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Win98/DVD Drive/long time to access

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First post, by Scythifuge

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Greetings!

I put my P2B back together in lieu of running a 486 and a Pentium 1 for my retro needs (will just use Moslo Deluxe and the like and separate CF/SD cards in an IDE adapter.) I also used 98lite "Sleek" option. My main optical drive is a quad speed cdrom for early-to-mid-90s stuff, and a secondary DVD-ROM drive for Windows 95/98 discs and for burned discs with ISOs and other assorted files for all OSs. I have DMA selected on the drive. However, whenever I put a disc into the DVD drive, it spins up and down for a long time before I can access it. Once I can access it, it operates as normal. After using it for a while, sometimes this issue goes away and when inserting a new disc, it reads and allows access relatively quickly. I have never had this issue before. Does anyone have any ideas on what could cause this?

Many thanks!
Scythifuge

Reply 1 of 3, by chinny22

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Just sounds like the standard spin up issue, what speed is the DVD drive?
slower the PC, harder time it has keeping up with faster drives.

Tools exist allowing you to slow down the drive like CDBeQuiet!

Reply 2 of 3, by Scythifuge

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chinny22 wrote on 2024-04-03, 00:07:

Just sounds like the standard spin up issue, what speed is the DVD drive?
slower the PC, harder time it has keeping up with faster drives.

Tools exist allowing you to slow down the drive like CDBeQuiet!

I believe it is a 16x DVD-Rom. The thing is, I have used this drive and similar drives in Windows 98 machines before without issue, and with this issue, it sometimes goes away after a while. After a couple hours of installing games, it became as snappy as one would normally expect, with me inserting a new disc, it spinning up, and then autorun kicking in within a couple of seconds. But for the first however much time, it spins up and back down and then back up and back down for 30+ seconds, sounding like -VRIM- -VROOM- -VRIM- -VROOM- over and over, like it is struggling. It doesn't do this in MS-DOS or Windows 3.11. It simply works normally.

Reply 3 of 3, by chinny22

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16x DVD = 48x by CD-ROM speed measurements so quite a fast drive.
I know exactly what you mean by vrim-vroom, my 24x did the same thing on my 486. it simply couldn't keep up with the drive.
Some CD's were better then others, I suspect the ones were the laser didn't have to jump around the disc.
Also if the game used cd audio, that would keep the disk spinning and wouldn't get the issue.

My P2/400 that came with a 32x CD drive also did the same thing. this time though it was the drive dying. but if this was the case I'd expect it in both dos and windows?

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