Hey guys, here's my issue

I bought sony dru510 a while ago, burnt a few dvds and everything was pretty good. However, after a break of a couple of months, it can no longer record DVD+Rs at 4x speed, even though it reports 4x recording, it takes almost 30 min to finish one full DVD. My comp is pretty fast, P4 3ghz/1gb/300gb RAID0 with high throughput, and records very fast when I emulate the drive but not when I try to do it on the drive. I tried Nero 6.3 and 6.6, Ulead, but both are slow. Just a few months ago, same system, I was able to record DVDs in 16min 4x without a problem but now its very slow.

I don't remember, but I did update firmware this year sometime to the latest one 1.1a. the only other major change is the replacement of videcard and that's about it. My HD is fully defragged, and I did not make any significant changes to software (only a few games, and couple of minor progs).

Does anyone has any idea what might be causing this? I'd hate to go back on firmware, but it might be the only option so far. Thanks guys!

Make sure that there in no packet writing software running in the background (Ulead usually installs its packet writing package)

(in reply to Zetto)

Thx for the advice. I actually know its running in the background. I dunno how to disable it without uninstalling it.. Any suggestions?

EDIT: I disabled the Ulead service in the service manager, didn't help much, still slow. BTW, I forgot to mention that 2.4x recording takes as much time as 4x. Previously, I could finish 4x recording in 16-17 min, now it takes 28min. Same media, same drive, almost the same setup. I dunno what is going on here.

(in reply to G_IvanAwfulitch)

If there is a packet writing software better unistall it.

Check here for new firmware.

Which media did you used?

(in reply to Zetto)

I'll try unistalling the Ulead packet writing, but I dunno if its gonna help much - disabling Ulead service didn't. As for media - 4x DVD+R Ricohjp01 (TDK branded), and 4x DVD+RWs Philips 041 (Sony and HP branded). U prolly know this but DRU510 is rated to record DVD+RWs at 4x and it did work before.... just not now :(

(in reply to Iggy)

Can you try the same with Nero?

(in reply to Zetto)

heh, if I uninstall nero, what am I gonna record stuff with? :D

EDIT: tried with Alcohol 120%, it reports 2x recording (not even 2.4x) Man, what is going one here? is this drive about to kick the bucket?

EDIT2: Woohooo! I think I finally nailed it... I completely forgot that I have added a second DVD-ROM on the same channel, and it screwed up the DMA setting on my DRU510.... I didn't finish the trial burn but the CPU usage is 0 (was 40-50%) and at 5 min mark it's done about 40% of 4gb DVD (would've been about 20%). Hmm, so I can't use a second DVD? that's a shame.... Oh well.

Thanks, Iggy for all the feedback. It ain't software problem after all.. Heh, after a few days of troubleshooting, I forgot to look at the most obvious solution. OK, I admit it, it wasn't so obvious to me ;)

(in reply to Iggy)