[phuture]

So I finally ponied up for a superdrive for my Pismo and I got the Wegener slot-loading 8X dual-layer superdrive. Got it a few days ago. I had to sand down my original caddy and shave the bottom of the faceplate a little to get it to fit properly. It actually looks pretty nice. I can't figure out why it burns so slow!!! Any ideas? Spec time!

Pismo G3@400mhz, 60GB HD (40GB free), 768MB RAM, AirPort, OSX Jaguar, using Toast 6 and iTunes 4.7, patched with Patchburn utility (dude who invented it is my hero!)

So no matter what I do, i can't "unlock" its potential, so to speak. It burns at 8X no matter what speed I specify in the Preferences dialog box. Whether I specify 12X, 24X, or 'best possible,' it always burns at 8X. I didn't try burning at speeds slower than that though. This goes for both iTunes and Toast. It seems to burn DVDs quickly, though, although I've only did one so far. I bought it mostly for the faster cd-writing capability but since the 8X superdrive was on sale, I went for it.

I called Wegener and they didn't know what to do, so they told me to send an email with all of my specs so they can mill over it. They were very nice on the phone but haven't gotten back to me. I've patched, then repatched, checked preferences, checked the media (rated 52X), no improvement. What's frustrating is I laid out some good money only to have burn speeds equal to my trusty old VST external firewire burner. Something's holding this drive back but I don't know what it is. Any ideas?

[tooki]

This didn't really belong in PowerBook, since the thread is solely about a peripheral.

tooki

[romeosc]

Originally Posted by tooki

This didn't really belong in PowerBook, since the thread is solely about a peripheral.

tooki

It is not a peripheral... since once installed it replaces battery bay # 2!

Answer, I don't know, what does System Profiler say about it? Have you tried Toast?

[phuture]

Sorry Tooki, didn't know it was considered a peripheral. Like romeosc, I thought it was just a part of the machine.

So system profiler says Bus-> CD-RW/DVD-R -> Matshita DVD-RAM UJ-845s, disc burning: fully supported. But sometimes, when I put the computer to sleep and it wakes up, system profiler can't find the drive until I restart. Nothing big, as it does that with my VST Superdisk expansion bay drive too, it happens every so often. Yes, I've tried burning in Toast and it still maxes out at 8X.

But just now... I restored the drivers and re-patched them, then restarted and tried Toast again, setting the burn speed to 24X manually. I burned a cd and timed it independently from the ending of writing the lead-in to the beginning of writing the lead-out, then divided that time by the length of the audio cd I was burning, and the drive burned at 11.4X. Burning in iTunes still yields the same max. 8X I've been achieving with this drive. Wegener media still hasn't responded yet so I'm still stuck.

[tooki]

Originally Posted by romeosc

It is not a peripheral... since once installed it replaces battery bay # 2!?

For the purposes of the forum, all drives are considered peripherals, especially since the question isn't PowerBook-specific: notebook drives are used in PowerBooks, iMacs, iBooks, and Mac Minis.

tooki