I wonder if anyone can help me figure this out? I have a basically brand new computer. Emachines specs are: AMD Athlon 64 3000+ running @ 2 ghz, 768 MB pc3200 ram, integrated ATI Radeon graphics, 200 gb hd, DVD/RW. OK, Since this thing was brand new, a few weeks ago, It has been slow as hell when I use the dvd drive. If I install a big game, it slows down and my audio gets choppy. If I burn a CD it's slow, even my sisters crappy compaq will burn a full cd in 4 minutes, but mine takes 20!!! Not to mention the sound is still choppy in winamp. I use Nero 6 Ultra Edition, same software my sister's computer has, and I've tried a couple others as well, same results. Nero claims to be burning at 40X but it shouldn't take 20 minutes to burn a cd. When I rip CD's I use Easy CDDA Extractor 9.0 Pro, and it's kinda slow too. What can I do about this? I tried to update the driver for the dvd drive but even when it searched online for better drivers it said the 7/1/2001 version I have is the latest version. Oh by the way I'm running XP Home. Someone please help me sort this out! Sorry for the long boring post, I get carried away..
CD'S Slow my system WAY down?? long post sorry
- Thread starter wsigo
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Kage
Golden Master
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- 13,873
just a suggestion first of all, and I'm not getting at you. Try and leave a space on each part. It helps to space it all out to read 
Well, CD copying, etc uses alot of resources since its always looking at the source, and back to the disk again, and since you have onboard sound, this is why you are experienceing choppy sound.
ONBOARD SOUND:
You see, onboard sound uses the processor to run music, and if there isn't enough power left, it'll work on the CD instead, since this is to the PC, the most important thing you are doing, and so, skips to not stop the copying process and cause an error.
The best thing first of all would be to get a cheap dedicated sound card to plug into a spare PCI port. These can be very cheap (a Creative one would be best) and would free up resources.
COPYING PACKAGE:
Nero is the best CD/DVD copying package though, and so you shouldn't be getting slow downs. Have you tried copying with no sound running? And no programs running in the background?
Plus, what speed is your actual copier? You may find your sisters is a faster drive.
When in Nero, its best to check settings. You see, if you are copying MP3's for example and want to run them on another device, its best to choose Finalise as an option, but if you are running on the computer only, taking this off will speed things up slightly (not by much),
Plus, check that Simulation is not running, and that it is burning straight away (another option you can select from settings just before copying). Simulation basically doens't burn, and just tests if everything would work correctly.
COPYING MUSIC:
I'd use Windows Media Player 10 to do this if I were you. It can rip MP3 files and WMA files, and is alot faster you'll find (Check the bitrate it is ripping at. Higher bitrates will give better quality sound, but will take up more space, as well as it taking a longer time) (128-192kbps is standard for alot of uses)
I hope some of these suggestions help
EXTRA NOTES:
As for installing games, DVD drives tend to be a bit slower at this if its a DVD disk (speeds in DVD haven't got as fast as CD), but to speed up the process since you have onboard sound, turning off music would help ALOT.
Like I said, getting a dedicated sound card should help speeds quite a bit if you are experiencing choppyness
Even a Sound Blaster Live card (About 10-15quid) would be better than what you have now. (Offers 4 channels)
Well, CD copying, etc uses alot of resources since its always looking at the source, and back to the disk again, and since you have onboard sound, this is why you are experienceing choppy sound.
ONBOARD SOUND:
You see, onboard sound uses the processor to run music, and if there isn't enough power left, it'll work on the CD instead, since this is to the PC, the most important thing you are doing, and so, skips to not stop the copying process and cause an error.
The best thing first of all would be to get a cheap dedicated sound card to plug into a spare PCI port. These can be very cheap (a Creative one would be best) and would free up resources.
COPYING PACKAGE:
Nero is the best CD/DVD copying package though, and so you shouldn't be getting slow downs. Have you tried copying with no sound running? And no programs running in the background?
Plus, what speed is your actual copier? You may find your sisters is a faster drive.
