DVD Burner Reading/Writing slower than when new

I have a LG GSA4163B burner that has been running extremely slow...
when I first got it 2 months ago, it would read a dvd movie within 20 minutes, and burn a backup within 10 minutes....now, it takes at least an hour to read, and almost an hour to backup. I use DVD Xcopy
for software. I have cleaned up my hard drive with AdAware, and have defragmented, but still no improvement. I haven't added any other hardware or software to my system since having the LG burner installed.
This is my first dvd burner, so I guess I'm a newbie.
What gives? Why the slowdown? Any ideas?
Thanks

 

Make sure it is set to DMA mode not PIO.

 

Ok....thanks for the reply, now, how do I go about making sure my burner is set to DMA mode? As I said I am a newbie, thanks for your patience.
( I didn't want to get booted from this excellent forum by sending you a PM)

 

You can do it the bbmayo way!
http://home.comcast.net/~bbmayo/DMA.html

 

Thanks for helping out, saugmon.

 

no problemo wolfniggr, bbmayo has the "one stop shop"

 

do you know what i should set for my computer bios when i start up my computer,

right now it's set at pio 4 and DMA 4

 

Both ide channels need to be in udma or dma mode. Click on that link I posted above from bbmayo and it will show you how to un-install and the xp will hook it up to dma or udma on bootup.
http://home.comcast.net/~bbmayo/DMA.html

Now whatever that issue that knocked your dma into pio may need addressed. Usually it's poor media.5 or 6 burn errors in a row will cause your pc to switch from DMA to PIO for safety reasons.

 

NO! you're not listening to what i am saying, i said did i need to set anything for the bios

also, i did exactly as shown in the diagram etc that you showed me, yet it still takes up to 1 hour to burn a dvd at 4X and it still fails...