Buffer Underrun Guide
Buffer Underrun Errors - How to waste CDR:s
When burning audio-cd's it is absolutely critical that the
data-stream from the harddrive to the CD-writer is as continious
as possible. The CD-writer has an internal memory-buffer to
compensate for small gaps, but if your harddrive or your CPU
is interrupted for to long, the CD-writer will run out of
data. Because the CD-writer cannot wait, this will cause gaps
and noise in the music, or in the worst case, it will ruin
the entire disc. Buffer Underrun errors are a common problem
when burning CDs.
The source of the problem
So, why is the CPU interrupted? Windows is a multi-tasking
operation system, meaning it can run many programs simultaneously.
The CPU, however, can only do one thing at a time. To solve
this problem, Windows divides the CPU-time into small slices
and gives each running program a short period of time to execute,
before the CPU is handed over to the next program. The more
programs you run, the smaller each time-slice gets. If the
slices are to small, there may not be enough time for the
burning-software to fill the buffer on the CD-writer.
What about the harddrive? Just like the CPU, the harddrive
cannot read everything at the same time. If, for example,
some antivirus software or a screensaver starts in the middle
of your cd-burning-session, the harddrive may get occupied
with other things and stop reading CD-data.
The solution
What can you do to prevent "buffer underrun errors"?
There are a few things you should always do before burning
audio-CDs:
1. Reboot the computer before you begin to make sure the
operating system is completely stable (You never know after
running a few games).
2. Terminate all programs but the cd-burning-software. Of
course you need WinTasks to be able to stop all the invisible
background processes. If you are using WinTasks 4 you only
have to do this once, since it is now possible to save the
currently running processes and their priorities to a preset.
To restore the optimal cd-burning process configuration later,
you can simply click the preset button.
3. Don't use your CD-writers maximum burnings speed if you
have get any gaps or jumps in the music. If your writer can
burn at 4x use 2x, if can handle 8x use 4x and so on. This
way, the CPU will only have to send half as much data to keep
the buffer full. Making the whole process less sensitive to
errors.
4. Try increasing the priority of the CD-burning software.
You may have to try a few different settings before you find
the optimal priorities for your system. Use WinTasks to change
the priorities, and again, I recommend creating preset in
WinTasks for the optimal settings once you have figured them
out. You should not modify the priorities of the system processes
(red), and use the built-in decriptions to find out if what
a processes does. (WinTasks 4 have built-in decriptions for
most system processes, and many other processes as well.)
5. Always cache to harddrive before burning. (This is usually
an option in your burning-software)
Source: liutilities.com
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