[paranoia] ripping is slow(0.1x) than fast(2.x) on each track

[Poletti, Don]

My ripping speed seems to have two gears. Very slow and
reasonably fast. It seems after boot I rip one or two tracks
at full speed (~2.5x) but then it slows down to less than 0.1x
speed. General once this condition hits every track I rip 
is this slow for about half (maybe 3/4) of the track then 
it speeds back up for the rest of the track.

While this slow rip is occurring the system is very responsive
I have plenty of CPU idle time (~65%) the destination HD of the
rip can do copies ls etc very quickly.

I thought it might be a HD problem because while the slow rip is going
on the light on the CD flashes once every 4 or 5 seconds and the
HD light is on non-stop. However since the HD is still very responsive
I'm not entirely sure.  Peeking with strace shows that cdparanoria
is calling ioctl about once a second and mmap every 5 or 6 seconds.
(I think the mmap coincides with the cd light flashing. the frequency is
about right)

Also in windows I rip at about 4.0x with no problems (I duel boot)
using freeRip. So I don't think its a hardware issue.

Things I have tried so far with no change in symptoms
various Filesysytems: ext2, ext3, ReiserFS
upgraded kernel: was 2.4.8 upgraded to 2.4.17
upgraded cdparanoia: From whatever comes on Mandrake 8.1 to latest on 
rpmfind.net.

                                                 TIA  Don

System Info
Duron 800
abit MB with KT133e chipset
12x DVD drive used for ripping.
256 megs ram
Mandrake 8.1

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