DVD-RAM slow write

[Guest]

I have a Sony DRU-830A rated at 12X for DVD-RAM on an Intel Core2 Duo running
Windows XP and I use dvd-ram media rated at 3X. I should expect to copy an
800MB folder in about 4 minutes or less but it takes 38 minutes. That is very
consistant. Getting rid of CD recording didn't help.
Copying that same folder to a DVD+RW takes about 3 minutes.
I also have Vista an it doesn't take that long on Vista but the speed is
still not what it should be. On Vista writing to a DVD+RW take 5 times as
long as it does on XP. There that folder would take about 15 minutes to copy
to a DVD+RW disc.
I wonder if anyone else is having speed problems with DVD-RAM speed on XP
and/or DVD writing speed problems on Vista.
I would appreciate any help.

 

[You Know Who ~]

you did not say how much RAM the machine has, and that might make a
difference. Also, is the Sony connected to the same IDE controller as the
hard drive?

 

[Guest]

2GB of RAM. Sony on secondary master with liteon cd rw on the slave which
has the same slow write problem on Vista but works fine on XP.

 

[Sylvain Lafontaine]

Even if your sony can burn DVD-RAM at 12X, the fact that you are using 3X
means that you are limited to 3X. Furthermore, for DVD-RAM, you must divide
the speed by two because each writing is verified with a reading.

If you are burning your folder in 3 minutes at 18X, then we have 3m *
18x/1.5x = 36 minutes; pretty much the time that you got.

 

[Guest]

The copy that takes 3 minutes is at 4X to DVD+RW
Writing at 3X to the DVD-RAM then should tke 3x3/4 or 2:15 minutes even if
you double that to account for the verify you still get aroud 5 minutes which
is al lot less than 36 minutes.
If it takes 38 minutes to write 800MB it would take 3 hours and 45 minutes
to fill a DVD. I don't think anyone would consider that acceptable.
Even at 1X which is 1.32MB/sec it should take just under 1 hour to write a
full DVD.
It makes one wonder what kind of programmed delay timer is written into the
program that controls the write to DVD-RAM on XP and to DVD+RW and -RW on
Vista.

 

[You Know Who]

You may need updated drivers for Vista. It might also help if you get a
high quality cable for the drive (80 thread instead of 40)

 

[Sylvain Lafontaine]

Effectively, if you are truly copying only 800MB, then this is pretty slow.
Are you using the special DVD-RAM that often comes with these burners or if
you are using the default driver from WinXP?

I remember that the last time that I've installed a DVD+RW/DVD-RAM recorder,
the driver for DVD-RAM was not installed by default when running the setup
disk: it was a separate option in the setup menu and it was not activated by
default.

It's also possible that some packet driving software like InCD from Nero
might interfere. This could be particularly true if the setup disk for this
recorder comes with its own packet driving software or if you have installed
more than one of these little pests.

 

[Sylvain Lafontaine]

Also, as far as I can remember from the last time that I've used one of
these little turtle, you're right when you say that a 2X DVD-RAM should take
around 1 hour to write a full DVD.

 

[Guest]

I have downloaded, from the Sony website, the driver for the DVD drive and
also the CD drive has the latest driver from liteOn.
As far as inCD is concerned it's not installes on Vista and writing to
DVD-RAM is a bit faster there it's not enough to make a difference.
The speeds I get:
On Vista:
Zipped file to DVD+RW 2.13MB/sec
Folder of files to DVD+RW 0.73MB/sec
Zipped file to DVD+RAM 1.60MB/sec
Folder of files to DVD+RAM 0.89MB/sec
On XP:
Zipped file to DVD+RAM 0.94MB/sec
Folder of files to DVD+RAM 0.64MB/sec
These number are given to show that on Vista even the file copy is not even
half of what it shoud be and is on XP.
Writing to a DVD-RAM is slower on XP than on Vista where it is not what it
should be anyway.

Would these shared IRQ be causing the problem?
Is there any way for me to change then if it a possible cause?
I have foud that the TV app will is extremely choppy,unusably so, when
writing to DVD-RAM.
IRQ 16 NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GS OK
IRQ 16 JMicron JMB36X Controller OK
IRQ 16 Philips SAA713X, Hybrid Capture Device OK

IRQ 21 Standard Enhanced PCI to USB Host Controller OK
IRQ 21 NVIDIA nForce 430/410 Serial ATA Controller OK
IRQ 21 High Definition Audio Controller OK

I am including a partial sys Info hoping it would help.
Thank you for your interst in my problem.

Microsoft® Windows Vista™ Home Premium 6.0.6000 Build 6000
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU 6300 @ 1.86GHz, 1866
Mhz, 2 Core(s), 2 Logical Processor(s)
BIOS Version/Date Phoenix Technologies, LTD ASUS P5N-E SLI ACPI BIOS
Revision 0202, 2006-11-22
SMBIOS Version 2.4
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "6.0.6000.16386"
Total Physical Memory 2,045.94 MB
Available Physical Memory 1.33 GB
Total Virtual Memory 4.21 GB
Available Virtual Memory 3.39 GB
Page File Space 2.29 GB

Display NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GS
C: Maxtor 6L100P0 ATA Device
D: ST380811 0AS SCSI Disk Device
E: SONY DVD RW DRU-830A ATA Device
F: LITE-ON LTR-48246S ATA Device
TV tuner: Philips SAA713X, Hybrid Capture Device

 

[Sylvain Lafontaine]

It's quite possible that you might have an hardware interference. The best
way to test this would first to make sure that the drive is set to be as the
master drive on the secondary IDE controller. If you have still some
problem after that, then you may look at removing some devices to see what
happens

It might even be a good idea to remove and reinstall the drivers after
removing some hardware.

It looks like that you have a mix of IDE and SATA hard drives, could well be
the source of confusion on your system.

Usually, shared IRQ are not source of a problem; however, we never know.

 

[Guest]

Thank you Sylvain,
This is where I give up. My DVD-RAM can be used to record programs on my
Panasonic DVD recorder to play back on XP thanks to Nero. As for copying
folder I'll have to rely on XP since Vista takes so long. Microsoft support
have given up on that and seems to hope that SP1 will help me. I have Xp on
C: an ATA drive and Vista on D: a SATA drive i'm thinking of doing a clean
install of Vista, again, on a partition of the C: drive if that's possible.
Thanks for trying. If that doesn't do it I'll have to live with it.

 

[Airman Thunderbird]

Could it be formatting the disk ahead of the write? Seems I remember
this happening to me once.