Ever find your actual write speed is far less than the selected write speed?
For example I have a LG CD-RW 40x12x40
and use Memorex CD-R 700MB 48x multi speed disks.
I set it to burn regular music CD at 40x and it only writes at 16x
It seems drivers are far and in between and I have the latest so that rules that out...
Hardware getting run down and old maybe? It doesn't get used very often. Maybe easy CD creater is the weak link...
Any suggestions? comments?

Does it write data at 40x?

It may be that your writing software is saving you from badly written audio CDs and automatically reduces write speed.

Most CD-RW drives fail to produce error free audio CDs when writing at full speeds.

That, and it depends on what part of the cd it's writing...

We've got cd-rom's that claim to be 56x, but that is only on a small part of the cd (the inner tracks), as it just isn't possible to get the speed required to read the outer tracks at 56x...

There's a thread in Gen.Dis where you can see a video about cd's being subjected to speeds of 40x+...
The conclusion the guys doing the experiment came to was that unless you reinforced the CD, it would break apart and tear through kevlar, when you tried for the extreme speeds on the outer tracks!

My Yamaha CD-Writter which is listed as capable of writing at 20x actually writes at 16x when copying a data cd. Nodsu explanation seems to be convicing to me. Anyway, i always burn my CDs at very low speed ie 2x so that more players can actually read it properly.

Ive never had a problom with stuff playing and I write my stuff at 24X and it actualy writes at 24X and Ive only had one burn out ever.

Data CDs are usually written correctly even at full speeds (actually they are not written correctly, but data CDs contain error correction information unlike audio). And 24 is not that fast, I'm talking about speeds over 30.

It could be your media. I used to have a similar problem before. Buy TDK blank cds, I believe they are way better.

Before that, I bought a pack of Sony CDs (Sony is pretty respectable, and the claimed speed was 48x) and my Samsung 52x24x52 burner only went 16x. I bought some TDK's and that thing was flying.

Edit:
Oh yeah, I also remembered. When burning an audio CD, don't ever burn faster than 16, the burn won't be deep enough and regular cd readers (like in the car), will have a hard time after a while. To burn a longer lasting CD, burn at slower speeds.

Thx for the replies. Greatly appreciated.