Media problems or Udma ?

[klona]

I just moved from my old P3 to a P4, I845E, both XP.
On my P3, after some tests and hwd configuration, I went on a stable DVD burning solution with my 103.
Using mainly bulkpaq gen3 as it's OK on my sony.

Then, on my new P4, i burned again (all @X1) and gets about 2 out 3 DVD with I/O errors that I cannot recover in my Pioneer 116, but can read in my A03. On these bad discs, I get pixalisation (sometimes not...) when playing in my standalone.

I checked Udma mode in XP but cannot find anymore this information, neither how to modify it (? ?)
So I run INTEL Accelerator software, dedicated to managed HD and CDROM modes and enable high perf on latest chipsets.
Ohh... Pioneer A03 was on DMA Multi Word 2.
It's give the same 16,6 MB/Sec transfert speed as the PIO4, but I guess it's using DMA in some way..

So I just modify the "Transfer Mode Limit" setting to PIO4 as Max in the Intel application, reboot and verify.
Yes, A03 is now set to PIO4.

Yesterday I burned about 10 DVD-R @X1 and, guess what ? No I/O error at all when ripping, and the few test I did on standalone were Ok (I did not find time to watch the 10 movies...)


What is interresting, is that DMA use seems to be able to cause just minor burning problem (ie, every burn was succesful, no coaster) but enough to produce compatibility issues, which looks like a media problem.

[alexnoe]

Pioneer DVR-A03 cannot do U-DMA.

It only uses MW-DMA, which is 16.6 MB/s. The difference between MW-DMA and PIO4 is only the CPU load in theory. In real life, some mainboards don't perform MW-DMA in a way the Pioneer drive likes...

[klona]

You are right, I thought these drive can do UDMA. Thanks to point that out.

The point is still it solved burning issues by using Intel Accelerator soft and setting PIO4 as max mode.

Would be pleased if people with small media problem at the end of the disc can do the test also and report if that helps or not.

Just wonder if I was lucky or if there is really something there.

[alexnoe]

I remember some reports about Plextor 4012TA writing lots of C2 errors if connected to VIA KT133A chipsets with UDMA enabled.

Although different words are used in connection with CD and DVD with respect to error correction, your problem was the very same...although no one was able to explain it so far, it obviously exists.

[klona]

yes, but here A03 is connected alone as master with a 80 connector on an Intel 845E. (this give same results when my DVD116 is in slave)

This chipset is probably the more stable one, after the old good BX.
Motherboard is the Asustek P4B533-E , and asus is probably the producer who do always mb with good perf, sometimes the best on the market, but always the more stable motherboards.

With VIA chipset, I feel that quite "normal". So many problems reported with AGP4X compatibility, USB power etc..

[alexnoe]

I also have the ASUS P4B533-E (CPU is 2400@2860), and MW-DMA works flawlessly with this drive.

I must admit, I've never tried crap media with this config...only Verbatim and Maxell :D

The point is that not even the crappiest chipset should cause C2 errors or PIFs! This can only be caused if the chipset cause the drives internals to malfunction (and not only the interface)!

A communication failure is easy to explain by a bad chipset...your problems are not.