CD write speed

mushmaster · 03-12-2005, 06:06 PM

my CD-DVD drive has a CD-R write speed of 32x. when i go to burn a CD in K3b, it fires up saying it's going to burn at 32x, but the actual write speed during the process is only about 10x. the blanks i'm using support 32x burning. what do i need to do to get things working a little faster?

reddazz · 03-12-2005, 06:18 PM

I am sure its a problem with k3b. I have a 52x cd writer but most of the time, k3b writes at a max of 40x regardless of what media is used.

mushmaster · 03-12-2005, 08:25 PM

i don't see how it would be a problem with k3b itself; it's just a frontend.

P0ldy · 03-12-2005, 08:32 PM

Upgrade firmware?

mushmaster · 03-12-2005, 08:41 PM

how would i do that?

P0ldy · 03-12-2005, 08:50 PM

You'll need to get the latest firmware for your drive and flash it. It's like a driver. The latest can be found on your CD-RW manufacturer's website. That is, of course, if it's not ONLY that program that underburns. Have you tried others?

mushmaster · 03-12-2005, 09:30 PM

i've tried others. they're slow too. the firmware i found says it's for windows.

J.W. · 03-12-2005, 09:57 PM

Personally, I would leave things as is. Generally speaking, if you write at the max advertised speed that your CD supports, you increase the chances of ending up with a bunch of coasters. Personally, I'd suggest burning at a max speed of the 16x or half the advertised speed, whichever is *lower*. Usually that means 16x. That's just me though.

You can also manually specify the burning speed in k3b. Go to Tools > CD > Burn CD Image > Speed (in the "Burning Device" section) -- J.W.

reddazz · 03-13-2005, 04:34 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by mushmaster
i don't see how it would be a problem with k3b itself; it's just a frontend.

True, so it could be cdrecord itself, but thats still speculating.

cathectic · 03-13-2005, 05:37 AM

How are you writing your CDs? If you're copying a CD on-the-fly, then you won't get the maximum speed of the discs (since normally both drives are sharing the same IDE channel). If this is the case, make an image of the CD on your hard drive first, and then burn that to your disc.

reddazz · 03-13-2005, 06:05 AM

Nope, I don't copy CD's on the fly, I create most of my own CD's. The funny thing is when this drive was tested on a Win XP machine, it was recognised as a 52x and worked more or less as a 52x drive . On Linux, not just Slack, but FC3 and Mandrake as well, its read as a 40x drive, so I don't know what the problem is. I am not too fussed coz 40x is ok.