DVD burner burns at slow speed with Nero Express and ImgBurn

[asjt3]

Hey guys,

I'm getting annoyed here because lately whenever I try to burn DVD's, the DVD+RW on my laptop only burns at 2.4x. It's the same case with both ImgBurn and Nero Express. LEt me give you my specs:

Laptop: Acer 5672WLMi
Burner: Pioneer DVR-K06RS (8x max)

Medium: TDK DVD+R, 16x max

I have been able to burn these at 8x before, but lately I can't. What's going on?

Thanks,

Alex T

[guns1inger]

Check to make sure your drive hasn't switched to PIO mode, which will limit your speeds. Right-click on My Computer and select Manage. Click on Device Manager, then expand the IDE controllers branch. Double click on each controller (Primary and Secondary) in turn, and make sure none of the devices on either controller are in PIO mode on the Advanced Settings tab. If they are, uninstall that controller and reboot your machine. It should reinstall on startup. Check again and make sure the dive is now using DMA Mode for Transfer. If it is, try a burn.

PIO mode is used as a fallback if windows detects a certain number of errors in a row. If you device continues to fall back to PIO mode, look for errors in the logs.

[asjt3]

Both channels are in DMA mode. It's weird because sometimes it will be able to burn in 8x but most of the time it won't.

[redwudz]

When you put a new DVD disc in a burner and tell it to burn, it first does a test burn towards the center of the disc. This test determines the speed the burner sets for the media. If the burner doesn't have the write strategy for that particular brand of disc, it can default to a lower speed. Sometimes upgrading the burner firmware can give it the correct strategy. But the easier way is to try different media. Media isn't always consistent between batches within a brand. The better brands have less variance between batches or from several manufacturing sites.

The other possibility is that your burner has some dust or crud on the burner lens. This is fairly common with a laptop drive as the internals tend to be exposed more than in most burners. You can try cleaning the laser lens, or just try some different media. Worst case is the burner beginning to fail, but that's not as common.

[TBoneit]

Have you checked the Disc ID to see if they are in fact the same disc that used to burn at 8X? It sounds to me as if they are a different disc. All TDK 16X are not the same and the way the drive handles them won't be the same either.

[asjt3]

Well, these TDK 16x are all from the same cake box. And they have burned at 8x on my laptop and even 16x on my desktop. About the burner itself, it's of the slot-loading variety. I dont know if that makes it more or less vulnerable to dust... Anyways I'm hoping that it's just the media but I do have a cd-drive cleaning kit, wil that work on a DVD drive?

[TBoneit]

I wouldn't use a cleaning kit on a drive. You could scratch the plastic laser lens and render teh drive useless. If it can burn it probably isn't dirty.

OTOH if it is used in an environment where people smoke the laser lens can be dirty but not with something that a brush can clean. If you looked at the windows on a smokers car they build up a film that won't dry wipe off. Something like windex is needed. On a optical drive you would need to remove the drive, open it up and carefully, very carfully clean the lens with a proper lens cleaning solution and a lens cleaner wipe for safety.

[psx_pirate]

Actually it is possible to burn even with a dirty lens (trust me i've done it) ... the result is usually a failed burn part way through the proccess or you may get a good burn but at slower speeds (as in op's case)

A wet&dry cd/dvd lens cleaner will work fine .... but don't put too much cleaning solution on the wet brush (1 drop is plenty) ... run it thru the drive as per the instructions .... wait at least 1 hour before trying a burn as there is always a small amount of cleaning residue left on the lens ... however this will evaporate within an hour at room temperature and leave the lens sparkling clean

if the above doesn't solve the problem try different media ... i have had disks from the same cake box ... some burn at full speed (8x) while others would only burn at 4x .... i changed media and it always burns at full speed