Nero won't let me burn faster than 4x with TDK 4800B. Help!

[JGRenauer]

Hello to all,

I'm new to this forum but have been watching it for a month now. I seek your help.

I am using Nero 5.5.10.28 with a TDK VeloCD 4800B 48x drive on a Windows 98SE system with a 750MHz Athlon processor. Virtually every time I go to burn a CD-R, the only burn speeds I am offered are 48x and 4x. Nothing in between. My system will only support speeds up to 32x, so every time I am forced to use 4x. I've tried reloading Nero a few times, and it seems that after a complete reload and reboot, I can perform one burn where the full spectrum of burn speeds (4x, 8x, 16x, 24x, 32x, 40x, 48x) are offered to me. I have successfully burned CDs at the 16x rate and find this a nice speed to use. However, the next time I go to burn, I'm back to the 4x, 48x only choices. Can anyone get me out of 4x hell?

I have tried contacting Nero to no avail. I've downloaded any and all pactches from the TDK site. Nothing seems to stick. I suspect Nero is doing somthing in the registry, but I can't figure out where. I've looked at other threads on this board and tried a few things, but nothing has worked.

Thanks, in advance, for any insights you might have.

J. Renauer

[CDRecorder]

Welcome to CDRLabs, JGRenauer!

Did you update to the latest firmware on your drive? I read that you downloaded the patches, but I wasn't sure if that included the firmware.

Also, is DMA enabled on your system? Your machine should be able to burn at 48x unless your hard drive is really old. Check here for directions on how to enable it.

Thank you for providing so much information! It really helps us diagnose problems faster!

[Wedge Maniac]

I have the same burner and had the same problem. This will be no help to you as you have an AMD processor, BUT what I did to solve the problem was uninstall Intel Application Accelerator. Actually, I didnt uninstall it. Rather I did a system restore to a point when I didn't have Intel App Accelerater. This seemed to fix the problem.

It's possible that the restore fixed another Windows XP problem in addition to removing IAA (in which case, IAA isn't necessarily to blame), but I don't know what it might have been and would not have been able to track down. I have Windows XP on it's own partition, so doing a system restore is an easy and safe process. It has saved me from reformatting many times. It is the only partition that I allow System Restore to monitor. The other partitions have System Restore turned off.

Do you have a blank media in the 4800B drive so that Nero can "check" its available burn speeds prior to adding your files to the compilation?
If not, then you should insert one beforehand because Nero needs a chance to view the disc to find the speed ratings.


EDIT/ It sounds to me like you might have to reformat and re-installl Windows, but hopefully you can find solve the problem without doing so. Best of luck.

[JGRenauer]

Thanks LiteOnGuy and Wedge Maniac for your comments.

My firmware has been upgraded to version S7S8. Same problem.

On my system, the DMA check box does not even appear in the Device Manager properties menu. For some reason, this Gateway Athlon motherboard does not seem to support it. The machine is about three years old. I've checked with Gateway and they say I am running the most up to date drivers.

Wedge Maniac, I'll try the blank media on Nero start-up trick to see if that works. Also, since I don't have the Intel Applications Accelerator, that won't cure my problem. However, you've got me wondering if there is something equivalent in the AMD world that might be causing the same problem.

Anyone else have any thoughts??

Joe Renauer

[Wedge Maniac]

On my system, the DMA check box does not even appear in the Device Manager properties menu.

However, you've got me wondering if there is something equivalent in the AMD world that might be causing the same problem.
Joe Renauer

Joe,

with Intel App Accelerator installed there is no DMA check box present either. So, it does sound similar when you say that your AMD isn't showing the DMA checkboxes in Windows. You might be onto the problem. Let us know what you find.

[CDRecorder]

Your system must support DMA; I can't see how a system that "new" could really run without it.

Are you using the Microsoft IDE drivers, or do you have some other IDE drivers installed?

[JGRenauer]

LiteOnGuy,

My device manager says the DMA access controller is provided by Microsoft, dated 4-23-1999. The file details give a path/name of C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\VMM32.VXD (VDMAD.vxd).

My Secondary bus Master IDE driver (that drives the TDK burner) is AMD-756 Bus Master IDE Controller version 1.21 RC dated 9-6-1999. The driver files details window lists two files: C:\WINDOWS\OPTIONS\CABS\amdeide.mdp
and C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\VMM32\IOS.vxd.

Does that shed any light?

Thanks for the continued efforts.

Joe Renauer

[CDRecorder]

It sounds like you have AMD's IDE drivers installed. I somehow doubt that the IDE drivers are the problem here, but you could try to install the generic Microsoft ones if you wanted.

I can't remember how to do this on a Win98 system though, and I don't currently have one accessable.

[paps33]

The drivers you have for your AMD chipset are really back-dated. You might try downloading and installing the most current version (1.43s) from here: http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/Tec ... 12,00.html . Directions for installation are on the page.

You also should go in to your bios setup, look for an option to enable UDMA on your ide controllers, and set it to AUTO. Where this option appears can vary, but it is likely under the Advance Chipset Configuration screen (you may need to look around). Then on the screen for device detection check that the detection is set to AUTO (setting it to NONE or CDROM can result in Win98 properly detecting the capabilities on some motherboards) . With all this done/verified then go back in to device manager and see if the DMA check box appears and is checked.

[dsstest]

May sound stupid, but make sure you aren't usig a 4x disk possibly a cdrw. Note if application accelerator is installed DMA check box will no longer exist.

[CCampbell]

The Intel IAA is known to cause this problem. But of course the AMD does not use this, but may have it's own driver conflicts as suggested by others here.

I would suggest downloading the Dynamic write speed tool on Nero's website under Support->Utilities and run this registry patch. This will disable the Recorders 'Dynamic Write Speed Contro' which allows the recorder to determine what write speeds can be used based on the media inserted in the recorder at the time of the write.

Just to see if this is the recorders firmware causing the limited write speeds.

Regards,

Craig