dvd drive slow down on e1705

well ive finally become frustrated enough to ask for help lol

the dvd drive on my e1705 seems to have some weird problem,
it seems to happen more with burnt cds like of custom files i have ,but it also happens with regular cds too
like for instance if i want to copy some files off a cd onto my laptop things copy nice and fast then the drive goes quiet and data transfer slows down to a crawl

am i screwed or is this something i can fix with an update of some kind?

thanks in advance

 

Make sure that it is running in DMA mode and not PIO. Also check Dell's support site and make sure you have the newest firmware for your drive.

 

ok they say there in dma mode
could it just be a bad drive
or drivers maybe

 

so no one else has any ideas ?

 

Honestly, I would just call dell on this one. Tell them what happens, and ask that they send you a new drive to install. Should only be one screw to swap the drives out, and you shouldn't even have to open the laptop. Better a good drive than a temporary fix. Plus, you keep the old drive till the new one arives so there is no downtime.

 

i think thats what ill do
thanks

 

Anytime

 

If it's the Philips SDVD8820 dvd writer drive then google it, there's been lots of of reports of problems on the internet about it. I got annoyed with it not being able to read a hell of alot of my cds and dvds that I told Dell and they promised to send me replacement straight away, it's on it's way to me as we speak...but being in Thailand I have to wait a while for it to arrive from the UK....they also told me to not send the other back, they must know there is a problem with this drive already.

Ade

 

Wannabe, 2 things happen that cause the drive to slow down but only 1 of them cause data read to slow down too.

First and formost, the drives have a finite read speed (its what ever the laser assembly or interface connection is limited too, not a drive rotation speed limit). Usualy around 24x(cd) seems to be the magic number. When the disc first starts to read from the center however, even then the drive is spinning at maximum velocity, your only reading like 10-16x speeds. As the disc reads out, the read speed eventually makes its way to 24x at which point the drive will begin to slow its rotation speed down to keep within the 24x limit.

That's how the drives usualy work, however if you are getting data errors..either from a dirty or scratched disc, or recordable disc that are of either low quality, or were burned too fast and many errors were created, then the drive will spin down (to reduce vibration and try to get a more accurate read to compensate for the damage on the disc) and of course at the same time, your read speed will plumit.

if you bought a spindal of dvdr's and its doing this to most of them, try slowing your burn speeds to 6x or 4x.

 

Hei, I have exactly the same problem with my E1705, but my DVD drive is a Sony. I know it has nothing to do with the DMA cause I've checked.

I've talked to Dell and they recommended a system restore, which I will not do. I have a friend who has a similar laptop like mine (Vostro). I was thinking of swapping the DVD drives between the two laptops and see what happens.

It might be software glitch but I doubt that.

If anyone has a solution to this, please let do post.