My DVD ripping speed just went to 1X.

[DARRIN]

My 16X DVD ROM usually rips to the hard drive at 8X to 10X. Now with is running around 1X to 1.5X. What the heck happened?

 

[AluminumStudios]

I"ve noticed diffent speeds on different DVDs ... I think in some cases it may be related to the bitrate at which the DVD is encoded.

But one thing to check is device manager under your system control panel. Make sure your DVD-ROM hasn't dropped into PIO mode. Windows (particuarly XP) does that from time to time. If it has dropped out of DMA mode, try setting it back and rebooting and see if that makes a difference.

 

[DARRIN]

I can not see in my device manager where to check that.

 

[DARRIN]

I do have WinXP.

 

[AluminumStudios]

Look in the advanced settings tab under the properties for your primary and secondary IDE controllers.

 

[DARRIN]

OK on my secondary IDE device 1 which is my DVD ROM it says that it is currently PIO mode. Transfer mode was set to PIO only. I changed it to use DMA when availible and rebooted but it is still in PIO mode.

 

[AluminumStudios]

PIO will kill performance. You definitly want DMA, getting it though can be tough.

I read somewhere that Windows XP will keep dropping the mode down when it thinks the optical drive experiences a read error. You may want to look this up in the Microsoft KB.

Also, sometimes optical drives just get bitchy and won't run in DMA mode if in a slave position or on the IDE chain with certain other devices.

You might want to try updating system drivers (like Via 4-in-1 if you have a Via based mobo for example.)

 

[DARRIN]

It had been working fine until I got an error today ripping a DVD. After that it went into slow motion. I guess because it went into this PIO mode crap. It is on the same channel as my DVD burner with is using Ultra DMS mode 2 btw. Should I try putting my DVD ROM on the same IDE channel with my hard drive?

 

[DARRIN]

Just went through the BIOS and did not see anywhere to correct this.

Downloading the latest Nforce2 drivers for the A7N8X board from Asus.

 

[DARRIN]

Well I just put my DVD ROM on the same IDE channel as my hard drive and I'm back up to DMA mode 2! Thanks AluminumStudios! Is it ok to have it on the same channel as my hard drive?

 

[AluminumStudios]

Different people have different views on this. Most would say if you want the MAX performance from your hard drive you don't want an optical drive on the same chain. I don't think the tangible difference is that great though and I've run many systems like this.

If you feel a slow down then you might want to look at reconfiguring. But if everythin runs fine and stays in DMS mode I'd go with it.

 

[DARRIN]

I might try switching it back to the other IDE cable after I get done with this project.