device buffer problem!

[daz24c]

hi can some1 help me please.when i try and burn a disk on imgburn my device buffer goes up n down like a yo yo.neva stops still but then it takes forever to burn a disk n sometimes fails!does any1 no whats up with it please?
thanks

[cgscott]

Could be a few things.

Make sure you have no programs running in the background using up memory.

Downloading things or playing games etc at the same time can cause this as well.

Try burning a disc without using the pc.

[daz24c]

i have dun it with out nething running in the background and still no joy!but not sure what ya mean by try burning it without the pc?
thanks

[cgscott]

What dual layer drive do you have?

How does the drive react when you burn normal dvd disc or CD discs?

[dasteph]

i have dun it with out nething running in the background and still no joy!but not sure what ya mean by try burning it without the pc?
thanks

what he means is not using the pc for any other use while burning is in progress, do you switch off your screensaver when burning as this can sometimes effect the outcome.

[chroma]

i know your problem, the drive will be running in PIO mode instead of DMA.

Easy to fix.

Right click on "My Computer"
Select properties.
Go to Device Manager (under the hardware tab in XP)
Click on IDE/ATA/ATAPI controller.
Select the channel your dvd drive is on (usualy 2 but not always the case)
Go to the properties of each channel and make sure you eneble DMA.

Restart your computer and voila problem solved.

[daz24c]

i know your problem, the drive will be running in PIO mode instead of DMA.

Easy to fix.

Right click on "My Computer"
Select properties.
Go to Device Manager (under the hardware tab in XP)
Click on IDE/ATA/ATAPI controller.
Select the channel your dvd drive is on (usualy 2 but not always the case)
Go to the properties of each channel and make sure you eneble DMA.

Restart your computer and voila problem solved.

i did the above and it was on the wrong 1 but when i restarted the buffer was still the same

[dasteph]

hi can some1 help me please.when i try and burn a disk on imgburn my device buffer goes up n down like a yo yo.neva stops still but then it takes forever to burn a disk n sometimes fails!does any1 no whats up with it please?
thanks

have you tried some other software instead imgburn just to see if the problem persists.

[ManofScience]

if it WAS defaulting to PIO mode, i've heard that this means the burner could be faulty.

[chroma]

if it WAS defaulting to PIO mode, i've heard that this means the burner could be faulty.

Nah, every burner ive ever installed has defaulted to PIO mode 4 transfers for some reason instead of DMA.
They also revert back to that if you update your chipset drivers (your south bridge on your motherboard controlls all the IO including ATA/ATAPI/IDE transfers)

As for the problem not resolving, are you certain you chose the right channel?
I typicaly crank them all onto DMA, it does no harm... back in the day DMA was frowned upon as it introduced transfer errors hence the reason its disabled by default.

Long winded science gubbins bit:
DMA is Direct Memory Access.
What this means is that your devices running in DMA mode have direct access to the memory independant of your processor.
Why this was a problem:
Take for instance you want to do something simple like add 2 + 2
You type in the data, 2 + 2 and your processor stores that in memory.
Say your computer has 3 banks A,B and C
In A will be 2
In B will be 2
and C will be empty
The computer reads A then applies the + command to B and stores the result in C
Leading to:
A=2
B=2
C=4
It then reads location C and prints that to the screen.
This is essentialy how a processor works.

With DMA however a device could be writing to any of the 3 locations and change the values without the knowledge of the processor so halfway through adding A to B the value in B could change to 1000 leading C to wind up as 1002 which would cause an error.
No big deal with 2+2 calculations, but if your most likely doing something more commplicated like saving a file to disk or so forth the data could wind up corrupt, leading to "nerd rage"

Nowadays we have more advanced memory controllers so the processor is informed of what locations are "DMAable" and which are safe. so the risk is essentialy nullified.
Sounds Stupid, why risk losing your files when you can just use another mode? like say PIO?

PIO mode means Programmed Input Output, which sends all requests for reads and writes through the processor. In real life terms, imagine trying to work out something relatively complicated, reciting the alphabet backwards phoneticaly whilst rubbing your stomach and patting your head. All the whilst having someone ask you to pass a cup of coffee then a pencil, their keys etc in rapid succession.
This is exactly what PIO is to a processor, every time its doing something a device running in PIO will interupt it and ask it to pass it something or send something.
PIO is good at keeping the processor informed of where peples keys, pencils and coffee is at all times, which was fine before the invention of more advanced memory handling techniques.
Now it just serves to slow everything down.
/Long winded science gubbins bit

If youve read through that then youll see that PIO mode means that when your buring your data it goes through the processor. programming being what it is today is categorised into sections of priority.
Transfers are medium priority so the processor can tell your burner to get bent whilst it performs a critical task and then tell lower tasks to get bent when it has a transfer request...
This will make your buffer go crazy.

DMA however bypasses the processor and lets the burner do what it wants (within the confines of the memory controller to avoid data getting gimped) and you'll see your buffer stabilises out.

[nevovx]

Try checking processes tab in Task Manager , you might not be running a program but there might be something running in the background and check cpu / memory / disk utilization. Before burning and while burning.

Try different cable.

Uninstall the drive from control panel and restart windows and let it reinstall the drive.

Uninstall the drive physically from your pc and try in another pc if you can to see if the drive works fine in another pc ruling out drive problem.

Check the drive for updated firmware.