When in Nero, its best to check settings. You see, if you are copying MP3's for example and want to run them on another device, its best to choose Finalise as an option, but if you are running on the computer only, taking this off will speed things up slightly (not by much),
Plus, check that Simulation is not running, and that it is burning straight away (another option you can select from settings just before copying). Simulation basically doens't burn, and just tests if everything would work correctly.
COPYING MUSIC:
I'd use Windows Media Player 10 to do this if I were you. It can rip MP3 files and WMA files, and is alot faster you'll find (Check the bitrate it is ripping at. Higher bitrates will give better quality sound, but will take up more space, as well as it taking a longer time) (128-192kbps is standard for alot of uses)
I hope some of these suggestions help
EXTRA NOTES:
As for installing games, DVD drives tend to be a bit slower at this if its a DVD disk (speeds in DVD haven't got as fast as CD), but to speed up the process since you have onboard sound, turning off music would help ALOT.
Like I said, getting a dedicated sound card should help speeds quite a bit if you are experiencing choppyness
Even a Sound Blaster Live card (About 10-15quid) would be better than what you have now. (Offers 4 channels)
Gamingfreak
Fully Optimized
- Messages
- 2,160
one thing to check is if the hard drive is ide and are the hard drive and cd drive on the same cable? if so that can cause some slow downs because they are using the same ide channel, getting a sound card should help with the music being choppy because intergrated uses the cpu so just get any old sound card and that should fix that problem, if the hard drive and cd drive are on the same cable get another cable and put the hard drive in the primary ide channel and the cd drive in the secondary channel
Thanks for the replies.
I should have specified that the ONE time I ran winamp while burning, the sound was choppy. Every other time I burn, nothing else is running, and it's still slow.
My sisters computer has onboard sound also, and she has no problems with choppy sound/and or slow speeds, she's running 256 MB ram and an Intel Celeron at I believe ~1.8 ghz. Again, I'm running 768 MB and an AMD Athlon 64 running at 2 ghz.
Although I don't know right off hand what speed my drive is, this computer is brand new, and my sisters is 2 years old, so I'm pretty sure mine's faster.
My hard drive and dvd drive are not on the same ide cable.
Simulation is turned off in nero.
I have double checked all the settings in nero and there is nothing wrong there.
I realize what someone said about a dvd drive being slower, but christ, I installed Photoshop cs2 9.0 from a cd yesterday and the actual install part that's read off the disc took a good 15 minutes on this computer, and when I installed it on her computer after that, it took her's only 5 minutes! This is unacceptable!
I should note that I have a second CD ROM drive in this computer, and it is equally as slow while reading discs. This leads me to believe it is something other than the drive...but what? I don't know...
I have updated virus definitions and scanned, no virus' and no spyware/adware. Thanks guys for all the help
I should have specified that the ONE time I ran winamp while burning, the sound was choppy. Every other time I burn, nothing else is running, and it's still slow.
My sisters computer has onboard sound also, and she has no problems with choppy sound/and or slow speeds, she's running 256 MB ram and an Intel Celeron at I believe ~1.8 ghz. Again, I'm running 768 MB and an AMD Athlon 64 running at 2 ghz.
Although I don't know right off hand what speed my drive is, this computer is brand new, and my sisters is 2 years old, so I'm pretty sure mine's faster.
My hard drive and dvd drive are not on the same ide cable.
Simulation is turned off in nero.
I have double checked all the settings in nero and there is nothing wrong there.
I realize what someone said about a dvd drive being slower, but christ, I installed Photoshop cs2 9.0 from a cd yesterday and the actual install part that's read off the disc took a good 15 minutes on this computer, and when I installed it on her computer after that, it took her's only 5 minutes! This is unacceptable!
I should note that I have a second CD ROM drive in this computer, and it is equally as slow while reading discs. This leads me to believe it is something other than the drive...but what? I don't know...
I have updated virus definitions and scanned, no virus' and no spyware/adware. Thanks guys for all the help
