"Mike Walsh" <spamscks@netrox.net> wrote in message
news:4530E9EC.BA69488@netrox.net...
>
>
> Pete wrote:
>>
>> Hi
>>
>> I have a typical P4 2.6 system with 2 IDE connectors on my motherboard. I
>> have 2 DVD burners and 1 IDE hard disk (main system drive) on my machine.
>> All the drives are installed and working OK but I get problems with
>> access
>> speeds / bandwidth when I use the burner that is on the same channel as
>> the
>> hard disk.
>>
>> I have heard that for multiple simultaneous burners it's best that the
>> burners are on separate IDE channels. I happen to have an old ABIT hot
>> rod
>> 100 raid controller card and was going to hook the main IDE drive up to
>> this
>> so that I could have the burners connected as masters on each of the ide
>> channels on the motherboard and no secondary devices connected at all.
>>
>> Does this make sense?
>
> This was true before dual FIFO buffers on IDE ports. It should not be
> necessary on your system.
>
>> Do I need to change any bios settings to set the abit raid PCI card up as
>> a
>> master device?
>
> Configure the Abit BIOS to disable RAID. Set the system BIOS to boot from
> SCSI. PCI ATA cards emulate SCSI.
>
>> Is there a better way of doing this?
>
> No.
>
>> Will the Abit hot rod 100 card be OK?
>
> Should be OK.
>
>> Will accessing my prmary hard disk through the Abit card degrade hard
>> disk
>> access speeds?
>
> I have used only Promise ATA cards, which work well with hard drives and
> have slightly better performance than on board PATA ports.
>
>> Will using a card like the Abit raid controller on the PCI bus degrade
>> other
>> PCI or AGP devices because it may be a bandwidth hog?
>
> It will not affect AGP at all. On board PATA ports typically connect
> through the PCI bus, so the hard drive will use PCI bandwidth either way.
>
>> Please feel free to respond to any or all of the points i have raised.
>>
>> Any other advice / issues?
>
> It should not be necessary to have each device on a different cable. You
> probably haves some other problem e.g. DMA not enabled on one or more
> devices.
>
> --
> Mike Walsh
> West Palm Beach, Florida, U.S.A.

Hi Mike

My drives are configured as follows:

IDE channel 0: Primary device: seagate barracuda 120GB
IDE channel 0: Slave device: BENQ 1640 DVD Writer
IDE channel 1: Primary device: Lite-on SHM-165P6S DVD Writer

There are no device conflicts or problems shown in device manager
All drives have the very latest firmware
DMA seems to be turned on for all drives
I have deleted the disk controllers and drive and rebooted and nothing
changed.

The Lite-on drive
=================
Burns without problems

The Benq drive
==============
Reports using UDMA mode 2(33) PIO mode 4

Problems appear when burning or reading speeds start going past about 8X on
DVDs. It seems like the hard drive and the writer are fighting for bandwidth
or processor time. I have heard that burning at 16X can be too much even for
some high spec machines and assumed that this was the problem (trying to
read an image at 16x from the hard drive while simultaneously writing at 16x
down the same channel to the dvd writer)

I am no stranger to burning DVDs and have been building PCs for years so
normally know what I'm doing.

Thanks for the help

Pete

Here's some info from Nero info tool

Nero InfoTool 4.03

Drive Information
------------------
Drive : BENQ DVD DD DW1640
Type : DVD±R/RW DL Recorder
Firmware Version : BSRB
Buffer Size : 2 MB
Date : ?
Serial Number : 9JB5U150F251942198PP
Vendor Specific : 9JB5U150F251942198PP
Drive Letter : F:\
Location : 0:1
Mechanism : Tray
Read Speed : 48 X
Write Speed : 48 X

Read CD Text : Yes
Return C2 Pointers : No
Read CD-R : Yes
Read CD-RW : Yes
Read DVD-ROM : Yes
Read DVD-RAM : No
Read DVD-R : Yes
Read DVD-RW : Yes
Read DVD-R DL : Yes
Read DVD+R : Yes
Read DVD+RW : Yes
Read DVD+R DL : Yes
Read BD-ROM : No
Read BD-R : No
Read BD-RE : No
Read HD DVD-ROM : No
Read HD DVD-R : No
Read HD DVD-RW : No
Read HD-BURN : No
Read Digital Audio : Yes
Read CD+G : Yes
Read VideoCD : Yes

