Under-Achieving DVD Writer Needs Psycho-analysis

[Jan Alter]

I installed an NEC 6500A DVD writer in our 2 year old laptop about 6 months
ago. It is rated by NEC to write at 8X speed. It has worked fine in the time
it's been there, reading and writing with one exception. It will not burn
faster than 4X speed although I use 8x media for DVD burning. Additionally
when checking its burning speed capacity using Nero Burning Rom software
(latest version) Nero Info tool rates it at 4X for burning speed. Does
anyone have any idea how to get this burner to burn at the 8X speed it's
rated? Further, I updated the NEC's firmware to the latest available but
there is no change.
Additionally, the laptop is a Sager notebook with a 2.4 ghz P4 and 1 gig of
RAM running Win XP Pro.
I've even spoken to it nicely, but it just goes along burning at the 4X
speed.

Thanks,

 

[JAD]

sounds like either your media is not what the burner wants or the burner is
showing signs of wear.

 

[Ed Coolidge]

I have a NEC 3500A 16x DVD burner in my PC, which also seems to be picky
about the disk it will burn. I had bought 8x DVD+R disk that it will
only write at 4x. I also had problems burning Memorex 24x CD-RW. NEC
only recommended Verbatim ultra speed CD-RWs which work fine at the
rated 24x. The only thing you can do is to upgrade the driver's
firmware or try a different brand of disk.

After some searching I found NEC's supported media
<http://www.de.nec.de/software/1687_ND-6500A_Medialist_2_22.htm> list
for the 6500A and firmware update
<http://www.de.nec.de/software/1872_FW_ND-6500A_WIN224.zip>. Be sure to
read the directions before even tempting to update the drive's
firmware. A failed update will leave the drive brain dead!