Topic: Bad CDs (Read 6569 times)

NJAntman · « **on:** December 15, 2003, 10:57:48 am »

Oh great fountain of knowledge that is the forum, a humble request.....

Anyone know of a way to confirm (perhaps a trick or utility program) that a CD Writer is working correctly? I'm having problems trying to write VCDs with Ulead Movie Factory and have tried different CD brands and batches with varying results. If I could just prove or disprove the hardware is working I could solve this issue a lot quicker and cheaper.

James_Smith · « **Reply #1 on:** December 15, 2003, 01:25:18 pm »

What model CD drive is it? And do you have the latest IDE driver for your motherboard (the model of that would be helpful as well).

When I had trouble burning to CD or DVD, it's was a flaky IDE driver. Solved that problem when Nvidia released their latest chipset drivers with a new IDE driver.

Sethan · « **Reply #2 on:** December 15, 2003, 01:50:24 pm »

You also want to make sure you have the correct speed CDs for your drive. I have seen a problem once with a newer computer and older CDs that weren't rated for a speed that would match the top speed of the drive.

vsfedwards · « **Reply #3 on:** December 15, 2003, 01:53:14 pm »

One strange time I had, my dvd/cdr player wouldnt read any disks properly (you should have seen me try to install a game) I took the pc apart, checked that all the wires and what not were in properly and they were, but just to be sure I took em out and put em back in again. After that it was fine. It would sound like the wires simply werent in properly in the first place, but I swear it they were...very strange things are computers.

SL-Punisher · « **Reply #4 on:** December 15, 2003, 07:20:52 pm »

Try lowering the speed of the writer until it works. 6-8x is probably a good idea if you purchased some budget CD's.

NJAntman · « **Reply #5 on:** December 16, 2003, 06:41:53 am »

Quote:

You also want to make sure you have the correct speed CDs for your drive. I have seen a problem once with a newer computer and older CDs that weren't rated for a speed that would match the top speed of the drive.

Quote:

Try lowering the speed of the writer until it works. 6-8x is probably a good idea if you purchased some budget CD's.

Doh!! I've fallen into the rut of always thinking faster is better. Sure enough, lowered the speed from Max to 12X and whamo, it worked. Tried the next again at 12X and it processed but didn't pass the calibration check at the end. Dropped the setting to 8X and it worked.

Thanks for the advice!

SL-Punisher · « **Reply #6 on:** December 16, 2003, 07:44:17 am »

I have a 48X writer and I can never get more than 12x out of it...even with CD's that are supposidly rated for it. I figure it's worth waiting the extra time rather than having to do it all over again.

Falaris · « **Reply #7 on:** December 16, 2003, 08:01:26 am »

Problem is the data to be written must be on hand and in the buffer, or you get writing errors. So, if you go at the full rate and the machine does anything that takes resources, odds are you get an interrupt in the data flow and accordingly, write errors.

Even if you don't go at full rate, it is a good idea to avoid doing heavy tasks - like games - as that will most likely cause write errors.

Now, CD-writers are getting better with bigger buffers and more room for error, but as speed increases any margins they add are eaten up that way, so usually ti's generally applicable advice to
1: Do not run at full speed
2: Do not run intensive - or in many cases, any - tasks on the PC while writing to cd..

DreadlordGW · « **Reply #8 on:** December 16, 2003, 08:21:36 am »

Whenever i need to burn anything i close everything open, and let the computer burn on its own. If it's a short burn, i leave the room. Longer burns i move the mouse every so often so random screensaverage doesnt kick in

SL-Punisher · « **Reply #9 on:** December 16, 2003, 08:25:01 am »

Well I have a AMD Athlon XP 2700+ with 768MB ram. The CD-Burner itself has like a 8MB buffer to store files so there shouldn't be any buffer overruns.

I honestly think that it's cheap CD's that's causing the problem. They simply cannot be written to at the higher speeds...even when they say they support them.

IKV Nemesis D7L · « **Reply #10 on:** December 16, 2003, 05:15:14 pm »

Just out of curiousity are the HD and CD/RW (assuming ATA IDE drives) on different channels as Master and DMA enabled? Best for performace reasons. If they are on the same channel as master and slave they are competing more for resources.

SL-Punisher · « **Reply #11 on:** December 16, 2003, 07:46:55 pm »

Nope. Primary master is the 80Gig hard drive, secondary master is the CD-RW. I never put CD-roms and HD's on the same chain as most CD-ROM's are still UDMA 33 and it slows everything else down on the same channel.

NJAntman · « **Reply #12 on:** December 15, 2003, 10:57:48 am »

Oh great fountain of knowledge that is the forum, a humble request.....

Anyone know of a way to confirm (perhaps a trick or utility program) that a CD Writer is working correctly? I'm having problems trying to write VCDs with Ulead Movie Factory and have tried different CD brands and batches with varying results. If I could just prove or disprove the hardware is working I could solve this issue a lot quicker and cheaper.

James_Smith · « **Reply #13 on:** December 15, 2003, 01:25:18 pm »

What model CD drive is it? And do you have the latest IDE driver for your motherboard (the model of that would be helpful as well).

When I had trouble burning to CD or DVD, it's was a flaky IDE driver. Solved that problem when Nvidia released their latest chipset drivers with a new IDE driver.

Sethan · « **Reply #14 on:** December 15, 2003, 01:50:24 pm »

You also want to make sure you have the correct speed CDs for your drive. I have seen a problem once with a newer computer and older CDs that weren't rated for a speed that would match the top speed of the drive.

vsfedwards · « **Reply #15 on:** December 15, 2003, 01:53:14 pm »

One strange time I had, my dvd/cdr player wouldnt read any disks properly (you should have seen me try to install a game) I took the pc apart, checked that all the wires and what not were in properly and they were, but just to be sure I took em out and put em back in again. After that it was fine. It would sound like the wires simply werent in properly in the first place, but I swear it they were...very strange things are computers.

SL-Punisher · « **Reply #16 on:** December 15, 2003, 07:20:52 pm »

Try lowering the speed of the writer until it works. 6-8x is probably a good idea if you purchased some budget CD's.

SL-Punisher · « **Reply #18 on:** December 16, 2003, 07:44:17 am »

I have a 48X writer and I can never get more than 12x out of it...even with CD's that are supposidly rated for it. I figure it's worth waiting the extra time rather than having to do it all over again.

Falaris · « **Reply #19 on:** December 16, 2003, 08:01:26 am »

Problem is the data to be written must be on hand and in the buffer, or you get writing errors. So, if you go at the full rate and the machine does anything that takes resources, odds are you get an interrupt in the data flow and accordingly, write errors.

Even if you don't go at full rate, it is a good idea to avoid doing heavy tasks - like games - as that will most likely cause write errors.

Now, CD-writers are getting better with bigger buffers and more room for error, but as speed increases any margins they add are eaten up that way, so usually ti's generally applicable advice to
1: Do not run at full speed
2: Do not run intensive - or in many cases, any - tasks on the PC while writing to cd..

News:

Topic: Bad CDs (Read 6569 times) var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true};

NJAntman

James_Smith

Sethan

vsfedwards

SL-Punisher

NJAntman

SL-Punisher

Falaris

DreadlordGW

SL-Punisher

IKV Nemesis D7L

SL-Punisher

NJAntman

James_Smith

Sethan

vsfedwards

SL-Punisher

NJAntman

SL-Punisher

Falaris

Topic: Bad CDs (Read 6569 times)