Pioneer 111D drive...

[Slowburn]

Installed this new burner a few days ago and nothing but trouble, like coasters, lock-ups and incorrect burn speeds.

It is jumpered to slave and DMA is enabled. Bios settings are on 'Auto' for this drive.

It came with firmware 1.02, so I put it through the paces using a Verbatim DVD+RW. This disk was not even recognized. Trying to test it locked the system up.

Switched to a Taiyo Yuden 8X DVD-R and it burned but, I selected the 8X option and after the burn started, you could see the 'actual' burn rate setting decrease until it sat at 1X. Took 45 minutes to burn a 100 min. movie.

Tried another Taiyo Yuden 8X DVD-R but this time I selected 'Test Only'. Speed reduced to 1X again.

Tried a Maxell 4X DVD-R in test mode. The speed stayed at 4X throughout the test.

Upgraded the firmware to 1.29. Same results as above.

I've tried all this in both a Windows 98SE and Windows XP Home platform with identical results.

Not impressed, Pioneer. Thankfully I still have my Plextor 708A installed and it burns everything, but only to 4X.

[boldego]

Maybe it needs to be put on as master instead of slave.

[budz]

Installed this new burner a few days ago and nothing but trouble, like coasters, lock-ups and incorrect burn speeds.

It is jumpered to slave and DMA is enabled. Bios settings are on 'Auto' for this drive.

It came with firmware 1.02, so I put it through the paces using a Verbatim DVD+RW. This disk was not even recognized. Trying to test it locked the system up.

Switched to a Taiyo Yuden 8X DVD-R and it burned but, I selected the 8X option and after the burn started, you could see the 'actual' burn rate setting decrease until it sat at 1X. Took 45 minutes to burn a 100 min. movie.

Tried another Taiyo Yuden 8X DVD-R but this time I selected 'Test Only'. Speed reduced to 1X again.

Tried a Maxell 4X DVD-R in test mode. The speed stayed at 4X throughout the test.

Upgraded the firmware to 1.29. Same results as above.

I've tried all this in both a Windows 98SE and Windows XP Home platform with identical results.

Not impressed, Pioneer. Thankfully I still have my Plextor 708A installed and it burns everything, but only to 4X.

You need to set the 111D as MASTER & make sure you're using a 80 wire IDE CABLE. When using the 80 wire ide cable the drive will be in ULTRA DMA MODE 4. This drive needs to be set to master & be in ULTRA DMA MODE 4 otherwise it will not work correctly.

[kschang]

The 111D I got from Best Buy came with 1.23 firmware, and works fine on Master, defaulted to UDMA4. So far, so good.

[Slowburn]

Thanks guys. I have my old Plextor in that position, so I'll try the Pioneer as master and see what happens.

[Slowburn]

Wow! Set on master with no slave on the secondary. Used a Taiyo Yuden 8X DVD-R and burned 3.3gb file in 27 MINUTES. Burn speed was set at 8X, the actual burn speed went to 2X. This is crap!
Not ONE coaster with my Plextor, several with this Pioneer.

It's gone tomorrow.

[budz]

Wow! Set on master with no slave on the secondary. Used a Taiyo Yuden 8X DVD-R and burned 3.3gb file in 27 MINUTES. Burn speed was set at 8X, the actual burn speed went to 2X. This is crap!
Not ONE coaster with my Plextor, several with this Pioneer.

It's gone tomorrow.

Are you using a 80 wire ide cable? Did you check to see if the drive is set in ULTRA DMA MODE 4? Because your drive sounds like it's in PIO MODE which is why you are having slow burning speeds. I'd buy a new 80 wire ide cable and install that before returning the drive.

Use this link on how to set to dma mode:

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

use this link if you're having problems setting to dma mode:

http://www.cdrlabs.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=6645

[Slowburn]

DMA is enabled as per Device Manager. Wire is my old Plextor 708-A DVD-RW 80 IDE cable that I've been using. Ultra DMA shows during bootup.

