My ripping/encoding/storing PC runs on Windows 2000 Pro SP 4. The CD-RW is a HP 8100i flashed with the hacked Sony(?) firmware for the same hardware. I'm ripping with the EAC 0.95 in secure mode, accurate stream and cache ON, C2 OFF. Even with CDs in perfect condition and no copy protection, I get ripping speeds like 1.3 to 1.8 x. I've been using the native Win32 interface but changed to the Nero ASPI dll with no help.

I'm not 100% sure but I think I used to get better ripping speed earlier. About the same config on my other PC using the Pioneer 105 DVD burner gets significantly better results - both in speed and errors with problematic CDs.

Now, is there still something I could try or could it be that my HP drive is starting to die on me? Any ideas? The hacked firmware has been in use for a long time and isn't likely the problem.

Checking "drive caches audio" and unchecking "C2" significantly slows down ripping, so your speed is probably normal - I always used EAC with the opposite options checked because my drive didn't cache audio and was able to report C2 errors, and the ripping speed still was not stellar.
Just for experimenting, try it with the options I used, and you should get a significant speed-up.
A longer term solution would probably be to use burst mode and test&copy. This way you have to extract all tracks twice, but at a very high speed. If the CRCs match, your rip was perfect. This method has been discussed before here and found to be at least as secure as "secure mode", and way faster with drives that cache audio.

The HP8100i is an older drive. I have a drive of the same age, which rips at 3x (no cache disable) so your speed may be normal indeed.

Thanks. Perhaps it really always was this slow and the speed of my Pioneer DVD burner mislead me.