Radschool Association Magazine

Radschool Association Magazine - Vol 12

Next reunion 25-27 April 2003

31 Oct 2002

Page 6

Computers and stuff

Sam Houliston

CD Burners
So you’ve just bought a brand new 24x10x40x CD-RW drive, jammed in a blank, and started to burn your own CD’s, only to find that your super fast new-system isn’t much faster than the old one you had. Why is it so???

Why are you still getting coasters from your brand new, fool-proof burner, is it the media? or your old system, or the software.

Ian Johnston, who now lives in Victoria wrote to Sam re his article on Hewlett Packard in Vol 11. He says:-

“Sam-I was impressed with your article on Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard in the RAAF Radschool mag. Just thought I'd let you know that I have worked for HP for 30 years and am still working for Agilent Technologies the Test & Measurement portion of HP that was spun off a couple of years back.

I started working for HP when I left the RAAF in 1969 following a stint at RADSCHOOL at Laverton from 67 to 69 as an instructor .

I had joined the RAAF in 1957 and did the Radmech then Radtech courses and then went to ARDU Laverton then later Richmond as an airtech on Hercs and later Caribous .I was one of the first radio guys to go to Vietnam in 1964 an did another tour in 1966-7.

I had met both Bill and Dave during my career and both were great guys.

I also collect some of HP's test equipment and happen to have the 200A and 524A models you mentioned and I was also one of the first HP guys to work on the old 2116A computers here in Aus.

So just thought I'd drop you a line to say your info was all correct as I have seen it all evolve…...Cheers

Thanks Ian-it’s good to know Sam’s article’s are appreciated.

Actually, it all of the above, but there are a few things that you can do to make your new system work the way it should. In the past, most coasters were caused by the computer not being able to deliver information to the CD burner fast enough to allow it to record at its top speed. RAM, hard disk performance, and bus speed were often limiting factors. In this case, you just had to record at a lower speed to avoid coasters.

With today's powerful computers, however, it is likely that your current machine has more than enough oomph to run a recorder at 24X. And even if your machine is still a little under powered, buffer underrun prevention technology will seamlessly let the recording go through even when it would normally fail, but once these technologies are enabled, recording speed may decrease. These technologies work by having the recorder stop and wait for more data, then repositions the laser head to continue the writing. This of course, takes time, and it will take longer still if you are using the computer to do other things at the same time, such as surfing the net.

So, here are some tips to make sure that you get the recording speed that you are paying for with your new speedster:

Defragment your hard disk frequently; or better still, dedicate a second hard drive or partition to CD recording. When files are fragmented across different sectors of a hard disk, it takes longer to retrieve them.
Make sure that you have a reasonably fast hard drive, both in seek time and data transfer rate. Any drive made in the last four or five years should be fast enough though
If you are using an ISA SCSI card in a PC, upgrade to a PCI SCSI card. The difference in transfer rate is tremendous.
Make sure you have a minimum of 128 megabytes of RAM. RAM has never been cheaper than it is today. More is definitely better.
Check with your burner manufacturer (web site) to make sure you have the latest software update.
Make sure you use 24X or 32X certified media from a name-brand manufacturer. Will other media work? Maybe, but if you value your data, you won't pinch pennies here.
Close down any background applications you have running (especially antivirus programs that check all files being read and written!), and avoid running other foreground applications at the same time as you are burning.
If you are recording audio CDs from MP3 files, or vice versa, the CPU has to transcode the data on the fly as the disc is being written. At very high recording speeds, your processor may simply not be able to keep up. Reduce the recording speed if you get buffer underruns.
When copying a CD from another drive, make sure the source drive is at least 8-12X faster than your recorder. If not, dump it.

Overall-make sure your software is up-to-date, streamline your drive and running applications, and eliminate hardware performance bottlenecks. These tips will often yield better performance in other areas too, not just CD burning, so don't hold back!

Did you hear about the viagra virus?? It turns an old floppy into a new hard-drive.

A bloke goes up to this girl in a bar and says, "Would you like to dance?" The girl says, "I don't like this song, but even if I did, I wouldn't dance with you." The bloke says, "I'm sorry, you must have misunderstood me, I said you look fat in those pants."

Page 6