question about slow burn times

ok so I just burned a cd using alcohol 120% and the average burn speed was like 12X that seems really slow. I know when I was using dvd shrink the other day the burn speed never got above 5.3X also. whats going on here? did dell give me a slow burner? I had the burn speed set at maxium. as seen by the graph at one point it hit 20X but why can't it sustain that speed? the memory buffer was at 100% the whole time. should I get an aftermarket drive?

 

i think it might be a firmware issue. are there any driver updates to your computer listed on the dell support site?

 

http://support.dell.com/support/dow...&s=gen&SystemID=INS_PNT_P4_9400&os=WW1&osl=EN

which one? there are 2 or 3 for the dvd burner

 

You go to my pc-> properties -> Hardware -> device manager and see there what model of drive you have and then get the correct driver.

 

ok my drive is a SONY DVD+- DW-Q58A

the only 2 drivers listed for burners on dells site is :
NEC ND-6650A slim 8x DVD+/-RW
TSST TS-L532B slim 8x DVD+/-RW

no clue what to choose

 

anyone? I have no idea what to choose

 

Dell hasn't posted a firmware update for the DW-Q58A. I use the UYS3 firmware found here: http://forum.rpc1.org/dl_firmware.php?download_id=2113.

But first go into Device Manager and make sure the drive is in DMA mode, and hasn't dropped back into PIO mode.

Dave

 

heh, sounds pretty crappy. does it happen with nero or others? Firmware sounds about right. Some advice though, I only use Alchol for making dvd images, i almaost always prefer to burn with nero 7 platinum. But thats just me.

 

so you have the SONY DVD+- DW-Q58A but used that firmware?