It's a bit strange that Plextor didn't reply.
In the glory days of the Plextor PX-40TS they used to have a standard answer for this particular problem.

(in reply to stuartl)

Well I asure you I have sent them 6 e-mails and never had one reply !!!
I have also had e-mails from some other members saying they had not replied to them !!!
Perhaps they are keeping a low profile with the 48x Writer getting all the stick it is or they are very busy replying to 48x owners with problems !!!

(in reply to stuartl)

Laffin, it seems the problem of the "not returned e-mails" may lie at your end...

I recently had a mail from Plextor Europe Service Manager, Marc, that explains/tries to rectify the problem the above user is having, and your direct problems with Plextor Support...

It reads as follows:

Hello Clint,

You collegue Laffin Assasin, the other Moderator on CDRinfo forum,
gives the comments in tread
http://www.cdrinfo.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=5925&whichpage=3 that
Plextor support does not reply to his emails.

I would like to know who he sends the emails to , as I am responsible for
the team responding to ALL emails, usually this is done within 24H.

I have tried to email Laffin Assasin before, but the email bounsed back.
Can you contact him and ask him to forward every not-answered email to me, I
will make sure he will get an answer.

Kindly regards,
Marc Van der Aa - service manager

I have mailed you, hope you get it.

This proves the service of Plextor is second to none, not many other company managers go out of their way to help resolve these sort of issues with people like yourself. Maybe the support e-mail address you sent your mails to had the same problem as Marc, and they also bounced back...

We will see!

(in reply to stuartl)

quote:

---

Originally posted by stuartl

I've got an ultraplex40 and it's connected to an adaptec 2940UW controller. When i run NERO cd speed it tells me the burst rate is 1MB/s, which for an ultascsi device is pants as it should be around 20MB/s. I'm running XP on an ABIT BD7II, anyone any ideas why i'm getting such a bad burst rate?
All the other scores in Nero cd speed appear to be about right, averages 30X across the disk with it getting to a fraction below 40 at teh outside.

---

Here is the responce direct from Plextor Europe Service manager:

Dear Clint,

Thank you for the information.
Regarding the burst transfer rate for the 40TSI:

The data CDSpeed displays is not correct. We have verified this with other
utilities.
The read-ahead caching of Windows and the buffer of the Busmastering SCSI
controller have a big influence, but a bugfree software can show upto 13MB/s
as we tested.
This can be published.

Please feel free to report any Ahead Software related matters to
techsupport@nero.com

Well, it's quite obvious now that Plextor weren't avoiding the question or "keeping a low profile" Laffin, as you say, but merely couldn't reply to your address for one reason or another...

Anyway, the matter should be clear now, and seems to be a bug in CDSpeed, maybe Ahead could answer...

(glad that's over )

[:I]

(in reply to stuartl)

quote:

---

Originally posted by Clint

Laffin, it seems the problem of the "not returned e-mails" may lie at your end...

I recently had a mail from Plextor Europe Service Manager, Marc, that explains/tries to rectify the problem the above user is having, and your direct problems with Plextor Support...

It reads as follows:

Hello Clint,

You collegue Laffin Assasin, the other Moderator on CDRinfo forum,
gives the comments in tread
http://www.cdrinfo.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=5925&whichpage=3 that
Plextor support does not reply to his emails.

I would like to know who he sends the emails to , as I am responsible for
the team responding to ALL emails, usually this is done within 24H.

I have tried to email Laffin Assasin before, but the email bounsed back.
Can you contact him and ask him to forward every not-answered email to me, I
will make sure he will get an answer.

Kindly regards,
Marc Van der Aa - service manager

I have mailed you, hope you get it.
This proves the service of Plextor is second to none, not many other company managers go out of their way to help resolve these sort of issues with people like yourself. Maybe the support e-mail address you sent your mails to had the same problem as Marc, and they also bounced back...
We will see!

---

I recieved no E-mails from Plextor and the problem is not at my end !!!
None of my e-mails bounce Back unless they include a Virus and I check them every day !!!
And if he says he cannot contact me why didn't he or one of his staff reply to our answers on the Forum or couldn't they get that to work either !!!

(in reply to stuartl)

quote:

---

Originally posted by Clint


Here is the responce direct from Plextor Europe Service manager:

The data CDSpeed displays is not correct. We have verified this with other utilities.
The read-ahead caching of Windows and the buffer of the Busmastering SCSI controller have a big influence, but a bugfree software can show upto 13MB/s as we tested.

Anyway, the matter should be clear now, and seems to be a bug in CDSpeed, maybe Ahead could answer...

---

Clint, managers are trained to give answers like that

How convenient that he does not mention the bugfree software they used to verify that CD Speed is wrong.
So how about Adaptec SCSI Bench and SCSI Mechanic?

Plextor PX-40TS
Nero CD Speed: 1 MB/sec
Adaptec SCSI Bench: 1573 KB/sec
SCSI Mechanic: 1257 KB/sec

Plextor PX-W124TS
Nero CD Speed: 18 MB/sec
Adaptec SCSI Bench: 18721 KB/sec
SCSI Mechanic: 16597 KB/sec

Plextor PX-32TS
Nero CD Speed: 18 MB/sec
Adaptec SCSI Bench: 18485 KB/sec
SCSI Mechanic: 16390 KB/sec

These results speak from themselves.
Surely three totally different programs can't all have the very same bug? A bug which is then only present with one particular drive.
That just doesn't make any sense.

