HELP!!! only burning at 1x every time

[scott015]

iv tried multiple different media... all say up to 4x speed and my writer can support that too... when I first downloaded the DVDShrink and IMGTOOL i could burn at various speeds...

lately its only burning at 1x... i just downloaded newer versions and im running DVDShrink 3.1 and IMGTOOL 1.1.5

still, just tried to burn uding IMGTOOL and its saying 1x write speed

what gives??

[tekkieman]

Your profile says ME, is that still true? This is common at least in XP. Check your IDE channel settings and make sure you haven't reverted to PIO mode. They should be DMA. If DMA is no longer an option, unistall the IDE controller and reboot. It will reinstall, and DMA option should be restored. ME does have a system restore option (although not nearly as good as XP's crappy one!). You could try that as well.

Start there, and post back with results.

[scott015]

i am using Windows XP, but problem is...i have no idea what you just said... can u give me step by step instructions please??

thanks a million

[tekkieman]

Right-click My Computer. Select Manage. In the Computer Management window, select Device Manager. Right side window a list of devices appears. Find IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers. Click the + sign. Should now list Intel(R) blah, blah, blah, and Primary IDE Channel, and Secondary IDE Channel. Right click on whichever one your DVD drive is on. Only two choices, got a 50/50 chance. Select Properties. In the window that comes up, select Advanced Settings. Should list Device 0 and Device 1. Which one is your drive on? Again, 50/50 chance.

Device Type should be automatic, Transfer Mode should be DMA if available, Current Transfer Mode should say Ultra DMA Mode 2 (or something similar). If it says Mode 5, that is probably your hard drive, check the other device, or the other channel. If it says Current Transfer Mode is PIO, change it to DMA if available. If that setting does not appear, go to the hardware list again, select the channel that the drive is on (Primary or Secondary), right click and select uninstall. Reboot.

When system restarts, it will find and reinstall the channel. When finished, go back and check if it is now DMA mode, or if you now have that option.

Try this and PLEASE post back your results.

[DVD_Ripper]

i am using Windows XP, but problem is...i have no idea what you just said... can u give me step by step instructions please??

thanks a million

My Father and Father-in-law say the same damn thing to me when I talk computers.... thanks for the laugh

Tekkieman's got you hooked up

[scott015]

GOOD NEWs and BAD NEWS

good news, i got the thing set to ultra dma 5 like you said

bad news, it didnt fix my problem... im still only burning at 1x

[tekkieman]

GOOD NEWs and BAD NEWS

good news, i got the thing set to ultra dma 5 like you said

bad news, it didnt fix my problem... im still only burning at 1x

Careful, for a DVD drive, I would expect it to be Ultra DMA Mode 2. Are you sure you got the channel for the DVD drive and not the hard disc? Hard drives are usually DMA Mode 5. Makes me wonder..... Also, did you find it and change it, or did you have to delete the channels to do it?

[scott015]

well under Primary, Divice 0 is Ultra DMA Mode 5

and Divice 1 is Ultra DMA Mode 2


i uninstalled the both the Primary and Secondary... when I did the secondary, nothing changed... it says "Not Applicable"

[tekkieman]

well under Primary, Divice 0 is Ultra DMA Mode 5

and Divice 1 is Ultra DMA Mode 2


i uninstalled the both the Primary and Secondary... when I did the secondary, nothing changed... it says "Not Applicable"

Ok, that should mean that your HD is device 0 and your DVD is device 1, both on the primary channel. Might want to think about moving the DVD to the secondary channel jumpered as the master for that channel. Just a thought. Hopefully someone else can jump in and offer some advice.

If that doesn't work, we may need to look at some other things, like DVD bios, media type, etc. One step at a time.

[scott015]

so ya thnk I should pull the dvdr out and set the jumpers to be secondary????

[solarfox]

Not quite, no.

