Burns fail under high CPU load

[Chu]

Hello all. I've discovered, through much (costly) trial an error that whenever I burn a DVD under high load, it is gaurenteed to fail. Nero reports the buffer is always near 100%, and most of the other apps are running at idle. Even so, the burn is gaurenteed to fail. Any idea why a high CPU load (with other apps at idle), even with a full buffer, is causing my burns to fail?

-Chu

 

[Jeff7181]

Maybe your power supply is at it's limits... DVD burners require a decent amount of power, as do CPU's. When you load down the CPU it uses more power, which could be bringing your power supply to it's knees.

 

[Chu]

Originally posted by: Jeff7181
Maybe your power supply is at it's limits... DVD burners require a decent amount of power, as do CPU's. When you load down the CPU it uses more power, which could be bringing your power supply to it's knees.

Interesting theory, I will have to test it out. I am using a Antec 430W True power, but on the other hand I have 6 hard drives/3 optical drives/loads of pci cards.

-Chu

 

[corkyg]

There's an old rule about burning - never do anything else or be running any other apps. Let the system focus on the job at hand.

 

[StraightPipe]

Originally posted by: corky-g
There's an old rule about burning - never do anything else or be running any other apps. Let the system focus on the job at hand.

yeah!

cuz you never kow what the PC will decide to lagg, if it's your burn or the app that's encoding the burn you've jsut wasted another CD or worse yet DVD.

BTW how much do those suckas cost?

 

[Jeff7181]

I burn at 52X on a regular basis and do everything I do when I'm not burning... even running SETI@Home. I think it has a lot to do with hard drive speed... cheap, old (especially 5400 RPM) hard drives have a tough time maintaining 7200 KB/s (7.2 MB/s which is what 52X is)... and it doesn't take long for Nero's 80 MB RAM buffer to empty at that speed. If your hard drive can't fill it back up, you get either a buffer under run, or burn proof kicks in.

 

[Chu]

Originally posted by: Jeff7181
I burn at 52X on a regular basis and do everything I do when I'm not burning... even running SETI@Home. I think it has a lot to do with hard drive speed... cheap, old (especially 5400 RPM) hard drives have a tough time maintaining 7200 KB/s (7.2 MB/s which is what 52X is)... and it doesn't take long for Nero's 80 MB RAM buffer to empty at that speed. If your hard drive can't fill it back up, you get either a buffer under run, or burn proof kicks in.

I know this is NOT happening though. Nero's buffers are always full, as well as the burn-proof buffer. I am running at 100% cpu, but the background processes (usually CCE) are running at idle priority.

-Chu

 

[Ketchup]

OK, definately gonna need some info here: burner make and speed, CPU speed, amount of RAM, speed of Hard drive (s), RAID array? You may be running low on resources. Even though your programs are idle, they are eating up system resources, especially if you don't have a lot of RAM.

 

[Chu]

Originally posted by: ketchup79
OK, definately gonna need some info here: burner make and speed, CPU speed, amount of RAM, speed of Hard drive (s), RAID array? You may be running low on resources. Even though your programs are idle, they are eating up system resources, especially if you don't have a lot of RAM.

P4 1.6@2.2 (still fails at 1.6), 512mb ram, 6x hard drives. All 7200RPM, two of them in a Raid0 setup. Burns fail from any drive. The program sucking up resources is CCE, which uses 160mb of memory according to task manager, or star wars galaxies, which uses less. SWG was running at "below normal," not idle, but close enough. The next largest memory hog is nero thanks to the buffer, and the rest is negligable. Is is well under 512mb excluding the cache.

-Chu

 

[Acanthus]

Originally posted by: Chu

Originally posted by: Jeff7181
Maybe your power supply is at it's limits... DVD burners require a decent amount of power, as do CPU's. When you load down the CPU it uses more power, which could be bringing your power supply to it's knees.

Interesting theory, I will have to test it out. I am using a Antec 430W True power, but on the other hand I have 6 hard drives/3 optical drives/loads of pci cards.

-Chu

Just posted about how to adjust the pots inside Antec PSUs in another thread. Here

If that is your problem, this will correct it. With that many drives i would imagine it could very well be your problem. The DVD drive feeds off of the 5v rail for the most part, so thats what youd need to adjust.

You could also look at an MBM while you are burning a DVD to see how low the rails sag to determine if thats a problem.

 

[Chu]

Thanks for the article, will have to check it out. Something in there caught my eye though.

>>Don't run it with the psu open...you will cause damage.

Why does running a PSU w/o the cover caues damage? I've done this before to other computers ...

 

[Acanthus]

Originally posted by: Chu
Thanks for the article, will have to check it out. Something in there caught my eye though.

>>Don't run it with the psu open...you will cause damage.

Why does running a PSU w/o the cover caues damage? I've done this before to other computers ...

to my knowledge it wont hurt it, its not very safe to have uncovered though. It can probably affect the air flow through the PSU and cause areas to heat up that would otherwise be cooled.

 

[Ketchup]

I really don't think it's the power supply in this case. I have a True480 and my friend has a True430, and we never have failed burns, and mine burns at 48x. Try quitting the applications you mentioned earlier entirely, and see what happens. Even though you have plenty or memory, you may not have enough system rescources left. They are not the same thing. Also, what kind of burner do you have?

 

[Chu]

Originally posted by: ketchup79
I really don't think it's the power supply in this case. I have a True480 and my friend has a True430, and we never have failed burns, and mine burns at 48x. Try quitting the applications you mentioned earlier entirely, and see what happens. Even though you have plenty or memory, you may not have enough system rescources left. They are not the same thing. Also, what kind of burner do you have?

>> Even though you have plenty or memory, you may not have enough system rescources left.

Can you be a bit more specific? What system resources sepcifically would cause a failed burn when the DVD-R's buffer is always full? I can think of none.

Also, the writer is a Pionner105 4x2x16 DVD-R.

-Chu

 

[sniperruff]

maybe try another burning software? i've read somewhere that nero doesn't really like to burn DVD's....

 

[bjc112]

Is DMA enabled on all drives?

 

[Chu]

Originally posted by: sniperruff
maybe try another burning software? i've read somewhere that nero doesn't really like to burn DVD's....

The "DVD Video" feature of nero is a bit screwed up, but since i already have my file structure created in Scenarist I can just burn in UDF mode which does perfect burns.

-Chu

 

[Chu]

Originally posted by: bjc112
Is DMA enabled on all drives?

yes

 

[Ketchup]

Originally posted by: Chu

Originally posted by: ketchup79
I really don't think it's the power supply in this case. I have a True480 and my friend has a True430, and we never have failed burns, and mine burns at 48x. Try quitting the applications you mentioned earlier entirely, and see what happens. Even though you have plenty or memory, you may not have enough system rescources left. They are not the same thing. Also, what kind of burner do you have?

>> Even though you have plenty or memory, you may not have enough system rescources left.

Can you be a bit more specific? What system resources sepcifically would cause a failed burn when the DVD-R's buffer is always full? I can think of none.

Also, the writer is a Pionner105 4x2x16 DVD-R.

-Chu

Here is a good read on what I am talking about. Rather than trying to explain it myself, I think it makes more sense if you just read the first half of this article. http://www.windows-help.net/techfiles/win-resources.html

If you are running XP like I am, Windows doesn't make it very easy for you to monitor resources, but it is a safe bet that it is doing a better job than it's predecessors.

Also, I think you should take sniperruff's suggestion and try another program. I like Easy CD Creator pretty well.

Good luck