[Paranoia] Resets while ripping

[Arnd]

Ian Zimmerman <itz at buug.org> [Sat, 16 Jun 2012 10:05:55 -0700]

> Hi.  I would like to understand something I have seen with each of my 2
> optical drives.  I generally run cdparanoia like this:
> 
> cdparanoia -w 1- - | flac -s -o album.flac --cuesheet=album.flac.cue -;
> 
> i. e. I create 1 huge audio file from the entire disc, rather than rip 1
> track at a time.  I do that because I don't like the mechanical strain
> on the drive from repeated track scanning.

Doesn't make a difference - the paranoia system re-reads always to ensure 
correct ripping (which also defeats the drive buffer if I remember 
correctly).

> When I start the above command both drives seem to start at their
> maximum speed setting, with quite a bit of noise that sounds like it
> comes from an internal fan (?),

That's just the whoooshing sound (no pun intended ;-) from your CD 
spinning fast.

> and ripping proceeds apace.  But then
> somewhere in the middle, it just stops.  There are no error messages
> from cdparanoia or indeed any output at all - the progress bar is just
> frozen.

The CD spins at constant speed, and the read head works it's way from the 
center to the edge, which means the read bandwidth increases. Depending on 
the quality of the CD pressing, the flatness of the CD, etc. there comes a 
point where the reading is not reliable anymore, and the drive switches to 
a lower speed. That switch causes the pause.

> After some time it resumes where it left off, but much slower,
> apparently at 2x or so, and then it finishes without any further signs
> of trouble.  The only indication aything is wrong is in the syslog:
> 
> kernel: [20166.224017] usb 1-5: reset high-speed USB device number 4
> using ehci_hcd

I think that's another issue altogether. I have this problem occasionally 
with older power supplies which are too weak for huge modern HDDs. If this 
happens to your external drive it will cause a pause as well, though not 
for the reasons stated above.