Can't burn at 8X

[sparks]

I am trouble shooting my cousin's computer. It is an Abit BH6 with a Celeron 366@550, 128MB and a WD 5400 RPM HD. It can burn sucessfully at 4X but its coaster city at 8X. On IDE 0, I have the HD as a master and the CDROM as slave. On IDE 1, I have the CDRW as a master with a superdrive as slave. DMA and Sync data transfer are enabled.

Is there something wrong or is this system just too slow to write at 8X? Thanks.

 

[CraigRT]

Should be fine to write at 8X, speed wise..

Make sure in the BIOS DMA is actually enabled. (if the option is there)

I've seen DMA been enabled in windows and it's not actually enabled by the hardware...
Also, I had the same problem with a Soyo SY-6BA+IV, the DMA was actually broken!! not working!! 4X was all I could write at... nothing more!

If i tried higher speeds, coaster city like you said.. try swapping out an IDE cable with a nice new ATA/100 cable and see if that helps...


Since it's a BX chipset, no drivers are needed, if you try my 2 suggestions and no fixing of the problem, i'd be leaning towards malfunction of something like the DMA on the board, or the burner... But that's not for sure. just a first glance type conclusion.

good luck!!!

 

[sandcone]

Sparks,
First, Don't let anyone tell you that it is too slow. We have a duplicator powered with a 486 and 64megs that does 30 discs at a time.

Second, try different media. When I worked in R&D we found our writers didn't work well with some media. In fact my 8x writer works best with Kodak gold, and has the same problems as yours with some of the free-after-rebate stuff.

Third, how does it perform with an iso file? This should go flawlessly.

Also try disabling the CD Rom, and see if it makes a difference. Moreover, see what else is running in the background - it could be hogging resources.

What software are you using? Perhaps some other members can give you some suggestions or share their experiences.