CD does slow burn

Two issues, first make sure the CD drives are strapped for Cable Select, not master/slave, as all new Dells (and other brands too) use the Cable Select strapping method.

Second, what CD burning program do you have?  Whatever it is, make sure you have the latest updates for it.

As far as the burning speed, what type of CD burning are you doing?  Disc to Disc copy? (if so the 6 to 8X is normal), or are you making standard CDDA audio CD's or MP3 audio CD's?  Although this doesn't address the burning speed issue, you should limite the standard CDDA audio CD's to 12X or lower for compatibility with most audio CD players.  There are some that will play higher speeds but many will not play CD's burned at higher speeds - and car in-dash CD players are really cranky about the speed and some won't even play 12X burned CD's. 

Fireberd:

Thanks for your reply.  They were set for CSEL.  I was simply burning music cd's from a playlist.  Normally, use Nero (have latest update) and also tried Musicmatch and had same results.

Have an older PC running win98 with a TDK velocd 24x that works fine and used to burn music cd's without any problem.  Didn't experience any problems with playback anywhere.

Thanks again.

I'm not up much on TDK drives so I don't know if there really are any issues with them.  Most of the people I support have either OEM drives installed in PC's or usually a Lite-On made (not necessisarily labeled Lite-On) drives. 

One thing to try, and see if it makes a difference, is to turn off the Buffer Underrun (burn proof technology) and see if that makes a difference.  With the buffer underrun feature it can slow it down if there are system issues that potentially could cause a buffer underrun error.  I know Nero and Roxio have options to use or not use that feature, don't know about MMJB.  If Buffer Underrun is turned on and there are problems, each time it gets one the head has to reposition itself and that will contribute to a slower actual burn speed. 

Although in theory a "burner should be a burner", the OS may have some affect on it.  XP is way different than the old Win98. 

Fireberd

Thanks.  I really appreciate your knowledge and your time.  At this point I have not bought another burner, so I can't try that, but I will when I decide what I am going to buy.  I'm hoping that someone (from Dell, especially) might either give a "second" to the 'XP issue" answer  that I got from second level support or disagree with that answer.

I hate to go out and buy another burner and have the same issue.  Dell sales assured me that the TDK would work.  How often have we heard a company telling two stories?

Nobody seems to be aware of this issue with XP except Dell second level support.

Have you checked your drive speed http://www.cdspeed2000.com/ . try closing all unnecessary programs I would close my net connection,anti virus and anyother program while i burn a cd.

best of luck

cheers