Write CD-R : Yes
Write CD-RW : Yes
Write DVD-R : Yes
Write DVD-RW : Yes
Write DVD-R DL : Yes
Write DVD+R : Yes
Write DVD+RW : Yes
Write DVD+R DL : Yes
Write DVD-RAM : No
Write BD-R : No
Write BD-RE : No
Write HD DVD-R : No
Write HD DVD-RW : No
Write HD-BURN-R : No
Write HD-BURN-RW : No
Buffer Underrun Protection : Yes
Mount Rainier : No
SolidBurn : Yes
Labelflash : No
Modes : Packet, TAO, DAO, SAO, RAW SAO, RAW SAO 16, RAW
SAO 96, RAW DAO 16, RAW DAO 96

Region Protection Control : RPC II
Region : 2
Changes User : 4
Changes Vendor : 4

Disc Information (F:\)
-------------------
Type : no disc inserted


Drive Information
------------------
Drive : LITE-ON DVDRW SHM-165P6S
Type : DVD-RAM Recorder
Firmware Version : MS0P
Buffer Size : 2 MB
Date : 2006-06-07
Serial Number
Vendor Specific : 2006/06/07 17:12
Drive Letter : E:\
Location : 1:0
Mechanism : Tray
Read Speed : 48 X
Write Speed : 48 X

Read CD Text : Yes
Return C2 Pointers : Yes
Read CD-R : Yes
Read CD-RW : Yes
Read DVD-ROM : Yes
Read DVD-RAM : Yes
Read DVD-R : Yes
Read DVD-RW : Yes
Read DVD-R DL : Yes
Read DVD+R : Yes
Read DVD+RW : Yes
Read DVD+R DL : Yes
Read BD-ROM : No
Read BD-R : No
Read BD-RE : No
Read HD DVD-ROM : No
Read HD DVD-R : No
Read HD DVD-RW : No
Read HD-BURN : No
Read Digital Audio : Yes
Read CD+G : No
Read VideoCD : Yes

Write CD-R : Yes
Write CD-RW : Yes
Write DVD-R : Yes
Write DVD-RW : Yes
Write DVD-R DL : Yes
Write DVD+R : Yes
Write DVD+RW : Yes
Write DVD+R DL : Yes
Write DVD-RAM : Yes
Write BD-R : No
Write BD-RE : No
Write HD DVD-R : No
Write HD DVD-RW : No
Write HD-BURN-R : No
Write HD-BURN-RW : No
Buffer Underrun Protection : Yes
Mount Rainier : No
SolidBurn : No
Labelflash : No
Modes : Packet, TAO, DAO, SAO, RAW SAO, RAW DAO, RAW
SAO 16, RAW SAO 96, RAW DAO 16, RAW DAO 96

Region Protection Control : RPC II
Region : 2
Changes User : 4
Changes Vendor : 4

Disc Information (E:\)
-------------------
Type : no disc inserted


Interface Information
---------------------
Adapter 1
---------
Description : Primary IDE Channel

Driver
Description : System32\DRIVERS\atapi.sys
Company : Microsoft Corporation
Version : 5.1.2600.2180 (xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158)
Description : IDE/ATAPI Port Driver

Attached Devices
Description : Master: ST3120023A
Type : Disk Drive
DMA : On
Description : Slave: BENQ DVD DD DW1640
Type : CD-Rom Drive
DMA : On
Autorun : Off

Adapter 2
---------
Description : Secondary IDE Channel

Driver
Description : System32\DRIVERS\atapi.sys
Company : Microsoft Corporation
Version : 5.1.2600.2180 (xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158)
Description : IDE/ATAPI Port Driver

Attached Devices
Description : Master: LITE-ON DVDRW SHM-165P6S
Type : CD-Rom Drive
DMA : On
Autorun : Off


Software Information
--------------------
Operating System : Windows XP Home Edition (5.01.2600 Service Pack 2)
Country : United Kingdom
Language : English
ANSI Code Page : 1252
OEM Code Page : 850
DirectX : DirectX 9.0c

Hardware Information
--------------------
CPU : Intel Pentium 4 2600 MHz
Bus Speed : 100 MHz
Motherboard : MICRO-STAR MS-6701
System : MEDIONPC
BIOS : Phoenix 6.00 PG
Memory : 1024 MB
Sound : Realtek AC97 Audio
Video : MEDION RADEON 9600 TX Secondary (Omega 3.8.291)


ASPI Information
----------------
System ASPI : ASPI is installed and working properly

WNASPI32.DLL : 4.71 (0002) 45056 bytes July 17, 2002
ASPI32.SYS : 4.71 (0002) 16877 bytes July 17, 2002
WINASPI.DLL : n/a 4455 bytes July 17, 2002
WOWPOST.EXE : n/a 3535 bytes July 17, 2002

Nero ASPI : ASPI is installed and working properly

WNASPI32.DLL : 2.0.1.74 164112 bytes November 02, 2004