faulty CDROMs

[dhml at comcast.net (David Hummel)]

On Tue, Jan 25, 2005 at 01:30:16PM -0500, markw at mohawksoft.com wrote:
> 
> > Date: Tue, 25 Jan 2005 8:00:09 -0500
> > From: <gbburkhardt at verizon.net>
> > Subject: faulty CDROMs
> > To: <discuss at blu.org>
> >
> > I've been having trouble with burning CDROMs; every so often, I
> > can't read a file from a CDROM I've created.  This is especially
> > annoying when working with an ISO image from a distribution.
> >
> > Does anyone have any general rules of thumb on how to increase the
> > yield?
> 
> Check to see if the hard disk on which the image is stored is on the same
> IDE chain as the CD burner. This can sometimes cause problems as IDE is
> CRAP at sharing IDE channels.

Sharing the channel might be slower, but not any less reliable.  That
is, you should still be able to burn CDs no problem.  Use the Buffer
Underrun Free feature of your burner if supported (driveropts=burnfree
option in cdrecord), or decrease the burn speed.  If you're still
getting failures/coasters, then your problem is deeper (perhaps
DMA-related).

> Check to see if the cable which connects the CD burner to the IDE
> controller is an 80 pin grounded IDE cable or a 40 pin old fashioned
> IDE cable.
> *ALL* 40 pin IDE cables should be removed from ALL IDE devices. The 80
> pin cables really are much better.

An 80-conductor cable will make little or no difference performance-wise
for many CD drives and other devices that are ATAPI-4 or less.  Perhaps
a slight difference if operating at Ultra DMA mode 2.  You definitely
want the 80-conductor type if the channel is shared with a fast
harddrive (required for ATAPI-5 and higher).  It's certainly not going
to hurt in any case.

-David