-----Original Message-----

Date:    Sat, 6 Jan 2007 17:58:42 -0500
From:    Milt deReyna <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: DVD Burner Problems

Unfortunate, helpless noob needs help with DVD burners.  My system:
Gateway 500S Desktop w/ Intel mobo, & Pentium 4 2.4 Gig cpu
Samsung SyncMaster 204T LCD Monitor
Gateway Mod. SK-9920 Keyboard/Logitech Optical Mouse
Epson Perfection 1660 Photo Scanner
Cheap Dell 720 Inkjet Printer
2 ea. LG Mod. GSA-H22N 18x DVD Burners
Western WD800BB-22DKA0 80 Gig Hard Drive
Maxtor STM3200820A 200 Gig Hard Drive
Virtual Memory set to 3835 (total of both drives)
Gateway 500S has unfortunate 160watt power supply.
2 sticks of 512 MB, PC 2100 memory, total of 1 Gig.

Problem:  When installed 2 months ago, both dvd drives worked perfectly. =
 After a month or so, the 1st. drive (D) began to act up.  I copied a MP.=
3 dvd, and the burner took over 30 minutes to burn new copy, which normal=
ly takes about 10 minutes for a full dvd.  The second drive does not exhi=
bit this problem.  Further, when making a back-up copy of a dvd movie, th=
e job with dvd shrink took me almost an hour and a half, normally a 25 mi=
nute job.  The burned copies however, are fully functional.

I have tried switching the position of the 2 burners and changed the ribb=
on cable.  The problem did NOT move, when I swapped the burners.  I also =
expanded the virtual memory to near maximum, problem not helped at all.  =
That's the limit of my expertise, and I would greatly appreciate any and =
all suggestions or explanations of my problem.  Thanks.

------------------------------

With a quick look at your computers hardware it would seem that your power
supply is seriously underrated for what you have in it. You have two optical
drives as well as two HDD's and I'm guessing three usb peripherals and
possibly other add in cards (on-board video or video card?, modem?, sound
card or on-board?). That is putting an enormous strain on the power supply.
(You are quite certain it is 160 watts?)

A quick check here http://www.extreme.outervision.com/PSUEngine would
indicate at least a 325 watt supply. In addition, with 1 Gb of RAM, it
really is unneccessary to have swap drives on both HDD's, nor does it need
to be set that large. The drives will consume more energy than the RAM, so I
would eliminate the swap file from the HDD that has the Windows installation
on it and trim it back on the other drive to 386 Mb at max.

Although you say the optical drives worked fine at first, I suspect 1 of 2
things. Either the PSU has been over stressed and is now acting up, or a
setting has changed adding additional programs/cpu cycles at startup
(ctrl-alt-del to see a list of running tasks) tying up processing cycles.
Also, the temp folder that stores the "shrunk" .vob files from your dvd's
may be so large, Windows is having a hard time managing it.

Just a couple of thoughts to get things started. YMMV

Chris Ryan

[log in to unmask]

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