Bios shows this for Secondary IDE Master:

Device: Atapi CD-ROM
Vendor: Pioneer DVD-RW DVD 111D
LBA: Supported
Pio Mode: 4
Async DMA: Multichannel DMA-2
Ultra DMA: Ultra DMA-4

Type: Auto
Pio Mode: Auto
DMA Mode: Auto

Should I change anything in bios?

[budz]

Good that you have the drive in ULTRA DMA MODE 4. Do you have INCD installed by any chance? If you do please uninstall it. What software are you using to backup your dvd discs and what burning software are you using? Process of elimination is the way to go before you decide to return the drive. Where did you buy the drive from? I'm just curious.

The bios is fine the way it is.

[Slowburn]

budz:

I don't have INCD installed. I use Roxio Easy CD and DVD Creator 6 to do all the burning. It came with my Plextor drive.

I bought the Pioneer drive from blankmedia.ca. I bought the Taiyo Yuden blanks there as well.

I have another 80 IDE cable, never used, so will try that tomorrow and see what happens.

[aedipuss]

just to make sure it's using ultra dma-4, right click my computer/properties/hardware/device manager/expand the ide ata/atapi controllers/right click on secondary ide channel/properties/advanced settings - to see if it is reporting the current transfer mode as udma-4.

if it is then use a burning program like imgburn to see if both the bufffers are staying full. if they are then the drive is defective. it happens..... personally i quite like my 111 and it has yet to make a coaster after several hundred burns.

but to each his own.

[Slowburn]

aedipuss:

I checked the settings and they look good. In advanced it states, Transfer Mode: DMA if capable.

Current Transfer Mode: Ultra DMA Mode 4

So I think I'm good that way.

Downloaded and tried Imgburn. Middle buffer progress bar stayed at 100%, while the Device Buffer fluctuated between 96-100%.

I burned a 1.6gb .mpg file to a 2X RW disk and it worked, although slow.

Why wouldn't my old burning software work with this drive?

[SingSing]

Your Roxio software is before This new burner, you need an update. You really need to use a IDE cable for UDMA 4 mode, and not that old IDE gray cable.

[marvel2020]

Guess i must be lucky, using the same burner altough i did upgrade the firmware to 8.19 INT from the dangerous bothers website, it is set on Ultra DMA 4 and is on Slave Setting and i've not had 1 single problem with so far.

Burning Verbatim 2x4 DL+r's at 8 speed, the only little gripe i have is that it will now only burn 4x speed DVD-r's at 8 speed where my other drive that i replaced it with NEC 3500AG would burn 4xspeeds at 12 speed without any problems.

Ah well

[Slowburn]

Well, I tried a new cable, but I'm only showing UDMA2 in bios now. Switched cable back but still shows the same. What the hell is going on? Both are 80 IDE cables. Took the damned thing out and installed it into my older computer.

Never had so much trouble with anything in the past 11 years working with these things.

[kschang]

Just burned a 2.4GB DVD in 5:22 on 8X media. That's using ImgTool (using Nero 6 API) Seems okay to me.

The initial spinup and caching took a lot longer than I expected through.

[SLK001]

I don't have INCD installed. I use Roxio Easy CD and DVD Creator 6 to do all the burning. It came with my Plextor drive.

This is probably your problem. The Roxio is probably OEM for your Plextor. Its ability to handle other manufacturer's drives is, like you are finding, limited. I don't want to bad-mouth Roxio, but it has been crap since the first line of code hit the screen.

[budz]

I don't have INCD installed. I use Roxio Easy CD and DVD Creator 6 to do all the burning. It came with my Plextor drive.

This is probably your problem. The Roxio is probably OEM for your Plextor. Its ability to handle other manufacturer's drives is, like you are finding, limited. I don't want to bad-mouth Roxio, but it has been crap since the first line of code hit the screen.

Yes I have to that Roxio software could be your problem. Uninstall it from your computer and use IMG BURN to burn your dvd media. If you know how to go through REGEDIT, delete anything you see that is Roxio related.

Did you purchase your Pioneer 111D drive as a OEM or retail? I know the retail version has a OEM NERO BURN CD. I used to like Roxio when cd burning was in the beginning stages for pc's but when dvd burners arrived it no longer was the software to use.

