What controls the buffer read-in rate for a CD burner?

I'm burning at 52x and it takes as long as 2x. I was having buffer underrun problems until I got a drive that supported buffer underrun protection.

Win 2k, Athlon 750, 320MB ram
LITE-ON LTR-52327S 52/32/52x
Nero 6.3.1.6

The burner is on a different IDE controller than the HD.

I defragged the HD partition I'm pulling the data from.

My only thought is that the IDE cable for my CD burner is old, maybe a 40-pin. If it is, could that make such a significant dent in my burn speed?

Thanks in advance to anyone with a clue.

Just a couple of thoughts:

1) Some process may be hogging your CPU resources. Is the computer slower than it use to be?

2) Make sure your CD-RW drive is set to DMA.

3) Try burning at a slower speed, say 16X. Buffer underrun protection is a two edged sword. The good side is that you don't waste media. The bad side is that it can really slow down the write speed if underruns are occurring frequently. By slowing down your write speed a little and preventing underruns, you will significantly improve your write speed.

I am thinking the same as gwallen4 make sure DMA is enabled for the writer (enable DMA for all the drives while you are at it).

In Windows 98 this is right click on My Computer/properties/CD-rom/writer/properties/settings tick the DMA box to enable. I am not sure about Win2K

It's also good advice to reduce you burning speed - you won't get as many coaster. Do some trials to find out what's the best speed you can burn at. It's a mistake to think that max speed is the way to go - often a slower speed will produce a higher quality cd.

Finally, try writing in simulation mode before burning. That way if it fails you have only lost a bit of time.

Thanks :)

Thanks, you guys rock.

I just set the controller to DMA. Burned 650 MB at 52x with no problem, less than 2 minutes.

I broke the scientific method a little and upped my buffer size while I was at it to decrease the underruns, but it was definitely the DMA that gave me the speed.

Thanks again!

Your welcome - glad we could help.

Thanks:)