jbryant

Hi there,

Been using Nero for a while (in fact several years as I guess I moved up from CD Creator that I used years back) but it's starting to really get on my nerves - When it's burning a compilation of files onto a DVD, the PC is pretty much unusable for the time it takes for the burn to finish. It takes 30 seconds to switch tasks and CPU is all maxed out. The PC is reasonable spec (Athlon 2500 + 512Mb of DDR400 RAM, and I've recently upgraded to a new NEC drive from LG and the problem is still the same. Rebuilding the OS or using different disks and burn speeds makes little difference so I guess it's just the SW itself.

I use Alcohol to create and burn image files and that's fine - the pc is totally usable when the drive is burning (and even logs CPU time to show off how efficient it is) , but it doesn't do file compilations (which I need to use to backup MyDocs, etc).

Thanks for any suggestions of other apps that may not be so resource hungry?
Joolz

jpor

iTrader: (1)

Have you had a look on THIS SITE you might find something that's more suitable.

bioforger

iTrader: (1)

What version of nero are u using? Nero6 should not be causing those issues u are getting.

jpor

iTrader: (1)

I have heard some bad stories about Nero 7 as of late.
I hope you're not using that version?

mike1210

DJ Dunk

iTrader: (5)

I'm currently using VSO CopyToDVD. Very small, light & unfussy, every bit as good as their ConvertXtoDVD software Have used Nero since the original burning rom, but won't go back to their bloated rubbish now.

Fuzz

There in lies your first problem.

I struggle with double that !

Andy

Scooby Dooby Blue

I would tend to agree with Fuzz

That spec of system would make a fine workhorse if you were solely burning DVDs on it but it's far from capable of multi-tasking.

Doubling the RAM would ease your pain but wouldn't cure the sluggish performance of the system in general.

If the disc you're compiling is written all over the hard drive, this won't help much either as it's tying itself up fetching the pieces of data before burning them.

Fuzz

A couple of RAID 0 Raptors would also further ease the pain.


Andy

jbryant

Ah man - I wasn't looking to upgrade! But it's a good excuse
My main issue lies with the fact that Alcohol can burn a disk without topping 15% CPU so Nero is quite obviusly a bit of a bloater, at least on an urchin spec PC like my own I'll take a look at a couple of the suggestions before committing to pay for more hardware. It's only a shuttle system so there's no question of RAID disks, and no free RAM slots so I'd have to bin what I have and get another stick or two which is a bummer.

My hard disk is loaded up, so I want to burn some data off to free up space. But it's such a PITA when I can't even open up a web browser in less than a minute while it's burning. The OS seems quite happy to multitask but to me it looks like Nero is just being selfish and hogging everything for itself.

Thaks for the advice
Joolz

Powerstation

Isn't there an option to burn as a background process??????

Andy

Opps. Works login.

jbryant

Thanks Fuzz - In the end I went for a simple RAM replacement, upping total from 512Mb to 1Gb. Amazing how much more usable the PC is now when a disk is burning.

I also find it incredible that a DVD burner and Windows can't copw with *only* 512Mb of RAM.

Thanks all!
Joolz

jpor

iTrader: (1)

Well your in for a shock if you want to use Microsofts new windows operating system Vista next year. 512MB RAM is the absolute minimum to run the Operating System with.

Iain Young

I've tried running vista with 512mb of ram, and basically gave up. I reckon 1gb is going to be a realistic minimum for microsofts new baby. I don't think I'll be "upgrading" for a while...