Hello James,

Thursday, December 02, 1999, 5:36:00 PM, you wrote:

JLWJ> Just wanted to add my comments on this matter. I have
JLWJ> a Acer 6206A 2x2x6 CD/RW Burner that run on a Cyrix
JLWJ> MII-333 processor based home built system with 64 meg
JLWJ> of memory. The drive itself only has a 512K buffer. I
JLWJ> never shut down the goodies on my machine including
JLWJ> InnoculateIT for virus protection; Webshots! for
JLWJ> wallpaper management and screensaver; and have even
JLWJ> played MP3's with WinAmp (I wouldn't suggest doing
JLWJ> that). I have yet to make a single coaster.

>> > > 8) When using an IDE burner, use alt-cnt-del to
>> shut down everything
>> > > non-essential to your computer and that includes
>> anti-virus, sound
>> > > cards,etc..  Failing to do this will inevitably
>> produce a fine
>> > > collection of coasters to keep your coffee cups
>> on.  You'll discover the
>> > > pleasure of the buffer overrun GUI if you don't
>> believe!
>> >
>> > This is true on slower systems, or pc's with
>> issues to resolve.

I think you both are right, to some extent. James uses a software that
is very tailored for multitasking : the virus protection and the
desktop require lots of resources only occasionally. WinAMP takes a
little of cpu time and thus is transparent to the writer as well.

The problem is not the sheer amount of software running. I believe
that the writing can be done even with a lot of programs active and
calculating their chores, but they must from time to time give a few
clock pulses to the writing program to update the buffer.

As the negative example, take a Netscape Navigator - it freezes itself
and brings down the system while rendering some particularly intricate
set of nested tables or arcane DHTML. This can be seen easily because
WinAMP at this time starts skipping - like the CD, replaying the same
part again because the decoder can't get enough CPU time. The same
will happen with the writer, but the result will be a coaster.

What is the conclusion?

Try to run as little software as you can. A really good idea is not to
touch the PC at all while it is writing. However, if your PC is fast
enough and/or your software is 'multitaskable' enough -- you can
always use the extra time, especially if you're going to write at 1x...

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