[steptoe]

I have to agree on the iDE cable, my motherboard came with what looked like 40-way IDE cables, but I used my standard 80 way IDE cables I already had

Just recently I bought proper ATA-133 round IDE cable and my burning appears to be more stable instead of the buffers fluctuating and things do seem smoother overall on disk access in general

Nothing else was changed except to replace all the standard flat 80-way IDE cables that you can buy anywhere and replaced them with ATA-133 round IDE cables, not just squashed inside round sleeving IDE cables but these are built from scratch round IDE cables

http://svp.co.uk/products-solo.php?pid=1247


It did actually increase my DMA mode on a couple of devices as well, so changing something as simple as cable can really make a difference, and they didn't cost that much plus they are huge compared to the restrictive length of flat IDE cables


Also, try upgrading your firmware to the latest official Pioneer firmware, its very easy and very safe, it may sort out a lot of problems with media

But do try to get your burner on its own cable with nothing else connected as both devices will only achive speeds that the slowest device can manage. If you have it connected on the same cable as a slower device that will cause a major bottleneck as well

[SLK001]

I used to like Roxio when cd burning was in the beginning stages for pc's but when dvd burners arrived it no longer was the software to use.

Back then, it was Adaptec's Easy CD Creator, which was pretty good. Ever since Roxio bought the program, it has been pretty much crap.

[Slowburn]

I don't understand it. When I checked my bios settings originally, it said I had Ultra DMA-4. Swapped and reinstalled 80 IDE cable and it reverts to DMA-2. WHY?

[budz]

I don't understand it. When I checked my bios settings originally, it said I had Ultra DMA-4. Swapped and reinstalled 80 IDE cable and it reverts to DMA-2. WHY?

Buy a brand new 80 wire ide cable for your drive. Go through device manager to see if your drive is in UDMA 4. If it isn't delete that ide controller (the one your 111D) is attached to then reboot and let windows install it automatically. I have the same motherboard as you but it's not the deluxe version.

[Slowburn]

Finally! Dug out another old 80 pin IDE cable (round kind) and tried that. Also reinstalled motherboard drivers. Something worked! Showing UDMA 4 on the secondary IDE now. Thanks budz and everyone.

[budz]

Finally! Dug out another old 80 pin IDE cable (round kind) and tried that. Also reinstalled motherboard drivers. Something worked! Showing UDMA 4 on the secondary IDE now. Thanks budz and everyone.

You're welx and good to hear you got the drive working correctly!

[burgman]

I have the same drive but the most current firmware update is 1.23 I did a web search and yes there is a firmware v1.29 on the TechSpot website but it is nowhere to be found on Pioneers site? I sent them an inquiry to see if someone in the TechSpot site took it upon themselves to create this firmware release?

Here is current Pioneer site showing the v1.23

http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/pna/v3/pg/support/details/0,,2076_310070215_30235756..._tab=B,00.html

I wouild fall back top this version and see if that solves your issues. I will let you know what Pioneer says about this 1.29 release.

[burgman]

I just spoke to Pioneer and they said "DO NOT " use the firmware version 1.29 that has been posted on tech sites. That version is still in beta testing and is causing the burner to make coasters by the score. In two weeks they will make it offical OCT 2006 for the fixed version 1.29

Using the current version downloaded will cause you many problems

[aedipuss]

try this pioneer site, the u.s. one is never up to date.

http://wwwbsc.pioneer.co.jp/product-e/ibs/device_e/dev00001r_e.html#firmware1

[burgman]

That is a beta copy do not use that link someone within the company placed it out there in error they told me. Using it will cause problems.

[burgman]

Also once you udate to this beta version and you find that you are having problems you can not go back to older firmware versions. It will be out in 2 weeks the offical version.

[aedipuss]

most people with this drive, that i know, are using the dvr-111L v8.26 firmware to get dvd+r sl bitsetting, dvd-ram, and label flash ability from the dvr-111d.

tricky for some to install, but available here -
http://forum.rpc1.org/dl_firmware.php?category=4&manufactor=25


<edit>
no one has reported any problems with v1.29 that i've heard of in the couple months it's been available and it is an official pioneeer release. it is also quite possible to flash back to any older version if you know what you are doing.