i well i seem to be having this weird problem with my dvd drive apparently lately like 2-3 weeks my burner has been lagging the computer like crazy....but this is only when i burn a dvd or rip one..after that or before that its all ok..its like eating all my cpu power everything. i could usually watch a movie in the background while it was burning or browse the net.but now it takes like 1 min for it to even up the mozilla the specs are : dvd drive is NEC Black IDE/ATAPI DVD Burner Model ND-3540A - OEM im running on xp sp2 2.53ghz 512 ram 3 hard drives 1st main one is 12 gigs free out of 93 2nd is 14 gigs free out of 37 3rd one is 3 gigs free out of 76 gigs i havent had any software or hardware changes i did try to defrag it didnt help i did run spyware programs and do a virus check still nothing can someone help out plz
Hello, I have this DVD. Burns great; doesn't read as fast as my Sony (Lite-On) though. These NECs will hookup as UltraDMA mode2. Ultra cable (80-ribbon) does not help it achieve UDMA4 like some other drives I have used (Sony, Plextor). Anyway, check your harddisks (IDE controller, primary & secondary) from within Device Manager. Ensure you are getting UltraDMA. If you have 3 HDs, and one is the master on the secondary controller, you should make your Windows swapfile there. Putting it on another HD than Windows, on a separate controller, can help your speed a lot. Is your burner the secondary slave? In that case you should always rip DVDs to a harddisk on the other (primary) controller. Likewise when burning, always write from one controller to the DVD on the other controller. Make sure everything is UDMA'd and - free up some space, you don't have much. I would make the 40GB HD the secondary master, slave the Burner to it, and use it for swapfile, maybe some storage and transcoding. It's useless to read from or write to the DVD. I'd make the 80GB the primary master with Windows on it, and the 100GB slaved to it. The 100GB would then be your big go-to disk, for any ripping/burning you do. Note also: when transcoding audio or video, work from one controller to the other. Going from one HD to another helps, but if they are both on the same controller you don't get the full benefit, capish? Hope this helps, let us know how you get along... Regards
well i just got a 200 hd drive and im swapping the 40 gig one since i need that for some school work..so still i did find something weird in the device manager ..on the IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers under the secondary IDE channel and under advanced setting...under device 1 the current transfer mode is pio mode....how do i change that since someone was telling me pio slows everythign
Yes, the venerable Programmed Input-Output (PIO) mode has been around for years - since the 1980's. The newer Direct Memory Access (DMA) mode is faster, but more importantly it doesn't involve the CPU as much, so your PC stays stronger during transfers to/from the device. If Windows gets any weird errors, or anything it suspects could be a tranfer error (apparently some game copy protections can cause this) it will 'fall-back' to a lesser setting, ie. UDMA4 to UDMA2, then mode 1 (UltraIDE-33), and eventually PIO mode. So, either yours has fallen like a rock or you have master/slave issues preventing DMA mode (this typically will affect the slave device). Uninstalling the DVDRom from Device Manager, and then rebooting, will cause it to be re-detected and reinstalled, resetting the Windows 'fault-counter' and hopefully restoring DMA mode access. Any fast modern harddisk (ie. UDMA4 or UDMA5) should allow a DVDRom slave at UDMA2 no problem, so hopefully you can get the DMA back by uninstalling the ND-3540 and rebooting. 1 harddisk (primary master) and 1 burner (secondary master) are easy, but with 4 devices on the 2 controllers you must set things up just-so to get DMA on all 4 devices, L8R
so how should i set it 1st drive 93 gigs with windows 2nd drive 80 gig with only comics 3rd drive new got today with 200 gigs will transfer 40 gigs of videos from the other drive im taking out and then the dvd burner can you tell me how to set it all
To set that up properly, you really need to look at it like this, which is how it works: you got yer 2 masters; and then yer 2 slaves. 100GB = Primary Master = C:\ = Windows 80GB = Secondary Master = probably D:\ = comics and Windows swapfile 200GB (new) = Primary Slave = probably E:\ = lots of space NEC3540 = Secondary Slave = F:\ = burner In this configuration, the 80GB is NOT good for reading from the burner or writing to the burner, because they are on the same controller (they share the secondary controller). 1 of your harddisks must be like that, so make sure it's not your big empty 200GB one, right? And keep your case cool - all those HDs will roast your CPU, I'm not kidding... you need casefans, LoL L8R buddy
oh man now you got me spooked so i need casefans...ahhhhh crap more money to spend that i dont have...i did get a extra 1 gig ram stick...lol will that help it be COOL.or do i really need to investin this case fan and if so how much are they and what do they look like>? ..the fans in the computer or something else/
Don't worry - no big expense ;^) Fans are inexpensive, $10 bucks or whatever. The point is, just be aware of your cooling because some cases are engineered better than others. You need to keep the tiniest bit of air moving over your harddisks. The best way is a stout exhaust fan, 120mm is good, at the rear of your case. Negative pressure inside the case will then cause air to stream in through the casefront, passing steadily over/through the HDs. Note: Front casefans, unless they blow directly over/through the HDs, can actually increase your HD temps by removing the negative case pressure and preventing the stream of air through the HDs... Here is a photo of the rear of a typical case: http://www.chenbro.com.tw/workspace/pdimage/PC611_rearview.jpg You can see room for the powersupply at the top, and then the round exhaust fan opening. This one is BIG (120mm) but you will typically find 80mm ones, which were popular, and sometimes 92mm which is less common. Anyway good luck, let us know when you get the NEC sorted out!
