How do I disable "buffer underrun protection" in Nero?

[ironk]

I have bought the Memorex 40MAXX 1248AJ CD-RW drive (40x12x48). When I go to burn a cd-r, it says that "buffer underrun protection" has been enabled and starts writing at 12X. The CD-R I put in is rated at 40X. Why won't it burn at 40X? I tried to disable buffer underrun, but the option is permenantely grayed out. Does that mean that I can't use this CD-RW drive to burn at 40X using Nero? If so, what are my alternatives? Which CD-RW drives actually burn at 40X? or should I get some other software? That would mean that Nero sucks.

I have Nero 5.5.9.0

System: Epox 8KHA
256mb ram

 

[Bleep]

Are you burning on the fly?
Bleep

 

[ironk]

what do you mean by "on the fly"?

 

[Buz2b]

Two things: there is an adjustment for the speed in the last box before the burn process starts. It has a drop down arrow. See if the option to burn at a higher speed is there and select it if it is. Second, your media may not be of a quality that the drive will write to at 40X. I am not sure about the Memorex drive but the Lite-On 32X I have actually "senses" the CD media and will adjust the speed accordingly.
Oh, and a third thing, I could be wrong but I don't think "Buffer Underrun" has anything to do with setting the speed of the burn process. It can stop and start the process if there is a danger of buffer underrun but I don't think it controls the speed at which the burn process is initiated.

 

[ironk]

My write speed is set at 40X, which is the highest for the burner. I do think its the buffer underrun protection which is the problem. Why would Nero do this? I mean it limits my cd-rw drive to only 12X.

 

[Buz2b]

I do think its the buffer underrun protection which is the problem.

OK, I'll bite; Why do you think it is the problem? Buffer underrun montitors the amount of memory used by reading and writing the disk; at least as far as I understand it.

Why would Nero do this? I mean it limits my cd-rw drive to only 12X.

Did you look at the areas I spoke of?? If your media is not rated to burn at 40X then it doesn't matter what you set the burner speed at. In addition, some media (CD-R's) may say that they are rated at XX speed but the quality is not sufficient for some drives to record to them at that speed. As I mentioned, the Lite-On burner will NOT burn at it's rated 32X speed if the media is not of the quality to do so within the limits that it feels are "safe" to do so. It will "turn down" the speed to fit the media. That's exactly what it sounds like yours is doing.
Bottom line; don't blame Nero. It is most likely NOT responsible for your trouble. Nero is one of the, if not THE best burning program out there.
EDIT for the test(s):Ok, try this: First, put any program disk (even your Windows or Nero Disk) in the CDRW drive. Click on Nero, then Drive Speed. In the box that pops up, make sure you pick your CDRW drive with the drop down box at the top. In the next box, select the ?expected? speed. In the next box, just select 1 second. Make sure that the only box checked after that is the ?Restore settings at startup.? Next, click on ?Options? at the bottom of that box. When the next box pops up, make sure the max speed of your drive is selected and that ?English? is also selected (if that is what you want). If not, select the correct speed and language and then click on ?Detect?. This will take a second or two but essentially, it will detect your drive speed and most importantly, your CD media capabilities. If this is a program disk, it most likely will show the max speed of your CDROM drive capabilities. Now, insert a blank CD-R disk in there and do the same test; selecting ?Detect? at the appropriate time. This will ?detect? the CD media?s maximum recording speed; no matter what your drive (CDR or CDRW) rating is. This is where you will find the discrepancy, if any. Give this a shot and get back to me.
Boo-Boo EDIT:The above test just runs a check on your CDROM reading capabilities; not the CDR. For that test, Run the Nero CD Speed Test(s). There are numerous tests, too many to go through now but they should give you all the answers you need and then some. You can find this in the same place: Start/Programs/Nero/Nero Toolkit/CD Speed Test.

 

[FluxCapacitor]

I think you just baffled him Buz2b

And you're right, I've never heard of, or experienced, using "Burn-Proof" lowering the burn speed. Why would it? It doesn't even come into play unless your buffer runs empty. Then, all it does it stop the burn process until the buffer fills sufficiently... doesn't change the burn speed.

 

[Buz2b]

I think you just baffled him Buz2b

I hope I didn't confuse him too much. If he runs the tests, he'll most likely find that the CDR media was to blame. I got some "32X" generic Fry's stuff once that will only run at 24X in my burner (the Lite-On 32X). However, I can burn at 32X with some (TY) Fuji 24X CD's. Better quality, better ability. Just another one of those things I picked up here at AT.

 

[ironk]

I did the cd speed tests and this is what they come out to be:

The graph shows a green line going up all the way to 40X then it touches the red line. There is a yellow line in the bottom which goes from 21X all the way straight to the red line.

Other things:


speed:

Average: 31.64x

start: 21.43x

end:39.63x

I don't know what the above tells me. Please let me know.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Yeah, if he turns off buffer under run all that will happen is he'll start making drink coasters for everyone I use Nero and I've been using Memorex exclusively since owning CD-RWs and never made a coaster except screwing around with different ideas for boot discs back in a day, I have used 12x@24x and no issues. I have 16x I use@24x at the moment and have a 40x burner coming in 2 days so I'll let you know i they will burn at 32x or 40x. EDIT: my bad! I should have mentioned I use memorex CD-Rs not their drives

 

[DAPUNISHER]

ironk, have you made certain that DMA is enabled for the drive? Is there another device on the cable with it? If so is it set to slave and on the inner IDE hook-up? Also, sometimes drives must be flashed to the latest firmware revision to work properly with the latest releases of the software.

 

[ironk]

Nevermind guys. After I did the CD speed tests, Nero started burning at 40X automatically. I didn't know you had to do the speed test for it to work properly. I am all set now. Thanks for the help.

 

[Buz2b]

I didn't know you had to do the speed test for it to work properly

Usually you don't. However, this is the world of electronics and anything can happen. The best part is that the drive seems to be working as expected. Maybe just a setting or two were off and were corrected when you ran the tests.

 

[jiffylube1024]

Aww, too bad he couldn't get 40X working with buffer underrun protection disabled. I don't think any burner can write 40X or even 32X discs without BURN-proof enabled; on-the-fly copying anyways.

 

[DaiShan]

Originally posted by: jiffylube1024
Aww, too bad he couldn't get 40X working with buffer underrun protection disabled. I don't think any burner can write 40X or even 32X discs without BURN-proof enabled; on-the-fly copying anyways.

He did get it working, and just for reference, my cendyne (rebaged liteon) burns on the fly from my 56x cd-rom without burnproof enabled, I normally leave it on, but just for kicks and giggles I tried it, of course they are on different channels, but who would burn on the fly from the same channel?