Weird DVD Rip speed problem computer, software, hardware, Windows

andy

First, yes, I've read the FAQ's amp; done searches.

My problem is, I built a new computer, and was getting MAX rips speeds of 2.1x with both Smartripper and DVDDecrypter.  Then, one day my comp crashes, ended up re-installing Windows XP, about 80% of the software I had on there previously...and thereafter I was ripping at speeds up to...IIRC think 10x occasionally.  5-8 minutes rips were great.  I had made no hardware changes at all, no UDMA/BIOS/configuration changes, but I wasn't complaining.  

This continued for a couple of weeks, and then suddenly, it went back to 2.1x max! The only changes I made from before it slowed down again was to install some games, and maybe some other software that should (AFAIK) have no impact on DVD rip speed, like Office XP and the like.  Same old Smartripper amp; DVD Decrypter versions, not new.  No new Divx/FlaskMPEG/etc. software that might overwrite dll's...I checked the DMA settings, and everything was still enabled.

Anyone ever hear of this?  Any theories on how I could get my rip speed back up?

My rig:
Windows XP Home
Athlon XP 1800+
512 Megs RAM
SOYO Dragon RAID MB (HD's not in RAID config, though, just using the extra channels to isolate DVD drives from HD's)
Sony 16X DVD-ROM (Master amp; alone on its own IDE channel, UDMA enabled in BIOS and Windows)
Pioneer AO3 DVD-RW (Master amp; alone on its own IDE channel, UDMA enabled in BIOS and Windows.  Technically, I think it's Multi-Word DMA mode for this channel)

Originally posted by Caladan
First, yes, I've read the FAQ's amp; done searches.

My problem is, I built a new computer, and was getting MAX rips speeds of 2.1x with both Smartripper and DVDDecrypter.  Then, one day my comp crashes, ended up re-installing Windows XP, about 80% of the software I had on there previously...and thereafter I was ripping at speeds up to...IIRC think 10x occasionally.  5-8 minutes rips were great.  I had made no hardware changes at all, no UDMA/BIOS/configuration changes, but I wasn't complaining.  

This continued for a couple of weeks, and then suddenly, it went back to 2.1x max! The only changes I made from before it slowed down again was to install some games, and maybe some other software that should (AFAIK) have no impact on DVD rip speed, like Office XP and the like.  Same old Smartripper amp; DVD Decrypter versions, not new.  No new Divx/FlaskMPEG/etc. software that might overwrite dll's...I checked the DMA settings, and everything was still enabled.

Anyone ever hear of this?  Any theories on how I could get my rip speed back up?

ok your problem is a very common one, i for example do have it!
It is basically a WinXP bug, with no real fix. The problem is that WinXP has a limit on DMA / UDMA read errors. after a certain amount of errors it automatically switches back to PIO mode. and in PIO mode your approx. max rip spped is around 2x. you can check if PIO is enabled by looking at your IDE bus properties in the device manager. there you should see that 'use dma when possible' is switched on but in reality your DVD drive is running at PIO.
so as i've said there's no finite and easy solution for this, just a workaround, whuich you'll have to do pretty frequently:
what you have to do is uninstall the whole IDE bus and let winXP reinstall it after you reboot. this way the error count is set back to 0.
oh yea. if you are frequently producing on-the-fly copies of cds, you should'n't really bother installing around, because on-the-fly copying is producing a lot of these errors. this way you'll have your drive set back to PIO after approx. 2 or 3 on-the-fly copies.
afaik this is the only way to work your way around this problem

hope this helps
regards
steVe

Thanks, I appreciate the answer.  I guess it IS a common problem, I see another thread here on the same page with the same problem.  It's really too bad that error variable isn't accessable in a file somewhere!

someone should hack the xp dma error counter....

this would definitely be a good idea, but unfortunately i do not have the knownledge to do this. probably someone should ask over in the programmers forum, but on the other ahnd, this problem has been around for too long as that there wouldn't be somebody who's at least tried it.

so well, i'm still hoping there will be a solution by micorosft OR someone else will find out how to do a permanent workaround!

regards
steVe

Originally posted by killingspree
ok your problem is a very common one, i for example do have it!
It is basically a WinXP bug, with no real fix. The problem is that WinXP has a limit on DMA / UDMA read errors. after a certain amount of errors it automatically switches back to PIO mode. and in PIO mode your approx. max rip spped is around 2x. you can check if PIO is enabled by looking at your IDE bus properties in the device manager. there you should see that 'use dma when possible' is switched on but in reality your DVD drive is running at PIO. Great explanation! I'd the same issue with my DVD-ROM as well as
one IDE driver on my XP. My ATA100 IBM 80GB 7200rpm disk was
running at PIO mode (but shown as UDMA) with 2.5MB/s only.
After reinstall the driver (reset the counter?), it runs with
30 MB/s again.

ok... look at this thread. there's a program posted there that can fix the PIO/DMa issues without reinstalling the IDE Bus every time. just try it... it somehow edits some registry keys

showthread.php?s=amp;threadid=43758

regards
steVe

PS. worked for me :-P

Are you sure that it is a DMA problem? From the initail post it sounds like all you need to do is defrag the hard drive, if your hard drive get (even low fragmentation) causes the ripping speed to drop dramaticly. But I don't know if you defrag regularly (maybe nightly like me ;-)) but I thought I'd tell you this could cause the problem too.

TelemachusMH



I'm having the same problem.  But unlike him, I'm still using the old WinMe OS, Pen 4 with 1.7 gig, 80Gig HD, 16X DVD Rom.  So is it possible for me to make the ripping speed faster than 2?  I'm very new to this program or the whole ripping department.  With that said, I may not understand some of the terminologies that you guys are referring.

iirc only winXP has this problem, but on the other hand, honestly, i've never used winME (and am glad about that)...

so my initial hint to you would be that you should upgrade your OS, win2k or XP doesn't matter too much, but from a general video editing/encoding/ripping standpoint winMe is far from ideal...

anyway, if this isn't an option for you, please tell us what drive you have exactly and if any IDE bus is set to PIO mode (in win2k/xp you can find this info in the device manager- don't know for sure about winme)

hth
steVe

Originally posted by killingspree
ok your problem is a very common one, i for example do have it!
It is basically a WinXP bug, with no real fix. The problem is that WinXP has a limit on DMA / UDMA read errors. after a certain amount of errors it automatically switches back to PIO mode. and in PIO mode your approx. max rip spped is around 2x. you can check if PIO is enabled by looking at your IDE bus properties in the device manager. there you should see that 'use dma when possible' is switched on but in reality your DVD drive is running at PIO.
so as i've said there's no finite and easy solution for this, just a workaround, whuich you'll have to do pretty frequently:
what you have to do is uninstall the whole IDE bus and let winXP reinstall it after you reboot. this way the error count is set back to 0.
oh yea. if you are frequently producing on-the-fly copies of cds, you should'n't really bother installing around, because on-the-fly copying is producing a lot of these errors. this way you'll have your drive set back to PIO after approx. 2 or 3 on-the-fly copies.
afaik this is the only way to work your way around this problem

hope this helps
regards
steVe

Does this also apply to windows 2000 systems? Because my burning on both my cd burner and dvd burner as well as ripping speeds have gone to hell.

pls read the psot right above yours...

nay winME wasnt that bad, the funny things is... with some win versions i just seem to exchange some certain errors with other errors  ,P

hmm hmm hmm i am glad i am ripping DVDs from a win2k pc though the capture PC is on winxp (and in another flat, too... grr)

Good to know that there is a bug in XP.