg, 564 meg, 670) I get the buffer under run. It's almost as though VCDeasy (CDRAO) decides 'Hey I think I'll just stop providing information'. Hence the buffer being full and the resources not changing.

This is becoming a mission here. I really do not want to have to save a disk image then do a copy to disk (basically using three different tools) for what should be accomplished with one.

Should I get with VCDEasy? or just blow that proggie off and just invest in Nero?

[thegig]

Just to follow up for anyone reading this thread.

I installed WINXP and had the same issues. I then found out (of all things ) MEDIA. Don't ask why because I have no idea, but the media I had that has been working all this time started to NOT work. I put new media in before (as mentioned), but never lowered the burn rate so I lowered the burn rate and it works now. So it seems as though it is a combination of items.

[pharlap]

hi if your running powerdvd use the DMA diagnostic and see if both drives are enabled Simple as that