First off -- are you quite sure that your drive actually supports 4X media? Which model of Pioneer DVD-R drive do you have? (Bear in mind that the firmware upgrade for the older A03 and A04 models does not enable the drives to actually [/i]burn[/i] at 4X; it just fixes a bug in the firmware to prevent them from going berserk when 4X media is put in the tray.) And does it support that particular brand of 4X media? Maybe the drive doesn't recognize it as valid 4X media for some reason; have you tried another brand?

Anyway, assuming that it's a hardware issue: your computer has two separate IDE channels -- the Primary channel, and the Secondary channel -- each of which can support two devices, one Master device and one Slave device. The jumpers on the back of your drive(s) only control whether the drive will be a Master device or a Slave device. To change a device from the Primary channel to the Secondary channel, you have to connect it to the appropriate IDE cable.

Since your computer profile indicates that you have both a 52X CD-ROM unit and a Pioneer DVD-R, first we need to determine how your drives are connected. There are two possibilities:

----
M   |primary IDE     master     slave
O   |----------------------------- 
T   |                  |          |
H   |            ============  ========        
E   |            [HARD DRIVE]  [CD-ROM]
R   |            ============  ========
B   |secondary IDE
O   |------------------
A   |                  |
R   |               =======
D   |               [DVD-R]
----                =======

or

----
M   |primary IDE     master     slave
O   |----------------------------- 
T   |                  |          |
H   |            ============  =======        
E   |            [HARD DRIVE]  [DVD-R]
R   |            ============  =======
B   |secondary IDE
O   |------------------
A   |                  |
R   |               ========
D   |               [CD-ROM]
----                ========

If, as in the first configuration, your CD-ROM drive is sharing the same cable as the hard drive and the Pioneer DVD-R drive is out on its own cable, then the Windows Device Manager should only show one drive connected to the Secondary IDE Channel Controller; that's the one you need to uninstall and let Windows re-install, as per tekkieman's suggestion.

If your drives are hooked up the other way, with the Pioneer DVD-R sharing the same channel as the hard drive, then you'll need to do some rearranging. The easiest thing to do would be to just unplug the Pioneer from the Primary IDE cable and plug it in to the open end of the Secondary IDE cable, making it the Secondary Slave device -- a lot of times, you can get away with having a DVD-R drive as a slave to a CD-ROM without any undue performance impact. The ideal configuration, though, would be to swap the CD-ROM and DVD-R drives so that the CD-ROM is the Primary Slave, sharing the channel with the hard drive, and the DVD-R is the Secondary Master with the Secondary IDE channel all to itself.

[tekkieman]

Good explanation solarfox. Only two things I could think of to add is a) his HD could be SATA, in which case both the CD and DVD could be on the primary channel, and b) neither of us addressed in detail what to do with the jumpers, or to check if they might be set as CS. That could really muck things up from working, although it would make them easier to swap around .

[scott015]

Ok, took computer apart and this is what I found....

no floppy was installed at all... just a HD and DVDR drive... no cd rom either... not sure what model the Pioneer is... but I think A03 sound familiar... i dont remember what speed I can burn at... but I know for a fact I have done faster than 1x before....

anyway, the HD and DVD are both on the same cable.... the HD jumper is set to Master, and the DVD is set to Slave....

then there is another cable that just hanging loose, not connected to anything at all.... but the ends wouldnt fit inside my DVDR, it would only fit to the back of a floppy drive or something differnt....

so im still stuck here is same situation...

any thoughts??

btw, thanks alot guys!!!

[tekkieman]

Ok, go back to device manager as described before. This time, instead of clicking on the plus next to IDE ATA/ATAPI....,click on the plus sign by DVD/CD-ROM drives. Your DVD model should be listed there. Make note of the model number.

Or, better yet, download DVDINFOPro from the tools section over there <----, install it and run it. All the information for your drive can be displayed including model number and bios version. While you are at it, insert one of your blank DVDs into the drive, and select the media icon at the top. That will display the info of the disc.