The max. data rate is 20 MB/sec but in practice this is a bit lower because of the overhead.
If you run the SCSI Bench test contineously you can hear that the Plextor PX-40TS keeps reading from the disc.
The two other Plextors are totally quiet after a few seconds because they don't read from the disc anymore but get the data from their buffer which gives the accurate results.

It's very disappointing that Plextor is not honest about this and does not want to tell us what's really going on with their drive.

Or maybe the Plextor manager (the person, not the software ) can suggest a different test program.

(in reply to stuartl)

Hi Again cdrfreak
And thanks once again for the Info !!!
You can give Marc my personal E-mail address if you wish Clint incase he really does want to get in touch and give me a solution personally !!!

(in reply to stuartl)

@cdrfreak:

If it was true that the 40TSI was limited to a transfer rate of 1MB/sec, it could not sustain reading at 40X, which it no doubt can. So the software you test with has a problem detecting the burst transfer rate of the 40TSI.

Reading at 40X is 6MB/sec, how could a device with 1MB/sec burst transfer speed read at these rates? CDSpeed shows that it does infact read at 40X, so it is an error, that it says transfer rate of 1MB/sec.

Common, think about it...

(in reply to stuartl)

quote:

---

Originally posted by Clint

If it was true that the 40TSI was limited to a transfer rate of 1MB/sec, it could not sustain reading at 40X, which it no doubt can.

---

Yes, indeed but what I wanted to show is that the bad results are not caused by a software bug as the Plextor manager says but a limitation of the drive.
The only way to get the real interface burst rate is to get the data from the drive's buffer and not from the disc.
So why doesn't the Plextor PX-40TS cache the data sectors while all other Plextors do [?]

(in reply to stuartl)

So this cdspeed tool has bugs !!!! why is you not mailing the author of the software, he might given a good answer.

Are there better tools then cdpseed, i dont want buggy software to test !!!

(in reply to stuartl)

quote:

---

Originally posted by Akinetón

So this cdspeed tool has bugs !!!! why is you not mailing the author of the software, he might given a good answer.

Are there better tools then cdpseed, i dont want buggy software to test !!!

---

Akinetón, did you actually read all the posts?
This is NOT a bug.

(in reply to stuartl)

I believe Plextor, they are good quality and have good support people. Seems to me you have an bad SCSI card. But why are you so complaining about this, what is bad of this?

I have not seen more problems with this, so I really think this cause by bug. You should mail the bug and get a new SCSI card.

(in reply to stuartl)

Hey Akinetón
I suggest you do what CDRFREAK told you to do Earlier there are 4 People with the same problem including me and we can't all have a bad SCSI card it is a problem with the Drive !!!
We are not saying we don't usually get good support from Plextor but this time they are dodging the Issue !!!
Marc Van der Aa the Service Manager for Plextor has just E-mailed me at last and has asked me to keep the email confidential so I will do what his wishes !!!
But I will just say that he does mention that Plextor uses software to check and results in 13MB/sec burst transfer rate and it is only for internal use and confidential.
Which tells me absolutely SQUAT he has also said that he will not be replying to any Forums but this I can understand being in the position he is once he replies to one Post he would then be expected to reply to Thousands !!! So that is all I have to say on the Issue (For Now ) !!!

(in reply to stuartl)

man.. comon.. just start up performance monitor, and copy some big giant 300 meg file from the cd to the HD, and see how fast the data is transfering.

*sigh........

(in reply to stuartl)

quote:

---

Originally posted by cdrfreak

Yes, indeed but what I wanted to show is that the bad results are not caused by a software bug as the Plextor manager says but a limitation of the drive.
The only way to get the real interface burst rate is to get the data from the drive's buffer and not from the disc.
So why doesn't the Plextor PX-40TS cache the data sectors while all other Plextors do [?]

---

Maybe this Plextor doesn't support the normal readout commond set that CDSpeed instructs regarding the burst transfer rate. I don't own the drive so I cannot answer problems related directly to it. Plextor says it does transfer at up to 13MB/sec, so I it would, they cannot lie about things like this. As I said, how can it read @ 40X and only have a transfer rate of 1MB/sec [?]

It wouldn't be uncommon for a drive not to fully comply with the "normal" command sets, Yamaha CRW-F1's don't comply to the tested software to read C2 errors, on the usual MCC comands, *however*, the drive can be made to retrieve that info if you know how.

So it looks to me that this problem isn't effecting the performance of the 40TSI, but rather screwing you benchies up?!! If it can read at 40X, error free and have decent error correction and read the new audio/data protections @ lightning speed for personal backups, I would be happy [:I]. There a very few readers around that read like the PX-40TSI, even todays newest, fastest, "better" drives cannot keep up with it in some areas...

(in reply to stuartl)

I can't be bothered I have just took it out and replaced it with a Toshiba 1612 DVD !!!

(in reply to stuartl)