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CPU usage with DVD

post #1 of 10
4/9/05 at 1:19pm
Thread Starter 
I noticed that while writing a large file to the DVD, and read verifying this file the CPU usage runs 85% to 95%. This seem kind of high...can't really do anything else when the usage this high.

Is this normal for a notebook? Desktop doesn't take this kind of CPU usage doing the same thing.

Playing a CD the CPU usage is around 15%.
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post #2 of 10
4/10/05 at 10:26pm
If you are making a Movie DVD be advised that MPEG encoding is real processor intensive. For example CDex with the LAME MP3 encoder will use 100%, when available. However CDex is well behaved and will use less if another process wants some time. If you can't do anything else while encoding, its time to either lower the encoder's priority or get a less greedy program
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post #3 of 10
4/11/05 at 10:59am
Thread Starter 
Not making a movie DVD. Here's a situation where this happens.

I use "Image for Windows" to make image backups either to another hard drive or partition (sometimes directly to a DVD). For those times that I don't burn directly to a DVD but save to another hard drive or partition I later will burn the image to a DVD before I delete it. The utility I use to burn the saved images to a DVD is "BingBurn". When using "BingBurn" on my desktop PC I can run other programs without any problems, but not with the notebook. On my desktop I notice some burning is pretty CPU intensive using Nero, but not using BingBurn. Would be interested to see if others notice high CPU usage when burning to a DVD or CD with their notebooks compared to a desktop. How about doing a short burn to test this out?

Info about "BingBurn" with movies, screen shots, and about "Image for Windows" is at my web site.
Heffy's

PS: as a side note I have been using Imaging software for over 4 years. Used older Ghost and Ghost 2003, Drive image 4 up to 2000, True Image 6, and 7, plus others. Been using Image for Windows for about 2 years and never encountered one problem, which I can't say about the more popular programs above. I'm not trying to say these other programs are junk because they are not at all, it's just my preference after using them all.
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post #4 of 10
4/13/05 at 9:48am
Thread Starter 
I beleive I found the problem for the high CPU usage. The IDE/ATAPI controllers / Secondary IDE Channel is set for PIO tranfer mode and can't be changed to UDMA, even in the BIOS it's locked for PIO transfer mode. Must be built into the Slimtype DVDRW SDW-431S.
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post #5 of 10
4/13/05 at 12:50pm
Same drive here running UDMA2
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post #6 of 10
4/13/05 at 12:53pm
off topic:

hey heffy, your site says media on the page is best viewed with media player 10, but you have a media player 9 image right above it
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post #7 of 10
4/14/05 at 11:46am
Thread Starter 
Anaconda, thanks I removed the image.

Thunder, do you have the M6809? Or did you upgrade some firmware for the DVD?
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post #8 of 10
4/14/05 at 12:14pm
Thunder has an M6809.

Hmm... don't recall him saying anything ever about firmware.
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post #9 of 10
4/14/05 at 7:16pm
I have a different firmware in it, but it was running UDMA2 prior to changing the firmware. I actually liked the original firmware better. The drive accessed quicker. The only reason I changed the firmware was to attempt ot get some 8x disks I had to burn at 4x. They would only burn at 2.4. Come to find out it was just the quality of the disk apparently. They would only burn at 2.4x on my desktop 4x burner also 8(
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post #10 of 10
4/14/05 at 11:18pm
Thread Starter 
Found this info on the web and it restored the DVD to "Ultra DMA Mode 2".

"This is mainly for XP users but is informative to all.
I recently found out why my ripping speed seemed to be slow even though I was using a Artec 16X DVD drive and thought this might help some of you. There seems to be a problem with Windows XP Pro where it does not detect CD or DVD ROMs correctly for PIO and DMA. DMA is the idea mode and stands for Direct Memory Access. It does not use near the processor power as PIO and there for will rip faster. You can check your speed easily by ripping some stuff with DVD Decrypter or Smart Ripper. If you are sure your drive is DMA but XP seems stuck on PIO. First check in device manager under IDE controllers that you have it set to "DMA if available" for your DVD Rom. If you reboot and recheck and it is still stuck on PIO which mine were then go to run and type in regedit. Find the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}\000X

000X "X" being the number of the controller such as 0001 for primary and 0002 for secondary. Under this location find the key "MasterIdDataCheckSum" or "SlaveIdDataCheckSum" depending on which one your drive is and delete the value for the key. this will force XP to redetect your drive after reboot. Please be careful when editing your registry.
I have gotten both of my XPs running in DMA mode using this methode and on a single layer DVD I can easily hit 10X or higher. In PIO mode I could only hit 2X. That is a big difference and since both of my XP Pros had the problem I would guess it is very common. I hope this helps some of you."

I was testing out some software and I remember having errors while burning, so I know what caused it now.
Microsoft kb
"After the Windows IDE/ATAPI Port driver (Atapi.sys) receives a cumulative total of six time-out or cyclical redundancy check (CRC) errors, the driver reduces the communications speed (the transfer mode) from the highest Direct Memory Access (DMA) mode to lower DMA modes in steps. If the driver continues to receive time-out or CRC errors, the driver eventually reduces the transfer mode to the slowest mode (PIO mode)."


Good info to keep in your files!
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