This is a plea for help to the guru's of the internet. Nothing like a little ass kissing before a cry for help.

I sent in my DW-U12A to be replaced by Sony. Never able to achieve 4X and after the firmware upgrades (2e)I couldn't get 2X. I rememebered a tech at circuit city asked about the motherboard setting. I refer to you guys and your wisdom in this matter. Before that I checked the device manager.

DW-U12A location 0(0)
cd-rom 1(1)
Device manager settings:

Primary IDE channel
Device 0
Device type:Auto Detection
Transfer Mode: DMA if available
Current Transfer:Ultra DMA mode 5

Device 1
Device Type: Auto Detection
Transfer Mode: DMA if available
Current transfer: Not Applicable

Secondary IDE Channel
Device 0
Device Type: Auto Detection is greyed in
Transfer Mode: DMA if available
current Transfer-PIO is greyed in
can't change this setting

Device 1
Device Type: Auto Detection greyed in
Transfer Mode: DMA if available
current transfer: Ultra DMA mode 2

My BIOS
Primary Master [1c35L090AVV207-0]
Type [Auto]
Multi-sector transfer [maximum]
Smart monitioring [disabled]
PIO mode [4]
Ultra DMA [5]

on the right side it states "warning Ultra DMA 3/4/5 can be enabled only when bios detects shielded 80 pin cable.

Primary Slave
Type [Auto]

Secondary Master [sony dvdrw-u12a]
Type [Auto]
PIO mode [4]
Ultra DMA [2]

same warning about 80 pin cable

Secondary Slave is CD_Rom
Type [Auto]\PIO mode [4]
Ultra DMA [2]

I upgraded to the sony firmware 2.0c. The 2.oe gave me problems before. I have the Riteks GO4's and still Nero 5.5 10.42 and Recordnow max state that I am burning at 4X, but it takes 30-35 mins to burn. Recordnow still starts ok and then the time jumps from 14 mins to 32 mins at around 6%. I have the latest ASPI layers and the updated engine for Recordnow Max 4.5.