8X burner won't burn at 8X

[ksoth]

I've tried everthing, but my 8x4x32x CD-RW will not burn at 8X, and ONLY burns at 2X ALL THE TIME! It is really aggravating. It isn't the media, as the same discs I am using burn at 8X on a friends burner and 16X on my brothers burner. I have used bother Nero 5.0 and Adaptec Easy CD Creator 4. In Nero, it starts out at 8X, but says "Change of Write Speed due to Media." Adaptec says it is going at 8X, but I can see it dropping by only 300 KB/sec (2X) and it takes over 30 minutes to burn a full CD. Now, like I said before it isn't the media like Nero says, as I have tried numerous brands and these discs are 16X verified. It also doesn't matter how I'm burning, whether "On-The-Fly" from my other CD-ROM drive, from the hard disk, data or audio, it only goes at 2X. I used the Force ASPI program to update Windows ASPI layer. That didn't work. Now, the drive is Philips brand with a numer E118405 (Google search came up with Philips, Fujitsu, and Sony CD-RWs with this number, but a picture of the Philips one looks just like mine). Firmware version 1.1 is installed. I'm not sure of a specific model number as I bought it as an OEM product at a computer show. I e-mailed Philips tech support about it but have't heard back from them yet. I have tried EVERYTHING, but nothing works. I think that once it burned at 4X, but I am not sure about that as the past 20 CDs I've burned or tried to burn have been at 2X. Now, the drive is a PIO Mode 4 drive. I have DMA enabled, but even when DMA is disabled it still only goes at 2X. Running a CD Speed test shows pretty much the same performance with DMA enabled or disabled, but CPU usage enabled is only like 5% at 8X compared to 40% at 8X with DMA disabled, so I think I'll keep it enabled. I'm at a total loss here, why this burner won't frickin go!!! Here are my system specs:

Duron 700
MSI K7T Pro KT133 mobo
128 MB PC133 RAM
Windows 98 SE

That should be all the crucial info. Windows registers the drive as an 8x4x32x drive, so I'm sure I wasn't lied to and sold a 2X drive. If anyone has any help please let me know. Thanks.

 

[sadb0i]

defective drive..send it back...

 

[John]

Try your CDRW on another computer and see if the problem carries over.