Help!! This has happened to me twice (2 different DVR-107Ds in 2 different computyers). About 2 months ago a DVR-107D that was flawlessly ripping at 7x-10x and reliably writing to Ritek GO4 at 8x, suddently stopped ripping or writing (to GO4) at anything above 2x. The drive had been initially flashed with v1.0 of the limitation removing firmware. I reflashed with v1.2, which was reported to have been successful, yet the drive still would not rip or write faster than 2x. Everything it did at 2x was fine, it just did it at 2x. Last night, a second 107D in a totally diferent computer started doing the same thing. It was initially flashed with V1.2. It would neither rip at speeds greater than 2.0x (it locked solid at 2.0x) nor write to Ritek GO5 at speeds highet than 1.9x. Previously, I had successfully backed up at least 100 DVDs using the drive with either DVD Decrypter or DVDxCopy. Both of the computers were Shuttles. One of them (the first) is a 2.4 GHz P4 w/512 GB RAM. The other is a 2.8 GHz P4 with 1GB RAM. The former is running at a FSB of 566, the later 800MHz. They are based on different motherboards, and the only thing they share in common (beside the 107s) is that both have an 80 GB WD HDD. I didn't play around with the later one much last night. I tried turning off the computer and trying to rip a non-copyprotected commercial DVD. It wouldn't rip faster than 2.0x (this disk had previously achieved rip speeds of 11x). With the fiorst drive that starteds exhibiting this behavior, I did everything I could think of. Took drive out, put drive in another machhine, returned drive, etc. Nothing seems to work. I have another new 107D laying around somewhere, I plan on putting it in a USB 2.0 enclosure and dtying it with both of the other computers. In the meantime, has anybody experienced or heard about anything like this? Thanks in advance mosspa
Hi mosspa Have you checked your DMA settings for the drive. See http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/storage/IDE-DMA.mspx for further details I hope this helps
Thanks for the suggestion. Should they be on or off? When the uSoft page says that after 6 CRC errors XP reverts to PIO mode and that I must reinstall the drive, what does that mean? Do I just take the drive out and reboot without it, then put it back in, or do I somehow muck with whatever drivers control the ATPI? Moss
Hi mosspa DMA should be on See http://www.mrbass.org/dvdnewbie/#2 for details To reset it in XP Go to Control Panel - System - Hardware - Device Manager - DVD/CD-Rom Devices - Select Drive - right click - uninstall . Reboot - DMA should be back
Well, I'm home now and I just tried what you suggested. First, the current mode was set to DMA when I looked at it. Then I removed the driver and rebooted. I then tried to rip a "non-copy protected" commercial DVD. In the first 4 minutes, the highest rip speed it achieved was 2.0. Any other suggestions? I can't help but think that this is a drive thing. However, 2 107s in two different computers doing exactly the same thing seems a bit remote. I was really hoping it WAS something simple like DMA/PIO. Mosspa
Now this becomes more interesting Have you checked your Aspi layer - if the drivers are not all the same version can create problems see Praetor site at http://www.hazza.dsl.pipex.com/faq.htm#ASPI for a guide and the file When was the last time the hard drive had a defrag Let me know - I hope this helps
I'm not sure why this didn't post before. Anyway, I tried removing the driver and rebooting and it didn't work. When I tried to rip a commercial non CSS disk the rip maxed out at 2x (bounced between 1.8 and 2.0). When I tried to write a file, 2.0 was as fast as it would write to a Ritek GO5. Any further suggestions?
Well I guess my first reply did post. The ASPI layer appears fine. It is ASPI 4.60 (1021) and all four components are 4.60. Also, I built this computer less than 6 months ago and this is the only ASPI layer that was ever on it. As I said, it functioned correctly (rip > 11x and no-error write to Ritek GO4/GO5 at 8x). I have flawlessly ripped and burned at least 75 disks with it. Also, I tried re-flashing with V1.05, 1.12, 1.15 and 1.18. All yield the saame effect of rips <2.0x and writes at 2.0x. The bizarre thing is that thew other 107 started doing the same thing the other night. I checked it and its computer this evening and the IDE driver is set to currently be running in the Ultra DMA mode. Both drives are behaving exactly as if they were DVR-103s (except my original 103 was old enough so that the Pioneer firmnware wasn't limiting rip speed and it would rip at about 4x).
There is an incorrect setting for that drive. It still sounds like a DMA error or a heavily fragmented hard drive. How is the drive set up Primary Slave or Secondary master
The drive is set as secondary master. This is a Shuttle "mini-box". There are only two drives in it (no floppy, even). There is a WD 80GB HDD on the primary Master and the 107 is the only drive on the secondary bus and it is set as the master. The HDD is not fragged, at all. About the only thing of any substance that gets written to it is movie ISOs. There is only about 2G of application software oin it and I don't use it fopr word processing or anything else that might create fragmented files. Also, I defrag it about once a month. Also, except for following your suggestions concerning removing the driver, I have not done anything that should affect the 107 except flashing it several times since it slowed down. Incidently, this appears to be an exclusive DVD thing since I have been routinely ripping CDs at over 38x using Audiograbber. Thanks for all the help, Moss
I defrag my drives once a week and before I rip & burn any movies. I use Diskeeper - http://www.executive.com/defrag/defrag.asp to keep the drives in shape. There is always defragmentation even with this defrag routine. Did you double check the DMA settings after the reinstallation of the drive Have you done an ASPI check Thanks
Yes, it said it was currently using Ultra DMA. I'll look into Diskkeeper. However, when I have deleted any move ISOs, there is never more than 18% of the 80 GB of disk space used by everything else on there. One has to figure that even sporadic deragmentation should open up a sufficient number of 4-10 GB continuious disk sectors so that defrahmentation shouldn't get in the way of ripping/writing. The thing that bothers me isn't that the drive writes slow... it writes at a constant 2.0x. When it rips there is some flucvtuation between 1.8x and 2.0x, but wwrites are always dead solid on 2.0x. If this was a fragmentation thing wouldn't I expewct slowing from writes of 8x to maybe 4x with some variation depending on how much seek time is being taken to find unused sectors. Similarly, shouldn't I see reading speed bursts when the heads are over a relatively long continuous data streams? This, simply, doesn't happen. The magic number, at least for writes, is 2.0x. Thanks again, Moss
