The problem is not limited to speed tests for me. I've had time's where I didn't do the speed test, and just burned the CD-R, and it burned fine at 48x. Then I burned a CD-R again, IMMEDIATLY afterwards, and it it slowed down to 16x speeds (again no speed test)

(in reply to tvd0405)

I just bought the Lite-On 52x24x52, which came with Nero. I updated Nero from their web site (just a few days ago) because it wasn't seeing my burner. I wanted to be able to burn a test audio cd at 48x just to tell my friends I did it (the speed of the cheap media I got at Fry's electronics was 48x, $7.00 for 50pk!).. I let Nero do it's speed test and sure enough, it said my hard drive was only safe to burn (read) at 16x...

I will try another burner software as well, I like Nero and hope they make an update...

My system specs... (Just built the computer a week ago)..

Intel P4 2.53 Ghz 533 fsb
MSI Intel 845pe max chipset motherboard
512 MB DDR 400
40 GB IBM 7200 RPM
Lite-On 52x24x52
Win XP Pro

(in reply to tvd0405)

use WinISO to create an ISO image and then burn it using the Demo of Alcohol 120% that should do the trick!

(in reply to tvd0405)

yojimbo:

Nero's speed test is known to underestimate the capabilities of many burners. Why don't you simply burn a couple of discs to see actual timings?

(in reply to tvd0405)

I only have one cd drive and thats my burner (not able to do a on-the-fly). I don't think the problem was with the speed of the burner, but with the speed Nero thinks my hard drive is capable of maintaining. I scoured Ahead's website and it looks like thay have not posted any updates for this yet. No doubt if I try another program to burn will fix the problem. I have read enough of the posts here to realize the problem is not with my computer but with Nero...I'm sure they will fix soon..

(in reply to tvd0405)

KCK: Unfortunatly, that only works some of the time, the other part of the time you end up with Nero attempting to burn at a faster speed, but the buffer underrun protection kicks in constantly. I don't know what the problem is, but I'm sure with CCampbell's presence on the forum, that AHEAD has been properly notified and is working on solving it. I also sent them a post regarding it myself! The tech support person wasn't able to help me, but at least he tried

(in reply to tvd0405)

My assumption was that yojimbo was so worried about his poor results for Nero's speed test that he had never tried to make actual burns. On the other hand, I've seen several posts where users said they got poor test results but much better results in practice; I think I saw a particularly good thread at CDFreaks (involving rdgrimes) a couple of weeks ago, but I can't locate it now, so here is something similar in spirit:

http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=68310

(in reply to tvd0405)

Well, from personal experience I can say it doesn't always turn out that way. I suffer from the same problem you see

It's the only reason I've ceased to use Nero as my main burning software. It's a bit of a pain using Alcohol 120% since I have to make an ISO with seperate software, but at least I can count on the software!

the scary thing is: I've compared burn quality from Nero to alcohol 120% and there is usually a significant difference between the two!! (meaning alcohol 120% usually performs better). It may just be because of the Nero bug, but it deffinatly surprised me.

I'll see if I can re-create the problem and link some screenshots from my webpage later.

(in reply to tvd0405)

I've had this exact same problem on two separate machines whith new liteon 52126s burners. Nero claimed that the maximum read speed was 40x and wouldn't let me burn faster than that after a read speed test. However just burning without the test has resulted in perfect 52x burns with not drops in the cache level during the burn.

There is somthing very wrong with the nero hard drive read speed test. I'd advise against using it. If you want a test beofre burning use the "simulation" mode.

(in reply to tvd0405)

If anyone who is consistantly running into this issue had the time, I would like to know if the latest release of Nero 5.5.10.28, just posted on our website, has helped to address this issue or not.

Any and all feedback is greatly appreciated.

Regards,

Craig

(in reply to tvd0405)