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Help and FAQs!
Problem Solver

I can burn discs, but not as expected.

1. The disc has 16x printed on the label, but I can only burn at 8x (or similar)
The drive itself decides the optimal writing speed for the disc you inserted. This may be different from what is advertised. The speed the drive chooses is almost always the best speed for this disc.
The writing speed chosen by your ReWriter can even be different for discs coming from 1 box or spindle (caused by small differences between the discs).
We advise to use the Philips Intelligent Agent to keep your Philips ReWriter up to date. Updating your ReWriter may solve some problems.
+ Read more here!

2. Nero says to burn rather fast, but it takes extremely long to burn a disc (approx 30 minutes for a single layer DVD).
One (or more) of your ReWriters/hard discs may be in slow PIO mode instead of the fast DMA mode. Check if DMA is switched on for all your hard disks and ReWriters:
For Windows XP and Windows 2000 choose or click:
  • Start
  • Settings
  • Control Panel
  • System
  • Hardware
  • Device Manager
  • IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers
  • Primary IDE Channel
  • Advanced Settings
  • Make sure that the current transfer mode is 'DMA', 'Ultra DMA Mode X' or 'Not applicable'.

  • If somewhere PIO Mode is shown, please change this to DMA.
  • Do the same for the 'Secondary IDE channel'.

For Windows 98 Second Edition and Windows Millennium Edition choose or click:
  • Start
  • Settings
  • Control Panel
  • System
  • Hardware
  • Disk Drives
  • Choose your hard disc (often indicated as 'Type 47')
  • Properties
  • Settings
  • Make sure 'DMA' is switched on.
  • Do the same for 'CD-ROM'.

3. I switched to DMA (as in 2), but the problem comes back
Windows has probably encountered some communication problems and switched back to PIO to make sure no data gets lost. Possible solutions are:
  • Go to the system bios and check your IDE devices. They should not say 'PIO' but 'auto' or 'DMA'.
  • Check also that 'ACPI 2.0' is 'enabled' and Plug&Play OS' is 'yes'.
  • Use another IDE cable, prefeably a 80 conductor cable.
  • Delete the driver in the 'IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers' (see 2.). Windows will restart and recognize the driver again by itself.
    + Read more here!


4. You added some files to a disc, but now you lost your old files
You probably made a multisession disc and did not import the previous session.
Possible solutions are:
  • Start again making a disc, insert the disc with the files that are not visible anymore, choose 'continue multisession disc' and import old data when asked.
  • Use Isobuster to access the older sessions and extract the files to your hard disc.
    + Read more here!

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