Slow DVD/CD drive

Noelie

I'm having trouble with my DVD/CD drive, its only reading/writing at 1X where it should be doing closer to 4X.
Has anyone got any ideas what could be wrong?
I'm running XP Home

Standard Toaster

Could drive could be running in PIO mode.

Right click My Computer and hit Manage.
Goto Device Manager and right click each IDE channel in turn (under IDE controllers)

Ensure it's set to DMA (Direct Memory Access)

You'll need a reboot for the changes to click in.

Khannie

It's almost certainly what edge said. Also, drives read slower closer to the centre of the disc than when they're at the outer edges. Some burners are also read speed limited (though you can usually get cracked firmware to solve this).

Noelie

hi Guys that hasn't sorted the problem, in the 'current transfer mode' box it says PIO Mode, while the transfer mode is set to DMA if available.

The drive used to work at 4X so there has to be a problem osmewhere on the computer that can be fixed.

Any other ides?
Thanks.

Standard Toaster

Well, that's your problem right there....PIO Mode.
This mode requires a great deal more of CPU overhead to configure a data transaction and transfer the data.
If you get repeated DMA errors (in event log) XP will revert to PIO mode.
This is usually down to bad media/scratched cd etc.
It can be casued by other means though.

When was it last working?

Remove the cd drives and IDE controllers from the Device Manager (right click/uninstall) If it prompts to reboot say no untill you've removed them all.

On reboot, XP will fire them back in again. Once again, check to see if it's still set to PIO mode.

Noelie

That has sorted it out for me, thanks for all your help

Standard Toaster

No probs.