DVD burner dropping my WiFi connection?

cplclegg · Post by **cplclegg** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 11:37 am

I have a NEC 16x DVD-RW in a Shuttle SK41g with 2 hard drives inside. I also have a USB 802.11b adapter.

The problem is that whenever I rip or write a DVD I lose my connection and can't establish a new connection with my router until the disk spins down. But when playing DVD movies or reading data from DVD's it does not drop the connection.

I am thinking I might be sucking in too much power from the transfer process of having the HD and DVD both going full tilt at the same time. I have already upgraded the power supply in the Shuttle. Anyone else ever have a problem lie this?

A_old · Post by **A_old** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 11:46 am

cplclegg wrote:I have a NEC 16x DVD-RW in a Shuttle SK41g with 2 hard drives inside. I also have a USB 802.11b adapter.

The problem is that whenever I rip or write a DVD I lose my connection and can't establish a new connection with my router until the disk spins down. But when playing DVD movies or reading data from DVD's it does not drop the connection.

I am thinking I might be sucking in too much power from the transfer process of having the HD and DVD both going full tilt at the same time. I have already upgraded the power supply in the Shuttle. Anyone else ever have a problem lie this?

that's an odd one. u can test your theory by using a powered usb hub to see if it fixes the issue. if it still happens, i'd say try another usb adapter first...some of them are pretty cheaply made (found out that some are VERY poorly made when mucking w/ linux and wifi -- not a great combo btw, imho)

cplclegg · Post by **cplclegg** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 11:50 am

I think you might be on the right track with the Hub. The Shuttle came with 2 back and 2 front USB's but I also added on two more to bring that to 6. the two front I keep open for cameras and MP3 players but the back have the cable for my Treo, which sometimes won't sync, and two printers, one of which sometimes won't be found to print.

wee96 · Post by **wee96** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 12:01 pm

It could also be a voltage issue, where the dvd drive when at full load causes the voltage rails to fluctuate enough to cause the wifi adapter to lose its ability to work properly.

A_old · Post by **A_old** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 12:32 pm

wee96 wrote:It could also be a voltage issue, where the dvd drive when at full load causes the voltage rails to fluctuate enough to cause the wifi adapter to lose its ability to work properly.

right, so using a powered usb hub will test that b/c it's powered..the usb wifi adapter will only be receiving data from the port, at that point...which will (unless the port is bad) be fine when the usb port can't pull enough current to power the adapter...

could try disconnecting one of the drives (if they aren't raid 0) as well..and writing a disc to see if the net dies then as well..if so, it's power..regardless the hub will test it

YARDofSTUF · Post by **YARDofSTUF** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 1:12 pm

Could the laser or whatever is going when the DVD drive burns be causing interference?

A_old · Post by **A_old** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 2:11 pm

YARDofSTUF wrote:Could the laser or whatever is going when the DVD drive burns be causing interference?

i suppose anything "could" cause it..but i doubt that.. methinks it's either power or just a crappy usb wifi adapter (cheap pcb, power hungry chipet = crappy)

wee96 · Post by **wee96** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 7:15 pm

No, a laser isnt close in the spectrum to cause interference or harmonics, so it wouldnt be the issue. Its more or less a power issue im thinking.

cplclegg · Post by **cplclegg** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 10:28 pm

Would crappy be a $30 Zyxel Zyair?

I was in a pinch and had to get an adapter very quickly and that was the cheapest one I could find on short notice. Interesting thing too is that if I had the WiFi along with a Kensington bluetooth adapter my computer would freeze after 15 minutes so I uninstalled the bluetooth. Come to think of it too, I have been having USB hotsync problems lately with my Treo as well. I should probably just go and get a PCI adapter and that should solve all my problems.

cplclegg · Post by **cplclegg** » Sat Dec 31, 2005 7:57 pm

I moved everything off my second drive and removed it to have just the one master drive and the DVD burner, each a master on it's own IDE. Burned a DVD and I still lose the WiFi. I was looking at the root hub info and it says my adapter needs 500 mA to function. Is 500 mA a limit for all root hubs and ports? Would taking away 2 of the 6 ports make this more stable? Normally, all I have running at any given time on the USB ports is the WiFi as I keep my printers off when not printing. Would a powered hub keep a constant 500 mA no matter what else is running in the system?

Edited to add: Right after I posted I ran some AVI to mp4 conversion and the connection got killed until it was done so it seems like anything that will be CPU intensive, like video conversion, burning and ripping DVD's, etc., is causing a problem. Unless someone knows of a way to boost the power to a USB port or if removing two of the 6 ports would fix this I'm probably going to have to go with a PCI adapter.

A_old · Post by **A_old** » Sun Jan 01, 2006 11:52 am

yes, it should provide the constant current needed...i'd have tried that first.

cplclegg · Post by **cplclegg** » Sun Jan 01, 2006 3:15 pm

I decided to just get a PCI adapter. The price difference between the hub and the card wasn't more than a $1 or $2. Hopefully now I can reinstall my bluetooth and get that back working.

YARDofSTUF · Post by **YARDofSTUF** » Sun Jan 01, 2006 5:50 pm

PCI adapter what?

cplclegg · Post by **cplclegg** » Tue Jan 03, 2006 2:41 pm

A PCI 802.11g card. The USB adapter started to freeze my computer after about 15 minutes, unplugged it and it now runs fine. So the problem is the USB adapter.

cplclegg · Post by **cplclegg** » Sat Jan 14, 2006 10:49 am

Well that solved it. Installed a PCI adapter and no problems at all. I'm guessing it was a power issue after all.

Dibby · Post by **Dibby** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 6:40 pm

Don't be too sure the PCI will solve your problems. I have an issue with the Zyxel G-302v2 adapter. After MUCH hair-tearing-out, found that the G-302 utilty was causing some kind of memory leak that would kill the system after 30 minutes of idle. I've got a query in to Zyxel about it. My workaround is to go to Task Manager and kill the utility and leave the driver working.