DVD burner slows computer?

[Simo]

On my new PC I have a problem with the DVD/CD burner. If something (cd/dvd) is playing on the player it slows down the rest of the computer, as in things stutter and nothing is smooth.

Burning DVD's also takes along time. It is meant to be a 16x drive but is outperformed by my 2x drive on the laptop!

I am unsure if it is a setting/driver or faulty/sh*tty drive.

The model no. is TSST Corp CD/DVDW SH-W162C using driver 5.1.2535.0

It is running on a brand new 3ghz 2gig machone so it is not lack of PC power.

Can anyone help?

 

[Twizzle]

burning DVDs uses alot of resources and takes along time, compared to buring CDs

 

[Simo]

I know, sorry I should explain better....its not necessarily burning a DVD its accessing the drive in general. For example on 2 lesser PC's i can play a DVD movie in the corner of my screen whilst running 2 CAD programs.

On this higher spec machine as soon as I use the drive everything else just stutters. And also when burning a 16x drive should not take longer than a 1 oe 2x drive using the same media (1-16x media).

 

[bulldog]

Definitely sounds like a sh!tty drive, if you put your ear near it you can probably hear the high pitched whine stop and start as the drive tries to seek. Check the connections to it, sometimes a loose cable can do the same.

 

[Simo]

I will open up and check the cables and report back. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[Simo]

Ok just for anyone interested the problem was solved. The settings were for PIO and not DMA. Whilst these could not be changed from the pull down list, uninstalling the channel and letting windows reinstall it allowed the drive to be set to DMA mode which made the biggest difference ive ever seen!

All is hunky dory now, thanks to all who helped.

 

[SpaceMonkey]

Ok just for anyone interested the problem was solved. The settings were for PIO and not DMA. Whilst these could not be changed from the pull down list, uninstalling the channel and letting windows reinstall it allowed the drive to be set to DMA mode which made the biggest difference ive ever seen!

All is hunky dory now, thanks to all who helped.

That would do it. PIO is prehistoric, it was fine for CDROM drives back in the 90s but was superceded by DMA for everything 5 or 6 years ago. My DVD-RW runs in DMA mode 4 (UDMA 66) and my hard drives in modes 5 or 6 (UDMA 100/133)

 

[Soi_Cowboy]

With new burners to be had for about $50.00 just replace, it, as it sounds like the laser is almost cactus.

 

[Simo]

Nah Soi Cowboy, laser turned out to be fine, it was the DMA/PIO settings as mentioned in the few posts above.