Hi..

Computer - Toshiba P15-S420 (laptop)
Writer - Pioneer DVD-RW DVRK-12D (2.4x DVD Write, 16x CD Write)

I have been burning Mp3s w/ Nero for about 6 years and am pretty familiar with computers. When I first purshased my Toshiba laptop and installed the Nero 6.3 version, it would only allow me to burn at 4x. I went back and used an earlier version of Nero 6.0, and since April it has burnt at 16x fine.

However, since Saturday, the writer has been acting up. When I attempt to burn audio CDs from mp3s, with the same Media, Nero says its burning at 16x, yet its taking over 20 minutes to write a 750MB audio CD. Obviously this is not 16x write speed.

The drive is still playing Audio CDs and DVDs fine. I have not attempted to back up a DVDr since this occurred. I did use Nero DVD-CD speed tool, and when it does the test for CD..it goes at 4x, when I do the test to write to DVD, its OK at 2.4x.

To remedy this problem, I have attempted to unistall and reinstall Nero, along with different versions. I have also defragged a few times. To no avail, the writer is still taking over 20 minutes to write audio cds.

Does anyone have a suggestion on what is wrong and what I can do to remedy this? Is is a hardware problem? conflicts in the device w/ the program? I have called Pioneer and Toshiba and they have been limited help.

Thanks!

Download the latest Nero version, install ASPI, and flash the drive with the latest available firmware. Also if possible try a different media brand.

(in reply to cmann)

Iggy..thanks for the help, but i've tried all of this before. Also, I cant use the newest version of nero because it will only allow the burner to burn at 4x..been there and tried to fix this problem.

I had the burner writing at 16x after I defragged for the 5th time. However, now its back to burning extremely slow again. I'm unclear of the problem still.

I just updated to XP Sp2.

(in reply to Iggy)

strange issue, are you sure in both cases the used media is the same?

(in reply to cmann)

You are telling me!

I'm pretty sure i'm using the same media as I did in the past. Think its a irrelevant the media i'm using since I 've attempted to use 3 different types of media. I just burnt a 390mb/40 minute audio cd in 11 minutes, which is an improvement from 20. however, still not as good as the 4/5 minutes it should take.

I'm up for any suggestions, not wanting to bring the laptop back to compusa and have the send it off to get fixed.

(in reply to emperor)