Sony DRU500A only burns Dvd-R at 2x

[29ways]

Hi, I have been trying to record 4x on dvd-r for awhile now with no success. The drive is now limited to 2x even when I specify the speed. The burner is a SONY DRU500A. Purchased Jan 2003. As for the media, it is Ritek 4x G4 media. I am running on the latest firmware 2.1A, and have also tried several older and recent firmwares with no effect. I've run the diagnostic test as well and it passed all test. The rest of my drivers are up to date, including video,motherboard, and drives. If anyone had this problem, how was it fix? Note that a few months ago I was able to burn at 4x with the same media. Here are the rest of my specs:

WIndows XP Service Pack 2
512mb Kingston Hyper X
AMD Athlon XP 2500+ Barton
Evox 8rda+ Motherboard
Enermax 350watt power supply
LiteOn dvd 16x reader

Use Stomp Recordnowmax 4.5
Have tried Nero Ultra 6
also tried Alcohol 120%

[theReal]

Have you tried other DVD-R media? I know Ritek G04 are good, but you never know for sure what your drives likes and dislikes...

[Sirber]

Ritek are one of the best blank medias. I had a Sony DRU-520 or 510 not so long ago. It was failing 4 of 5 DVDR. Better stay out of Sony's way :o

[ookzDVD]

Princo is working well @ 4x. :)

Beware of the firmware version.

[Kika]

My Burner is a DRU500A (patched DW10) with Firmware 2.1a and i'm using Ritek G04 -R without any problems.
Software: Nero 5.5xx, Ulead DVD PowerTools.

Are you sure, the Burner runs in DMA, not in PIO Mode?

@ookzDVD
Princo is part of the evil forces. You will get lot's of errors after 3 GByte.

[bonefish]

Had this burner in my old system. When i firth bought it, it could only burn @ 2x, but with a firmware (2.0 something if i remember correctly) i could burn @ 4x. Good drive, install the update according to the info file, a little special if i remember correctly)

http://sony.storagesupport.com/legalagreement.zulu?dlid=dvdrw/downloads/500FW21a/500a_21a.zip

QUOTE:
Firmware Upgrade 2.1A
Allows your Dual RW drive to record at 4X on 4X compatible DVD-/+R media.
Improves reading and writing performance and reliability.
Reduces vibration noise for the discs with unbalance or eccentricity.
Improves audio playback on written discs with stand alone systems.
Improves reading and writing performance with 8cm DVD-R/RW.
Increases readability with Recordable Double Layer Disc.

original page
http://sony.storagesupport.com/dvdrw/dru500adwn.htm

hope this helps

btw, no burned burns at 4x for example all over the disk, usually start off slow, and then increase speed. check your speed indicator