Wild Nero recorder buffer flucations just started. Any ideas?

Let me say that Nero 5.5.8.0 had worked perfectly for me with the exact same system - WIn 98SE, 512 RAM, P-III 500, Plextor 40/12/40a burner.

I've had various versions of Nero on every HD on my box with every burner back to my first 2x. Never a problem. I bought a 100 GB Western Digital recently that was defective and died in two weeks. Even so Nero worked fine. I got the replacement drive back last week, reinstalled everything, did the usual tweaks (ASPI 4.71, DMA check, etc) - and now I'm having the following problems burning with the Plextor. I installed Nero 5.5.9.0 earlier tonight and no difference. I also defragged.

1) The recorder buffer level state fluctuates wildly after about 14 percent burn. It used to stay grey or at 98 percent or so. Now it's like watching a tennis match.

2) The long buffer bar drops down to zero after the recorder buffer starts in and then goes back up to about 50 percent and stays there for the rest of the burn.

3) The Burn Proof is saving me from coaster land - unless I do anything else while burning. I'm assuming there's so little data in the buffer that any browser use or such drains the buffer to the point of no return.

Anyone have any suggestions? Like I say I've had tremendous success with Nero under a variety of conditions and with this exact same set-up. Why this new trouble has cropped up has me thrown for a loop. I was getting rock steady burns at 3:45 or so on the new Plextor before the reinstall. I want that back! :mad: TIA.
 
I want to add that I rarely, if ever, got that buffer underrun message. Now it's telling me I my butt was saved anywhere from 50 to 70 times every burn. Grrr.
 
And .... I did install the latest firmware update for the burner and I've tried different media, including finally cracking the wrapper on the CD that came with the Plextor. I might add that when burning the rest of my appz turn into molasses. Hopefully these are my last comments :)
 
roadwrker, thanks for the try but no difference with the new ASPI. DMAs all check out, too, as being activated. :( Indeed performance seems slightly worse, with the main buffer hovering around 30 percent now. What a maddening problem.
 
had a similar problem with my Liteon 321240S, Win2K, and Nero. Made a few coasters. Reset the computer and everything fine again. Maybe there was some IRQ mix-up. Never did trace it.
 
This is really maddening, but the resolution was okay. As I didn't have much on the drive except the OS, Nero and Agent and the files I DL'd I did a complete reinstall last night and everything works fine now. Argh! Thanks to all who tried to help.
 
The problem is that Nero uses it's own ASPI layer WNASPI32.dll in the nero folder and doesn't use the ASPI that the rest of the system uses.
 
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