Ripping is slower with faster specs

On my old computer (hp dv1130), when ripping an audio CD with iTunes, it would do so at a speed of 12/13 times. That was with a Celeron M 1.4, with 4200 rpm HD.

My new Dell e1505 has a duo 1.83, 7200 rpm HD, yet it does't get above 5/6 times. Also, the computer lags while doing anything - even typing, when the rip is in progress.

With anything else the E1505 is much quicker. Why with iTunes is it so much slower?

 

Whats the CD read speed on that Dell of yours?

Most people miss the fact that when you get a laptop with a DVD burner, the CD read speed is slower than most. It seems to be the only reason for what it could be.

 

This happened to me too. You need to get rid of a lot of background processes - and better yet, wipe out a lot of that Dell bloatware.

 

About the CD read speed, the only info I can get says: "8x DVD/CD Burner (DVD+/-RW)". Does that meant that the read speed for CDs is onlt 8x ? Also, my old HP also had a DVD writer but went over 12x. And this still wouldn't explain the lag when doing anything while ripping.

I don't think it's the background processes - the processer isn't even near 100 percent when ripping....

what could it be?

 

Maybe its the DVD

 

What cd\dvd drive do you have? Have you updated the drivers? Did you try ripping with other software such as WMP?

 

I tried ripping using WMP, it takes around 2 minutes for an 8 minute song - roughly the same as iTunes.

The specs say that for CDs it has a 24x read/write speed.

The drive is: TSST corp DVD+-RW TS L632D drive - so says my device manager. Thanks for the idea about updating the drivers - I tried using the "update driver" option, but it said that it could not find a better match than what I currently have. I would try to uninstall the driver and reinstall it, - it's not on Dell's website so I'll try tsstorage.com. Will this possibly remedy the problem?

 

Could be the old "PIO/Ultra DMA 2 Mode" glitch, check out my post on the page below to check if that's the cause.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=58033&page=2&highlight=pio+ultra+dma

 

Thanks squampton, but that doesn't seem to be the problem here (i.e. the setting are the way they should be).

Any other ideas/solutions...?....?...?

 

About the drivers, on the TSST site it says that my model is not supported, and Dell does not have it on their website.

The question is, is it worth the bother to speak to a Dell tech guy to get the driver - will this maybe solve the problem or am I wasting my time?

 

Desktops are usually 48-52x Read Speed, more than double of what you have on that notebook, it just sounds like its all read-speed related to me and what your getting is average.

 

That particular cd/dvd drive does not have 3rd party drivers. It uses the XP drivers. To update the driver, turn the laptop off, and remove the drive. Then replace it.

This will cause XP to detect it as new hardware and should update the driver.

 

Make sure that the drive is running in DMA mode and not PIO.

"Windows XP will often get confused and report that a drive IS running in DMA mode when in reality, it's not. To fix this, Uninstall the IDE/ATA Controller (NOT the Channels!!!) from under the IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers branch (again in Device Manager) and reboot your PC. Windows will 'find' it again when it boots back up. DMA will be enabled by default.

You should also check that DMA is enabled and active within the system BIOS screen. That's the screen you access by pressing DEL, F2 etc when the machine first boots up. You normally have to enable it for each device connected to the IDE bus - it's not a single setting to enable / disable it.
Setting it to 'Auto' is the best bet - rather than DMA 5, 4... 1, PIO 4, 3...1 etc."

 

SG, I did something similar, I assume it would have had the same results. I uninstalled the driver and restarted the computer, and Windows found and installed the drivers for it. But the problem still persists.

Mag-Lite, I am not tech-savvy enough to understant what you are saying. Meanwhile, I spoke to Dell and they told me to download a file which is a "Utility to set Secondary IDE controller CD devices to DMA mode. Description: This utility can be used to set secondary IDE CD-ROM devices back to a UDMA mode after the Operating System (WindowsXP) has set the device to PIO mode" - Will this do automatically what you suggested? Anyway, this too did not solve the problem.

Is it possible that the hardware is messed up?

 

Right click my computer, click the hardware tab, click device manager, IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers. Check under the advanced tab that they are in DMA mode. If in doubt, do what is posted in my post above. Windows will reinstall both the controllers and you dvd/cd drives.

 

Okay, I uninstalled the controller and rebootes. But, the problem still persists.

What could it be? A hardware issue?

 

Its not cd speeds.. computer speeds.. or anything like that. Its the drive model and who makes it. The model in your new computer just rips slower. The reasons can be lot of things, including pirating prevention. Many CD and DVD R/W drives have actually had read modes disabled or impaired in firmware updates to prevent copying copy protections.

 

Why do the specs say 24x for reading CDs when in fact it is only like 4x ?

 

the speed it reads file data (24x) is different then the speed it reads raw data (ripping).

Also read speeds are slower near the center of the disc (all drives).

 

I copied a bunch of different files to a cd, and then copied the cd to the hard drive (no converting to mp3 or anything like that, just copied whatever was there) - it was like 685 mb, and took around 6 minutes to copy to the hard drive. Is that what it is supposed to take?

And what is the difference between file data and raw data?

thank you.

 

Finally a solution:::::
Dell sent me a new drive and now I get ripping speeds of around 16 -18x WONDERFUL!!!!!!!!

 

mice if i have the same problem ill be sure to complain