Only reach DVD+R burning speed of 6.5x on PX-716SA!! Why?

[Alektron]

Why does my DVD burner max out its DVD+R burning at about 6.5x? I just bought the PX-716SA, and expected to be able to burn an ISO at 16x. I was surprised when DVD Decrypter showed only a 6~6.5x speed range. The media I was using was "Legacy" which has the Prodisc ID. I ran the Plextools to make sure there was nothing unusual in the drive settings. Everything semed ok. I did use the media check function, and the result was something like, "this media may fail to have optimal characteristic..." Seemingly, I had my answer for why the drive was only burning my 16x media at about 6.5x speed, right? I wasn't sure, so I bought some Verbatim 16x DVD+R, and guess what, I had about the same speed limit. Except, this time, the media check said I have "good media". So is there something wrong with my drive, the firmware, Plextools (v2.23), or perhaps with DVD Decrypter? (btw, DMA is enabled for the hard drive and PX-716SA) Anyone have any suggestions what I can do to unlock the speed potential of the drive?

[Bhairav]

Why does my DVD burner max out its DVD+R burning at about 6.5x? I just bought the PX-716SA, and expected to be able to burn an ISO at 16x. I was surprised when DVD Decrypter showed only a 6~6.5x speed range. The media I was using was "Legacy" which has the Prodisc ID. I ran the Plextools to make sure there was nothing unusual in the drive settings. Everything semed ok. I did use the media check function, and the result was something like, "this media may fail to have optimal characteristic..." Seemingly, I had my answer for why the drive was only burning my 16x media at about 6.5x speed, right? I wasn't sure, so I bought some Verbatim 16x DVD+R, and guess what, I had about the same speed limit. Except, this time, the media check said I have "good media". So is there something wrong with my drive, the firmware, Plextools (v2.23), or perhaps with DVD Decrypter? (btw, DMA is enabled for the hard drive and PX-716SA) Anyone have any suggestions what I can do to unlock the speed potential of the drive?

How about CDs? They burn fine?
Also, try Nero or EMC (:puke:).. just to try something else.

[Alektron]

CDs burn fine. In fact, I copied one of my audio CDs to a 24x Pioneer CDR at a 32x burn rate. I guess I will soon try to use some other program to burn a DVD ISO to DVD+R to see what the speed is.

So, nobody has the same results as I do of about 6.5x burn speed onto DVD+R using their PX-716?

1. Verbatim 16x DVD+R (MCC-004-000)
2. Legacy 16x DVD+R (PRODISC-R04-004)

[ETP]

Had a similar deal with my 109. The 716 and 109 are UMDA 4 and must be a master on Intel and some other MOBOs. If you have a 8400 Dell like many of us, you have one IDE channel and you must put the 716 as the master. Use the FW 1.07, update your MOBO bios,make sure in device manager that everything is set right, check your bios settings agin after update, go into PLEX tools and select the fast option for read,go to your MOBO site and look for fixes, run windows update custom,go to your computer site and download updates to your hardware etc.

Good luck! Ps the 716 and 109 are fast cats man.

[ETP]

PS/ Forgot that decrypter must be set to max! Do you have Nero? If so give that a try.

Also setup for Nero, Decrypter, Shrink and other programs have internal setup setting that allow you to increase the memory and disk space usage. Do the max if you can.

[Alektron]

I just tried using Roxio Easy Media Creater, which came with the Plextor PX-716SA. I also reached a maximum of 6.5x writing speed on DVD+R.

So far, I have tried the following configurations:
1. DVD Decrypter 3.5.4.0 burning an ISO file on the SATA hard drive to 16x DVD+R in the PX-716SA (16x SATA).

2. Roxio Easy Media Creater 7.1.0 burning an ISO file from IDE hard drive (133 UDMA) to 16x DVD+R in the PX-716SA (16x SATA).

[ETP]

Do you show UMDA4?
And have you set up your plextools?

[Gabe]

The SA is a S-ATA-drive.

