Sudden drop in CDR Speed

[Phantaxus]

I have a 32x CDR(W) drive which used to work fine. In less than a week the write speed has dropped to around 8x. Im using Alcohol 120% on Windows XP Pro. Its is slow in other cdr apps so its not Alcohol and I have checked the settings and they are set to max on write speed. I am on the same batch on media so it is not an incompatability there. What should I try next?

[Will__]

I have no idea if this will help, but Nero (which I use) will only allow you to burn the CD at the speed which it believes is the maximum for that particular media; ie I used to have problems with Maxell CDRs - it would only allow me to burn at 24x, but TDK and Sony ones were fine - and Nero allowed me to burn those at 52x. I didn't think it could possibly be a media issue, but it was.
Now I could be talking through my hat if Alchohol doesn't use a system like this, but it may - and Nero does it invisibly. I changed media, and the problem went away. You say that you're on the same batch of media, but literally the same box or spindle? There's a # number that all blank cds can tell the CD writing package that's pretty much invisible to us, and this can change within what looks like an identical set of media, just a different pressing or whatever.
Hope this helps. If it doesn't and the speed drop is consistent through all programs with ALL media, I'd get in touch with the drive manufacturer. < br>
Cheers

[Phantaxus]

Thanks Will it is the same spindle, and I have tried a disk off a spindle at work that will write at 32x in my works pc. Its a weird one I might have to reinstall my OS from scratch and see if that fixes it. I dont really want to do that as I will have to install loads of software as well.

[hertz]

I had this problem on my old computer, and it seemed to start after I installed Alcohol. Everything had worked OK up until then. I remember reading in Usenet groups that earlier copies of Alcohol had upset some computers, so I put it down to that. I have passed my old computer on to a relative and reinstalled Windows and Nero onto it, but not Alcohol, and everything works OK again. BTW, I have tried Alcohol on my new computer, but it does not recognise my DVD burner (Sony DW-U14A). Nero does and works OK, so I will stick to that.