Post back with the info from both the drive screen and the media screen. Screenshots would be helpful if you can post them.

[scott015]

program says I have a Pioneer DVD-RW DVR-105

does that mean anything to you??

also, when I did the device manager thing, and I clicked on dvd/cd it says just a cdrom is installed, and like I said before... i have no cdrom, just this dvdr....

also, as far as the media goes.... in the past week or 2, I have tried abot 4 differnt ones... expensive and cheap... all will only burn at 1x

[tekkieman]

program says I have a Pioneer DVD-RW DVR-105

does that mean anything to you??

also, when I did the device manager thing, and I clicked on dvd/cd it says just a cdrom is installed, and like I said before... i have no cdrom, just this dvdr....

also, as far as the media goes.... in the past week or 2, I have tried abot 4 differnt ones... expensive and cheap... all will only burn at 1x

Well, the model number is helpful, but more helpful would be the bios version. It is reported on the same screen. The fact that device manager reports it as a CD-ROM is interesting.....You might try unistalling the device and let it reinstall on reboot. It the same procedure as when you uninstalled the IDE channel.

I am by no means a media expert, but I have learned from this site that "expensive" or "cheap" bears no meaning on quality or performance of a DVDR. Media codes, as reported by the DVDINFOPro tools would be more helpful. Slap one of the ones that burned at 1x in and report back everything from the media screen (screenshot).

Ok, to recap - Get the bios version. Uninstall and reinstall the DVD drive. See if device manager still sees it as a CD-ROM. Get the media information.

Anyone else - I'm I missing something here? I know there are a lot of Pioneer owners here!

[handyguy]

Pioneer 105, what media are you using on it? Not some cheap stuff? Did you try Pioneer media?

Nero Infotool is a free on the net tool that gives you more info than you can use.

[solarfox]

program says I have a Pioneer DVD-RW DVR-105

OK, so far so good -- the DVR-105 (*) is definitely capable of burning DVD-R at 4X.

(* incidentally, just to avoid any confusion: the A__ and 1__ models of Pioneer DVR drives are identical; "1" just means it was sold as an OEM bare-drive package without the usual bundle of retail software, while "A" means it was made for sale as a full retail-store box.)

no floppy was installed at all... just a HD and DVDR drive... no cd rom either...

Ah -- OK, then your "Hardware Profile" given in your user info is incorrect, as it says you have a 52X CD-ROM, and I know for a fact the DVR-105 can't do 52X.

anyway, the HD and DVD are both on the same cable.... the HD jumper is set to Master, and the DVD is set to Slave....

then there is another cable that just hanging loose, not connected to anything at all.... but the ends wouldnt fit inside my DVDR, it would only fit to the back of a floppy drive or something differnt....

Yes, the unused cable is most likely for a floppy drive.

What you'll need to do, in this case, is go get yourself another 40-pin IDE cable. (Either a "standard" cable or an ATA100/133 will work, though it probably wouldn't hurt to use the higher-quality ATA100/133 cabling unless you're on a really thin budget. )

Right next to where your current IDE cable plugs into the motherboard should be another 40-pin socket with no cable plugged into it. (To make sure you've found the right connector, take a glance at how the one currently hooked up to your drives is labeled, and compare. If it says "Primary IDE", you're looking for "Secondary IDE"; if it says "IDE0" you're looking for "IDE1", etc.)

Once you've found the Secondary IDE Channel socket, plug your new IDE cable into it, then plug the other end into your Pioneer DVD-R drive and set the Pioneer's jumpers to "Master."

Then, turn on the PC, boot up Windows, and see what this does for you in Device Manager. With any luck, it will see a "new" drive out on the Secondary channel and configure itself accordingly. If it doesn't, reboot the PC, go into the BIOS, and make sure the Secondary IDE channel is actually enabled. (This setting will generally be under "Onboard devices", "Chipset Features", or something like that.)