16x drive reports 8x max speed available - eh?

[morbius]

Happy New Year :D
Anyone have any sugestions or ideas as to why the new Sony DRU710 I have fitted into my PC is only burning at 8x when it is a 16x drive? I have made certain to buy 16x rated media and the install went smoothly. Both Nero and DVD Decrypter only show 8x as speed options.
For reference, the drive is set as Master (exactly where the previous burner was) and Nero is the latest spec (v6.6.0.3). I am using Imation 16x DVD+R media fresh from the box. The drive burns fine at 8x but will go no faster.
My PC is a Sony Vaio PCV-RX514, which is an Athlon XP2600 with 512ram using XP Home SP2. Is the machine simply to old or something?

Any suggestions as to courses of action to reclaim the lost 8x would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks much

morbius

[Joe Fenton]

You may need to update the BIOS in the drive. Check for updated BIOS for your Sony. Also, some discs just don't work at full speed in some drives. Generally, most online stores have a compatibility matrix they refer you to that tells what speed a certain brand of disc will write at in various drives. Finally, make sure your drivers for Widows and the programs you are using are up to date. Older versions of Nero (for example) only handled up to 8X (or 4X if you go back further or even less if you go far enough back).

[theReal]

I am using Imation 16x DVD+R media fresh from the boxThat might be the problem. Imation is maybe not listed in the burner's firmware of being capable of 16x burning - and so no matter what the DVD ATIP says the burner will burn 8x only.

I had this quite a while ago with 2x DVD media (no-name) that were burnt 1x only in a Pioneer drive with original firmware. As soon as I got hacked firmware, they burnt 2x with no problem --> Pioneer's firmware had blocked any no-name media from being burnt faster than 1x. Might be the idiot-safe solution, but I rather decide myself what media I want to burn and how fast, so I got the hacked firmware that let's me see for myself if the media are OK or not...

[morbius]

Joe
Thanks, I'll look into updating the BIOS on the Sony site.

theReal
Yes I suspected this might be an area for investigation so I have ordered some different 16x media - when this arrives I'll try it.

Also I flashed the firmware with another available on the Sony site, (despite the fact that it listed improvements in -R performance only) and the drive now reports 12x available on the Imation media.

12x is a damn sight better than I was previously getting (2x) so if 12x is the best on offer I'll accept it rather than RMA the drive.

Cheers to all

morbius

[morbius]

Update to all who looked :)

I received some Traxdata 16x media today and this burns smoothly at 16x (thank goodness!). Now I need some 12x -R media : does this exist yet?

morbius

update
Suprisingly it also burns DVD+DL 2.4x media at 4x also - cool :cool: