strange things with my ND-1300

[MemeX]

Hello everyon in the Doom9-Forum,

I have noticed this problem since I bought the ND-1300, when doing a DVD-reading speed test with the nero tool for example, i only get up to 2x speed, sometimes it even dropped down...

When writing a 4x media, Verbatim for example, Nero takes over 22 minutes to write the media instead of 15 minutes that it says it would take. Also the recorder buffer is constantly going up and down between ~12% and ~100%.

I've updated my motherboard VIA chipsets on my gigabyte board. the burner is on sec-master. using a 1,399ghz thunderbird.

I have asked NEC for support, but they only directed me back to the FAQ section, in which I already tried their fix's.

Anyone have or had the same problem? or know of a way that could fix this?

Thanks in advance,

MemeX

[MvB]

Maybe you forgot to turn on DMA-Mode for the burner? That would be a reason for the buffer-thingy.

If you were able to put the writing speed to 4x in Nero and it takes 22 Minutes it's probably because you didn't turn on UDMA for your burner. Everytime the buffer goes empty the burner waits for the buffer to be filled again, that takes time.

Good luck
MvB

[MemeX]

I've checked that the Ultra DMA mode is enabled on the device manager. everything seems to be fine in there. I've even tried burning with PIO mode, but it gave the same results.

anything else I could check on?

MemeX

[maa]

DMA for the HD ?

[MemeX]

Everythings in DMA mode *nods*

Man, this is getting quite drag this dvd burner. I've asked for support but NEC support isn't replying these days...

[maa]

Have you got the Aspi Layer 4.60 installed ?
I have the same burner and it behaves very well - especially since I loaded the non-standard firmware :D

[MemeX]

I just checked my aspi with adaptecs tool and ASPI32.SYS is version 4.71.2
You think I should use 4.6 and it would work better? I think it might be some bus motherboard problem...not sure...but might be..

And that hack your talking about, what does it improve? and can you still flash the new firmware of NEC over it again?

MemeX

[maa]

Get ForceAspi from doom9 and see the difference !

No the firmware allows use of many brands that didn't work with original and also improves ripping spead up to 12x.

The Aspi problemsare all over the net - especially in Pro Recording.
Read http://aspi.radified.com

[atreides93]

I have noticed odd things with my NEC 1300A as well..I don't think its as good as my old Pioneer A03 was.
Anyway when I had it on a Promise IDE card, the burn light would fluctuate and the buffer would act the way you described.
I put it back on my motherboard's secondary IDE controller and it stopped doing that.
It did affect speed big time, my burn speed would average 3x instead of 4x


As for the firmware, i've flashed it a few times, you can still flash the official firmware even after flashing the hacked one...it does seem to work better with the hacked version. the artificial 2X ripping speed limit is removed for one thing.

Though I can only rip at 4x with it.

[maa]

Though I can only rip at 4x with it
I notice a difference from one DVD to another - I've had reads at 3,5 only reaching 6x towards the end. The full 12x is rare I admit so don't assume its normal and yours isn't up to scratch.

[MemeX]

I have noticed odd things with my NEC 1300A as well..I don't think its as good as my old Pioneer A03 was.
Anyway when I had it on a Promise IDE card, the burn light would fluctuate and the buffer would act the way you described.
I put it back on my motherboard's secondary IDE controller and it stopped doing that.
It did affect speed big time, my burn speed would average 3x instead of 4xatreides93: I'm getting about 3x burning speed too. So when you put it back on the Sec-IDE channel you got 4x speed again? I couldn't quite tell from your post :rolleyes:

Strange still, I have mine on the Secondary IDE channel as master and still get a crazy recorder buffer that scares the hell out of me, because everytime it goes as low as 10% I'm thinking that there's an other DVD-R wasted again:mad: and they're note very cheap these days.

I'm going to try ForceASPI tomorrow when I have some new DVD-Rs. I Hope it will work better, but I don't think an aspi driver would have much to do with the recoder buffer to be honest:(

aight, thanks for the help so far.

MemeX

[edit]Where can i get this hacked firmware? don't want the wrong one that kills me burner :)[edit]

[maa]

http://herrie.rpc1.org

[MemeX]

I've installed ForceASPI and applied it, burner is recognised but still has the buffer problem i was talking about earlier, also still takes 22~25 minutes for a dvd burned at 4x speed.

Is there anything else i could try out?

MemeX

[htc10825]

Perhaps you have onece used the "Windows Upadate" feature of your OS... Than you have to format your C: and reinstall your OS. A friend of mine has had also such thing, we've try all things possible, nothing changed. Only a 100% new installed windows helps. Good luck!

[MemeX]

I have just formated and reinstalled my win2k 2 to 3 days ago, its as clean as an OS could get :D trust me...I have never used the update feature either.

but you reminded me to put the latest ms service pack on it:rolleyes:
...Finished to put SP 4 on the machine.

i fear this case is getting hopeless...

MemeX

[MvB]

Try this burner in a friends computer, if possible. So you can see for sure if the burner or your mainboard ist faulty. If it works somewhere else, you have most likely another hardware problem.

[MemeX]

that would have probably taken me quite a while to think of that MvB:D
I was just thinking, it's my motherboard or drivers, nothing else...but it might actually just be broken, or a little defect.

Furthermore I made a very interesting discovery. I burned a (RikoJp I think) Platinum DVD+R at 4x and then the same media at 2.4x, firstly they took exactly the same time, secondly -when i burned it at 2.4x the buffers where running all nicely...I really don't know what to make of this to be honest:confused:

could that really mean that the burner might be broken? doesn't really sound like it to me..but I'm asking the pro's in here:rolleyes:

MemeX

[maa]

That surely is an indication that your system isn't delivering enough Data to the burner !

Try on another computer (mine burns 4x just fine on an old SIS chip PII 266)
Try to install XP on another partition and test that.
Good luck - I'm sure the burner is ok.

[atreides93]

Yea it almost sounds like your IDE controller is defective, or your hard drive....

can you do a speed test on your hard drive?

By the way, once I put the NEC back on the secondary on-board IDE controller, the burning speed went back to normal.

[MemeX]

the problem has been solved!!

yes, thats right, I found the source of the trouble. It was a defective IDE cable! Pure luck that I thought of swaping it just in case..

I've been burning at 2,4x speed instead of 4x speed all this time...I can't believe it.

Thanks for the support everyone:D I'm am now a happy ND-1300a user!

case closed.
MemeX

[flipdon]

I had the smae problem with the constantly jumping buffer problems and the long encoding time. I also had a compter lagging problem when burning to DVD. When I used Nero CD Speed to see how well it was burned, the test wouldn't even finish because of an error.

I tried downgrading to Nero 5.5... no dice.
I tried flashing to the new hacked 1.07 firmware... no help.
I then moved the burner to the Primary/Secondary IDE controller (in my case, Primary Master) because it used to be connected to a PCI IDE controller card... BINGO!

I can now burn 4x on my Ritek G04's in 15 mins, and there's no more lag when burning. I can still use my comptuer freely.

So anyone having burning problems with the NEC ND-1300A should make sure it's connected to your onboard IDE controller first before troubleshooting more.

Is it worth upgrading to Nero 6 beta again? Or should i wait until it becomes final?

[maa]

Nero 5.10.? works fine just as WinOnCD 6 does - I'm not changing that running team unless they really offer something special.

[flipdon]

After some more testing... although there's no more lag and the buffer stays constant mostly, the tests with Nero CD Speed at 4X still look rather bad, but the graph on a DVD burned at 2x looks clean. In this case, would i have to blame the burner or the DVDs?