CD-ROM not up to speed.

[microAmp]

As my title says I have a CD ROM, Memorex CD-402E, it's a 40x speed CD-ROM. I got my Lite-On the other day with Nero, Nero has a benchmark utility in it, I was playing around and benched my Memorex with a burned audio CD. The read rates were never higher nor lower than 8x and remained constant all the way through from beginning to end. I put the burned audio CD in my Lite-On 32x12x40 and benchmark looked similar to other peoples benchmark, started off at 16x and went up to @40x.

Any ideas why the ROM is not up to speed?

CD-ROM is Master on Secondary channel
Lite-ON is Slave on Secondary channel

WD HDD Master on Main Channel
IBM HDD Slave to WD HDD
WinXP

If you need more specs you can check my sig for 'my rigs'

 

[ScrapSilicon]

CD-402E = old ??

 

[microAmp]

<< CD-402E = old ?? >>



I think so.... had it for a while, but still 40x speed. Should be similar to the graph I saw for it online at CD Speed 2000 well, here is a quicker link to the CD-402E here..

Mine doesn't do that picture, just a flat line at 8x speed.

 

[ScrapSilicon]

oof...flat line at 8x...drive is ok..but I'd ditch it for something newer sounds like it will not get better( I like my LTD-163D ) going now to run nero's bench again on it...started at 14.05x at 10 was 31.xxx at 30 was at 37.xxx at 65 hit 48.xxx at 40 was 40.xxx ..Zero errors average 37.61x random seek 95ms 1/3 113ms Full 200ms CPU utilization 1x 1% 2x 3% 4x 6% 8x 40%(also have 12 IE browser windows open and the attending WinXPPro "services" running in the background) hope this helps. <edit> typos

 

[tenoc]

Media can make a difference. Try the test with a "retail" audio CD.

 

[microAmp]

<< Media can make a difference. Try the test with a "retail" audio CD. >>



Tried with 'retail' audio CD, produced the same 8x flat line across. Any other ideas? Before I ditch it.

 

[Dan]

motoamd: Those "40x" Memorex drives were troublesome when they were new. Based on your experience I think it's safe to say they don't improve with age. When you can find a 56x CD-ROM for $20 after MIR (e.g., the BTC brand, periodically on sale at Fry's) why not just replace it?

 

[microAmp]

<< motoamd: Those "40x" Memorex drives were troublesome when they were new. Based on your experience I think it's safe to say they don't improve with age. When you can find a 56x CD-ROM for $20 after MIR (e.g., the BTC brand, periodically on sale at Fry's) why not just replace it? >>



Well, just wanted to know if it could be software related, as in turn this on in your device manager etc. I already have another one laying around and plan to dump the Memorex. Didn't know they were troublesome though, good to know for future reference.

 

[Greatwolf]

The problem you're describing sounds very similar to somethng I observed on my plextor 2410a with udma disabled. When it's disabled, the read speed for the drive remained at 16x throughout the entire read and never went above or below it. When I re-enabled the dma on the drive, the read was back to where it should be. Perhaps you might want to check on that and make sure that udma is enabled for the memorex drive. If that doesn't work then the drive is probably screwed up.

I had another generic 40x cd reader and that was never upto it's rated speed. No matter what kind of tweaking I tried it would always read the cd at 4x throughout.

Anyway, it's worth a try before you ditch it. Perhaps you can slap it on any old computers you might have laying around.

 

[microAmp]

<< The problem you're describing sounds very similar to somethng I observed on my plextor 2410a with udma disabled. When it's disabled, the read speed for the drive remained at 16x throughout the entire read and never went above or below it. When I re-enabled the dma on the drive, the read was back to where it should be. Perhaps you might want to check on that and make sure that udma is enabled for the memorex drive. If that doesn't work then the drive is probably screwed up.

I had another generic 40x cd reader and that was never upto it's rated speed. No matter what kind of tweaking I tried it would always read the cd at 4x throughout.

Anyway, it's worth a try before you ditch it. Perhaps you can slap it on any old computers you might have laying around. >>



Multi-Word DMA Mode 2 is what is showing up in my Device Manger for the Secondary IDE Channel udner Current Transfer Mode, it shows under Transfer Mode : DMA If Available.