Hi! I'm writing you because I've got problems with my ASUS 1604P DVD Writer. The thing is it never writes DVDs at full speed and even the CDs I buy get written at whatever speed the thing wants. No matter if I buy DVDs that say 16x or 8x, the maximum speed the writer works at is 4x. That's the max speed I can select in the dropdown in Nero 6.6.1.4., even though I know that the speed should be up to at least 16x. At first this didn't annoy me that much, but now that I'm writing more DVDs, it takes up to 15 mins for one, so I am really looking forward to hearing any kind of advice on how to get my hardware to work at the designed speed. Any advice is much appreciated! Thanks! Ady

Are you putting the disc in the drive before or after you have selected the burn speed?

Try going to Start / Control Panel / System / Hardware / Device Manager / IDE ATA-Atapi Controllers and right click on the IDE channel to which the DVD burner is attached. Select Properties then go to the Advanced tab and look at the Transfer Mode setting. If it is not running in UDMA mode 4 then you will not get full speed from the burner. If it is not on UDMA 4 then determine if you are using a 40 or 80 conductor cable for the drive. You need the 80 conductor to achieve UDMA 4. If you do have an 80 conductor cable and you are running in PIO or a low UDMA mode (i.e. 2) then this could be your problem. There is a Microsoft KB with info on this that indicates the only way to 'repair' is to delete the offending IDE channel and reboot which resets the transfer mode. http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=... You might also note which mode is detected by the BIOS during boot up as the screens flash by. Hope this helps. "Two roads diverged ina wood, and I -- I took the one less travelled by, and that has made all the difference." R. Frost

Hi, I'm sorry for writing back so late, but it's only now that I've had time to look into this matter again. I've done what you've said and I'm running UDMA 2 indeed. So you were right. The problem is that I can't do anything to raise the UDMA level and the BIOS is also telling me I can only go as high as 2, so I'm thinking the only possible answer is I have a 40 conductor. (I've also tried deleting the channel and rebooting - to no effect.) However upon inspection, I discovered the cable is the original ASUS IDE cable. Could they have been stupid enough to supply me with a 40 cable in the original package? Could be. The question now is how can I tell if it's really a 40 or 80 cable and if it's an 80 one, what else could be wrong? Thanks a lot for the advice! adyst

If you have a 40 conductor IDE cable then if you examine the cable you will be able to count the number of ridges (conductors) accross the cable if there are 40 then you have a 40 conductor cable. If they are very fine and if you have the eyesight to count them an 80 conductor will have 80 ridges. If you do indeed have an 80 conductor cable I am afraid I am at a loss as to why you are only running in UDMA 2 mode. The only thing I can suggest is a BIOS upgrade but that is a shot in the dark. I have an ASUS MB (A7V133) bought in 2000 that runs my DVD burner in UDMA 4 and though I have the latest BIOS for the board it is only dated 2003. Let us know if its a 40 or 80 conductor. Good Luck "Two roads diverged ina wood, and I -- I took the one less travelled by, and that has made all the difference." R. Frost

Hi! I've checked the cable and it's a 40. I just got off the phone with the manufacturer of my system and I'll get an 80 today. I guess this'll do the trick. Thanks a lot for helping me out! adyst

I've changed the cable. Now the two devices on that cable work on UDMA 4 and UDMA 2, respectively. The DVD writer works on 4, so I suppose the writing speed should be ok. I've also upgraded my nero to version 7. Thanks again for your help! adyst