TDK 840G 8x dvd dual format burner burning media at super slow speeds?

[Salvador]

Hi.

I just bought a TDK 840G 8x dvd dual format burner (rebadged Plextor) a few weeks ago. It has been working great with some Verbatim (MCC) 2.4x +R media in Nero at 2.4x. A disc takes about 18-24 minutes to create.

Now.. I just purchased some Imation +R 4x media (Ricoh) and just tried burning, but it took 38 minutes to burn a disc. Nero even said that it was burning the disc at 8x too. For the hell of it, I decided to throw one of the Verbatim discs in there and burn the same file and it only took 18 minutes.

Why would it take 38 minutes to burn 4x media at 8x and 18 minutes to burn 2.4x media at 2.4x?

Just to let you know, I upgraded the TDK 1.03 firmware to the Plextor 1.04 firmware. Now the TDK 1.04 firmware is out. Should I try flashing the drive to the TDK firmware? Could this be the problem or does my burner just not like this Ricoh media?

TIA,

Sal

 

[Salvador]

Anyone have any ideas?

Sal

 

[Salvador]

??

I just checked the list of recommended media for my TDK drive and Ricoh (branded Imation) is on the list for my drive.

I also reflashed my drive to the newest TDK firmware (1.04).

Could it be that I'm using an external enclosure with the drive? Maybe it's trying to burn at 8x and because it's not getting the data fast enough through the USB 2.0 port, maybe it's hitting the buffer underrun and ending up going slower than if I would've just burned it at 2.4x or 4x to begin with?

I really hate to be wasting dvd +r's to test this thing. It's not cheap at $1 a pop.

Thanks again.

Sal