Plextor says long time ago that the drive only shows highest speeds when connected to an Intel-S-ATA-Controller (ICH-Southbridges).

Do you use newest Mainboard-Bios and Drive-Firmware?

[Alektron]

One simple email to Plextor seems to have answered the question. Someone responded that "PoweRec can be disabled using the PlexTools program. You would then be able to set the burn speed manually." Look like all I need to do is disable this! I can't believe I didn't try that before.

[Gabe]

@Alektron:

Have you test that: DVD-Rom, over 4GB data, transfer-test with Nero CD-Speed? How fast you can read? The 716 reads it normally at 16x

I think it´s a compatibility-issue with the S-ATA-bus

[Ian]

I think it´s a compatibility-issue with the S-ATA-bus

I was thinking the same thing.

[Alektron]

I'll try some experiments with data DVD-ROMs that are not encrypted to see if I can reach a 16x read. (Or even something above 7x!) Thanks for your suggestion; I should have tried that the same day I got the drive!!

[ETP]

Do you show UMDA4?
And have you set up your plextools?

That was me that said check your plex tools for speed. Sorry! I did not catch it was a Serial drive.

[Alektron]

I am reaching ever closer to the end of my patience in this pursuit of the full speed capability of my new PX-716SA (SATA). I have opened a case with Plextor tech support and they said they will call me back soon with advice. So far, they have suggested that I change the IDE or SATA drivers from Nvidia (Nforce3 chipset) to Windows. That sounds great, but whenever I remove the Nvidia PATA & ATA drivers, Windows reloads them on the next reboot. What steps do I take to re-install the Windows IDE drivers, if they exist? Thus far here are my results with using the PX-716SA:

* DVD-ROM max read speed: 7.3x
* DVD video: 5-6x
* 16x DVD+R Write: 6.5x (regardless of media...ie. Prodisc 16x or Verbatim 16x; regardless of software ie. Roxio or DVD Decrypter)

In Device Manager, the SATA DMA is selected.

[Alektron]

I am feeling stupid now. I was close to giving up, but went to Add/Remove Programs, and found a Nvidia installation program there. I hadn't thought to look there before for this driver issue. The Nvidia program removed the IDE drivers, while I kept all the other Nvidia chipset drivers. Then I rebooted to Safe Mode and it configured something, so I had to re-boot again into Safe Mode, and Windows 2000 installed the Windows default drivers! Then I ran a driver cleanup utility called "DH DRIVER CLEANER", and re-booted to normal mode. I ran the Plextools Read test, and watched as the speed slowly climbs....6.1, 6.2, ... 7.3, and it flattens....uh-oh, no improvement. I guess I'll one more thing to try: I go into the device manager and make sure DMA is selected for everything. Back to Plextools, and the Read speed hits 7.3 and keeps going up! I burned a DVD+R at a peak speed of 15.9x!! Looks like the problem is solved!

If only Nvidia driver had been more compatible. I wonder why?

[Bhairav]

I am feeling stupid now. I was close to giving up, but went to Add/Remove Programs, and found a Nvidia installation program there. I hadn't thought to look there before for this driver issue. The Nvidia program removed the IDE drivers, while I kept all the other Nvidia chipset drivers. Then I rebooted to Safe Mode and it configured something, so I had to re-boot again into Safe Mode, and Windows 2000 installed the Windows default drivers! Then I ran a driver cleanup utility called "DH DRIVER CLEANER", and re-booted to normal mode. I ran the Plextools Read test, and watched as the speed slowly climbs....6.1, 6.2, ... 7.3, and it flattens....uh-oh, no improvement. I guess I'll one more thing to try: I go into the device manager and make sure DMA is selected for everything. Back to Plextools, and the Read speed hits 7.3 and keeps going up! I burned a DVD+R at a peak speed of 15.9x!! Looks like the problem is solved!

If only Nvidia driver had been more compatible. I wonder why?

Heh..good for you. NVidia's IDE driver has been known to have issues with DVD burning before, and (gasp!) MS IDE drivers are quite good, no issues here with them.