40x cd drive speeds up and down

[gak]

Just installed a memorex 40x cd. Some cd software speeds up, loads small amount then slows down then speeds up again. keeps doing this throught loadup and operation of software. Makes things slower than my old 24x which did not do this. Is this in the drive, poor software or a setting that I have overlooked.

Thanks
gak

[pray59]

This is typical of many fast cd-roms. They don't seem to track data well at higher speeds. I just gave away a 36X and 40X and bought bare DVD drives, a 2X CL (20X cd) and a 5X (32X cd) Cyberdrive and they do not have that provlem. The DVD drives seem more forgiving on "problem CD's", and as a bonus I can watch movies.(Software DVD decoding)

[jadinolf]

I recently bought one of the Memorex 40X drives and found it to be noisy and erratic. Wouldn't read many of my CD's. Called their 800 number listed on the warranty card and got a RMA. Maybe the replacement will be better. gak, you might try that also.

[gak]

Thanks for the suggestions guys. Don't know what I'm gona do yet. A DVD is a little more money than I wanted to spend but may be my only solution. I'll call Memorex first and see what they say.

Thanks again,
gak

[Roy]

It is my understanding that the slow/fast behavior is more the fault of system than the CDROM. The drive can deliver data faster than the system can receive it, so it says "relax - we'll let you know when to ship more".

[Sean]

I must agree with Roy to some degree - I have worked with many mobos and have found on some that the faster CD-ROM drives need to be slowed down in order to keep pace with the rest of the system. In one case I had to change PIO mode from 4 to 3 in order for the CD_ROM to function properly. This doesnt excuse the fact that there are some really cheap CD_ROM drives out there and they just dont work very well.

[gak]

Thanks for the replies. I am using a bh6 with only 64 megs of pc100 8ns ram. Since I am kinda new at this comp building thing I don't know much about PIO modes yet. Trying to read and learn from the experts here. Any pointers on PIO modes would be appreciated.

Thanks again
gak