DVD-R's with data take a while to load

[Benny Blanco]

I have some DVD's that I backed up files to, but when I put them in, they are pretty slow to load files, and even slower to load the icons.

Any way to avoid this? I am making some new backups today.

Thanks
Benny

 

[Phoenix '97]

What DVD-ROM are you using? What blank DVD media?

If you're looking for a better DVD-ROM drive to read DVD media, I may suggest a Toshiba DVD-ROM. Most of the newer ones (1612, 1712, 1802) can be firmware hacked to read recordable DVD media at well over 10x CAV and have a DVD-R disc recognition time of about 5 to 6 seconds.

 

[qdemn7]

I have some DVD's that I backed up files to, but when I put them in, they are pretty slow to load files, and even slower to load the icons.

Any way to avoid this? I am making some new backups today.

Thanks
Benny

You sure you've

(a) Got the drives running at maximum available speed? Use Nero Drive Speed to check / change, and

(b) got Ultra DMA Enabled (assuming your hardware is capable of this)?

 

[Ice Czar]

^ Good advice

also is the DVD on the same channel (IDE0 or 1) where you have concurrent access? (In other words are you multitasking on the same channel) If its just "normal" OS read access, that wouldnt matter much, but if it was some other heavy access, its all sequential

when I was having issues with my CDRW (intermittent hangs, didnt know it was the CDRW at the time) I was able to ID it with TaskInfo 2003 (Shareware)
I now always leave this running on my second monitor (its in the startup folder) the CPU graphical window breaks out User Cycles (Green), Kernal Cycles (Red) and the dreaded Hardware Interupts and Deferred Proceedures (Blue) whenever I see blue spikes (I call the Interupt Storms) I know I got problems, that led me to the event log (Start > Run > (type) Compmgmt.msc > Event Viewer > System, where I had all sorts of ATAPI timeouts

something like that can be caused by bad cables\intermittent connection\ATAPI error in transmission
or, the drivers\ busmastering, or software

in my case what happend was that (for my chipset VIA KT266A)

http://www.sudhian.com/showfaqs.cfm?fid=7&fcid=13

Some CDROM drives also require a jumper to be set on the drive itself to enable DMA support. Make sure you have done this first!!

Under most versions of Windows, you must set the Master (or Slave) Drive Ultra DMA mode to Auto. However, under Windows 2000 you may need to set the Master (or Slave) Drive Ultra DMA setting to Disable under the IDE Controller in order for Windows 2000 to be able to enable DMA (see ABIT FAE advice). This also holds true for some CDROM devices under Windows 98 (eg. Kenwood) - you may need to experiment with this setting.

If this doesn't help it seems that if IRQ resources are reallocated by the Windows PnP system then the DMA setting can be lost. There are two solutions possible solutions:

Change the PCI/PnP settings in the BIOS so that there is no need for Windows to reallocate resources. For example, if a sound card has a Legacy Sound component that wants to go at IRQ 5, set "PnP OS" to "No" and set IRQ 5 to "Legacy ISA". This way, Windows won't try to juggle everything out of the way (because it is already done by the BIOS).
A second solution is described in Microsoft Knowledge Base article Q235859, "DMA CD-ROM Drive Icon Does Not Appear in Windows Explorer". Basically, this says to go into the Device Manager and go to the parent IDE controller. Go to the Resources tab, clear the "Use Automatic Settings" checkbox, and change the I/O range to something different. It does not seem to matter what it is changed to, so long as it does not conflict with anything else.
It has also been reported that under WindowsXP you can run regedit and modify the registry to allow Windows to properly detect the capabilities of the CD. To do this in Regedit go to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}\0001 or 0002
where 0001 is for the Primary IDE and 0002 is for the Secondary IDE. Select the one your problem drive is on. If the drive is the Master, delete the key "MasterIdDataChecksum". If the drive is the Slave, delete the key "SlaveIdDataChecksum".
If you are using a Soundblaster sound card, disabling SB16 emulation as described in the sound section can often help.


When you install the VIA 4in1 driver make sure the box marked "Enable DMA support" is ticked for the "vendor ATAPI support" driver. If you are unsure whether you did this, reinstall the 4in1 drivers. (Note, one user reports that if this is enabled, then his Kenwood CDROM cannot read CDR or CDRW disks - be warned!)

Transfering (the first) to our new subforum