If you must use the lower-speed or poor-quality CD recording media, the /SPEED qualifier is often required for successful completion of the recording process. You might need to select a recording speed below the rated speed of the CD drive itself. Specifically, you might need to select a recording speed that is compatible with both the CD drive and the CD recording media loaded in the drive. The /SPEED qualifier accepts a single keyword for a requested device speed: o 1X o 2X o 4X o 8X o 16X o 32X o MAXIMUM The CDDVD utility attempts to match the requested speed to a speed that the device supports. (Not all devices support all speeds, including the lowest speed, 1X, or the highest speed available.) The default speed is the maximum speed that the target device supports. DVD+R/RW drives select the maximum recording speed based on information encoded on the media. You need to specify this qualifier only under one of the following circumstances: o When incompatibilities or recording errors are reported during a previous failed recording operation. o If the CD media in use has a rated recording speed below the drive default recording settings. o If CDDVD application, processor, or system I/O performan constraints exist. CD drives can select speeds faster than those supported by the particular media loaded in the drive. HP recommends that you select only media that match the recording capabilities of the drive. In other words, do not attempt to exceed the recording speed limits of the particular CD media. Selecting faster media will not make a slow drive record any faster, and selecting faster speeds with slow media can trigger recording errors and corrupt media. If the recording process fails during the recording operation, discard the write-once media and try a slower recording speed. (Note that you can attempt to reformat and rerecord on rewritable media.)