Writing dvds with external dvd drive.

blue-eye-boy

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Hey there, I recently got this lg external dvd drive, and the drive supports speeds of 20x for dvds. But if I write through nero, and I tick the checkbox to determan max speed, it always writes at 4X, because as nero says "the speed of source data is too slow. Why can this be? I use my laptop, which I always wrote dvds at 12X, but now when I try to write at 20X or even 16X, 1 out of 3 dvds have read errors. I defragmented the hdd, only nero running, so no program can interrupt. Please tell me?
 
Its a usb 2.0 drive, disks is verbatim and support up to 16X. And there's no firewire. Just one thing I forgot, It's connected to a 4 port usb hub, not a external powered one. Can that maybe be a problem?
 
yeah possibly, try connecting it straight to the pc?

Can you give me the model of that drive just wanna see something as i have a older one which doesn't write lekker on usb but likes firewire...
 
LG gsa-e60L. I'll try to use it direct to the pc next time I write. I just forgot about the hub for a while. Sorry.
 
thats your problem:rolleyes:
Nope, thats not it. I copied a few dvds now again, but the same. Drive was plugged in directly. The disks and the drive support 20x, but it just wont write at that speed. And I wrote 2 through the night, so I did have any programs running that could possibly slow the hdd. Any other ideas?
 
Disable antivirus.
Switch Vista to XP.
Increase cache size in Nero and enable Buffer Underrun protection.
 
A lot of USB hubs are still running on USB v1.1... and thus ~12Mbps, which is damn slow.
But don't fret at 4x... you get a better quality write.
 
now i'm stumped, and if you try it on another computer?
No, that would be my next option. I dont have another pc, but will ask a friend next time to help out.

Disable antivirus.
Switch Vista to XP.
Increase cache size in Nero and enable Buffer Underrun protection.
You think Avast can slow down hdd that much?
I have xp installed
The buffer underrun protection I saw somewhere in nero settings, but where do I increase the cache size in nero?

A lot of USB hubs are still running on USB v1.1... and thus ~12Mbps, which is damn slow.
But don't fret at 4x... you get a better quality write.
True, 4X is a better speed, but hell when you copy 5 or more dvds, it gets very slow.
 
I wrote a dvd last night at a friend's pc, he's got one mother of a pc. So a did everything as usual, and there nero told me it can write at 16x! And with no read errors afterwards. So I brought the drive back, re-installed nero, and tried again. The same story. Can only write at 4x.

So I wondered, can 1gig memory be too small to write at 16x 0r 20x on the external?

And also, Peterch posted about Increase cache size in Nero and enable Buffer Underrun protection, can anyone pls tell me where to do this?

I even get read errors sometimes at 4x speed, and I think the drive is fine, cause at wrote fast last night at the friend's pc.

Any other ideas?
 
what nero are you using?

If Nero Express 7 ...

Goto Options then cache and ultrabuffer...

What are the speeds of other usb2.0 devices you use on your pc? Like copying and so on?
 
External hdd test: http://mybroadband.co.za/photos/showphoto.php?photo=7857&cat=500
Laptop hdd test: http://mybroadband.co.za/photos/showphoto.php?photo=7858&cat=500

I use Nero startsmart 7
I checked the Ultrabuffer, that is set to automatic, and the cache is set to minimum 16 mb. That sound right?

Just curious, why is the performance on my laprop drive so much better that the external hdd? Read speed of the laptop drive is 28.1mb/s, and on the external hdd it's 6mb/s.

I borrowed someone's external dvd drive today, and got the same slow speed. So I guess the problem isn't with my external dvd drive then.

I know many tell me that writing at 4x is better than 20x, but what bothers me, is that 4x is my max speed, so not really the "best" speed, because something somewhere is working so hard just to get 4x speed, thats why I get so many read errors.
 
External hdd test: http://mybroadband.co.za/photos/showphoto.php?photo=7857&cat=500
Laptop hdd test: http://mybroadband.co.za/photos/showphoto.php?photo=7858&cat=500

I use Nero startsmart 7
I checked the Ultrabuffer, that is set to automatic, and the cache is set to minimum 16 mb. That sound right?

Just curious, why is the performance on my laprop drive so much better that the external hdd? Read speed of the laptop drive is 28.1mb/s, and on the external hdd it's 6mb/s.

I borrowed someone's external dvd drive today, and got the same slow speed. So I guess the problem isn't with my external dvd drive then.

I know many tell me that writing at 4x is better than 20x, but what bothers me, is that 4x is my max speed, so not really the "best" speed, because something somewhere is working so hard just to get 4x speed, thats why I get so many read errors.

The USB implemmentation on your PC may be bad. It may just be bad for your chipset or mobo. I don't know why that happens but sometimes it just does. Your built in drive on the other hand has a direct SATA connection
which makes it fast, while the USB 2.0 is slow because its faulty in some way. Sorry I can't test this here as I don't have an external DVD writer.

Have you checked your BIOS for USB settings?
Have you checked your vendor's website for updated BIOS or drivers?
Check also witH Google for make and model of your laptop and USB speed or external drive speed issues.
You may find that someone, somewhere has run into this problem before and found a solution already.

I suggest you also contact your laptop's vendor or manufacturer and ask for support via its website.
 
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