CD burner acting up after Windows reinstall

[DontStayHome]

First, a few months ago I bought a new CD-RW drive to replace the slow one that came with my computer. Installation of both hardware and software went well and the new drive worked nicely.

Now, recently I tried to fix some software problems by deleting and reinstalling Windows ME. I provided all of the various discs that came with the computer and installation seemed to proceed normally. I reinstalled Nero, which came with my burner, but when I tried to burn a CD, I noticed some poor performance. The read buffer as well as the write buffer jump up and down between 90% to 10%, causing the CD to burn slowly, as well as occasionally causing system freezes or buffer underrun errors. I have also noticed a severe drop in performance when ripping MP3s.

I've tried slowing down the write speed and increasing the read buffer. I've checked and unchecked the DMA box in the device manager. I've searched all of my discs for new drivers, and nothing has worked. It's becoming quite annoying, so any suggestions?

[Swordfish]

cdrw Specs ?

Give us some info about your setup....how is this cdrw setup(primary slave/secondary master/slave?

did you try changin the ide cable?

[rmanet]

are you sure you installed all the drivers from your mobo CD including IDE drivers - what type of system / mobo, etc you running?

[DontStayHome]

CD-RW drive is I/O Magic internal 48x/16x/48x. My hard drive is the master on the primary IDE, my DVD-ROM drive is the master on the secondary IDE and the CD-RW drive (that this post is about) is the slave on the secondary IDE. The reinstall was software only, so I haven't tried any hardware solutions, I would see it as an extreme coincidence.

I reinstalled using every CD that came with the computer and searched all the disks for CD-RW drivers using the device manager. (How would I go about installing motherboard drivers?) I have no idea what kind of motherboard it is, it's a year 2001 Dell Dimension 4100 if that helps. I don't believe I ever had a motherboard CD with drivers on it.

[DontStayHome]

I opened up the case and started messing around with the two drives on the secondary IDE cable. The original configuration is both jumpers set to "cable select," with the DVD on "CD 1" and the CD-RW on "CD 2" (CD 1 and CD 2 are just printed on the IDE cable, CD 1 is farthest from the mobo). I tried setting the CD-RW to master and the DVD to slave, while switching around the IDE connections, etc. etc., but the DVD drive would not be recognized in anything but the original configuration.

I had a few more thoughts. 1) When the CD-RW drive starts burning a CD, it seems to have trouble keeeping the CD spinning at a constant speed. Could this be a power issue, like some power setting got changed in the reinstall and is not allowing the CD-RW to get enough power? I glanced through the Power Settings in the Control Panel but could not find anything to change. 2) Maybe the CD-RW drive is dying; for some trouble I could try it in another computer, but first I'd like to further investigate 3) The problem is software related, as I first believed. Any more suggestions?

[rmanet]

Originally posted by DontStayHome
I had a few more thoughts. 1) When the CD-RW drive starts burning a CD, it seems to have trouble keeeping the CD spinning at a constant speed. Could this be a power issue, like some power setting got changed in the reinstall and is not allowing the CD-RW to get enough power? I glanced through the Power Settings in the Control Panel but could not find anything to change. 2) Maybe the CD-RW drive is dying; for some trouble I could try it in another computer, but first I'd like to further investigate 3) The problem is software related, as I first believed. Any more suggestions?

sorry this thread got "lost" - I don't think it's software

I mentioned the IDE drivers but that probably doesn't apply here 'cuz that's a problem for some guys building their own systems and this is a Dell

I'd leave the cables alone and put 'em back in the original configuration - not a good sign that the drive keeps spinning up and down like that - could be it's dying - it happens - alot - is this the drive that came with the system?? I assume you have, what - a 1 year warranty? See if the drive itself has a warranty (go to their website, or look on the drive).

or it could be something as simple as the disks you're using - I've had problems with burners recognizing the cheapo generic cdr disks, even still have problems with Imation :rolleyes:

[DontStayHome]

Actually, I noticed improved (but not perfect) performance after I messed around with all the IDE cables. Now I can consistently burn CD-Rs at 16x with no buffer underruns and can rip MP3s without skips and static; maybe a cable was loose or something. I tried many different kinds of media before, so maybe the drive is just dying, but it's good enough for now cause I'm getting a new computer in two weeks. Thanks for the suggestions.