Solved: Nero DVD buffer level fluctuates with slow burning

[pdavis68]

I've got a problem with my DVD. Brand isn't important because I replaced the original burner, thinking the burner was bad, with a new one (Sony DRU840a, but like I said, doesn't matter).

I came here because you guys solved the same problem for this guy:

http://forums.techguy.org/multimedia/438434-solved-nero-buffer-level-fluctuating.html

My setup is a bit different. I have an HP a6120n pavillion which has an ASUS P5LP-LE motherboard.

This has 4 SATA connectors and 1 PATA connector. The original DVD burner was SATA. The current one is PATA. Both burners had the same problem. Originally nothing was on the PATA.

In device manager, it shows 2 primary IDE channels and 2 secondary IDE channels in the IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers list.

The device type is set to auto detection and transfer mode is set to "DMA if available" for both devices on all 4 channels.

I mention this because, even though I've done this, I'm not entirely convinced this isn't a DMA issue.

To add a little strangeness to the issue, the original drive worked for several months, just fine, before developing this problem. When I replaced the drive, the problem again went away for several months. Two weeks ago, switched the now PATA DVD burner from master to cable select. When I did this, Nero again worked fine until yesterday. I tried switching back to master but that doesn't seem to have any effect any longer.

So, I'm confounded. Oh, I should also mention that in device manager, there are no conflicts or problems flagged.

Anyway, please help if you can...

Pete

 

[MysticEyes]

The device type is set to auto detection and transfer mode is set to "DMA if available" for both devices on all 4 channels.

That means nothing. Find the correct channel and look for ' Current Transfer Mode'.

Or get this to verify that UDMA is indeed enabled.
http://www.cpuid.com/pcwizard.php



Informations CD-Rom ATAPI DVD A DH20A4P :
IDE Channel : #1 - Master Drive
Manufacturer : ATAPI
Model : ATAPI DVD A DH20A4P
Revision : 9P59
Serial ATA : No
Support : ATA/ATAPI-7
IORDY : Yes
LBA Mode : Yes
DMA Mode : Yes
NCQ Mode : No
SCT Mode : No
DCO Mode : No
NV Cache : No
TCQ Mode : No
CFA Power Mode : No
SETMAX : No
Multiword DMA Mode : 2
PIO Mode : PIO 4
UDMA Mode max. : 4 (ATA-66)
UDMA Mode Enabled : 4 (ATA-66)

 

[pdavis68]

According to SiSoftware Sandra, Current Active Mode for the drive is UltraDMA-4/ATA66 which is the maximum UDMA mode.

 

[MysticEyes]

Get ImgBurn (free) and try again, this will help determine if it's a Nero problem. Also are you using decent discs that have worked in the past? What brand?

 

[pdavis68]

Same problem with ImgBurn. ImgBurn did initially complain that it couldn't lock the volume and suggested that WMP was the cause. I closed WMP and then it continued, but it does the same thing Nero does, which is the device buffer fluctuates very quickly and it takes about 40 mins to burn a complete DVD (vs. about 6-8 minutes when things are functioning properly).

It's surely not the drive since I had exactly the same problem with the prior SATA burner.

Is it possible there's some sort of conflict between the SATA channels (all have hard drives) and the IDE channel? Of course, that wouldn't explain why the original SATA burner had a problem, since I didn't have any IDE drives until I replaced it.

 

[pdavis68]

One additional "symptom" that started when I got the IDE burner. Whenever I'm burning or reading from a DVD or CD, my machine gets jumpy and the sound gets a bit broken up and echoey. I don't know if that points to anything...

The SATA drive didn't do that, and that happens whether or not the drive is burning at full speed (which it doesn't seem to want to do anymore).

 

[MysticEyes]

Also are you using decent discs that have worked in the past? What brand?

 

[pdavis68]

I'm using Maxell but it doesn't matter. I've got some other brand of blank CDs and the same thing happens with them. It's not the media and it's not the drive. It's got to be something on the computer.

 

[pdavis68]

I have solved the problem. In my original post, I wrote:

"The device type is set to auto detection and transfer mode is set to "DMA if available" for both devices on all 4 channels.

I mention this because, even though I've done this, I'm not entirely convinced this isn't a DMA issue."


It turns out, I was correct. Apparently XP will, after receiving multiple DMA errors, eventually turn off DMA and you can't turn it back on without either modifying the registry or running software to do it for you.

In this case, I found a description of the problem and fix here:

http://winhlp.com/node/10

And the tool here:

http://winhlp.com/tools/resetdma.vbs

Hope this helps somebody...