Topic: DVD Burner

[Simon]

How stupid is this?  I got my new Sony DWU-14A DVD+/-RW drive, went to install it, and found that the corner of the motherboard is in the way of the third external drive bay!  This means that I can only have two drives (without getting a new case), so I have had to replace my perfectly working CD-RW, with the new drive.  :tony:

Haven't actually tried it yet, but a program like DVD X Copy Express looks like it might be useful for backing up material you specifically own (i.e. home movies).  Of course, we can't promote illegal copying of DVD Films (or anything else) here, so what anyone might use that program for is in no way endorsed, or associated with PC Pals Forum.

[TR]

Just purchased this one..with the 25 discs as well?

 http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?
action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=49638

Will let you know what I think later on in the week  8)

Hookstar


Link shrunk to fit  

[Dack]

Hope you didn't buy the Mirror discs........They are not exactly the best quality. BTW it was about £1 cheaper at SVP/Blankdiscshop/121cdr

Writer is pretty good but had issues with fast extraction IIRC - think that modded firmware is available at www.rpc1.org

[TR]

Hope you didn't buy the Mirror discs........They are not exactly the best quality. BTW it was about £1 cheaper at SVP/Blankdiscshop/121cdr

Yep bought the mirror discs, to start with? ok to trial the new dvd with and what's £1 over £100 1%

[Dack]

An example of the 'quality' of Mirror discs.

Friend of mine was going to send some data to me this week - had 4 attempts at writing on Mirror discs (at 4x, 2x, 1x and another 1x). None of them worked.

They tend to use the Princo dye if I'm not mistaken which is a bit   (in that they are not as compatible with DVD drives, nor-as reliable to write to as the Ritek dye).

He's since gone and bought some Maxell discs from Staples (25 pack is about £21) which are the Ritek G04 dye as a stopgap before buying some from SVP.

Just say this as it won't be a good trial of your drive if the media is no-good.

And £1 of £85 is more like 1.2%

[Simon]

I bought a pack of 25 Datawrite, from Watford Electronics, for just under £20.  I screwed one up myself, but other than that, no problems yet.

[Adept]

And £1 of £85 is more like 1.2%

Pedant!

[TR]

Shipping Band: £4.49
Approx Cart Weight: 1.55Kg
 Shipping Surcharge: £0.00
SubTotal:  £90.29
VAT:  £15.81
Total:  £106.10

 probably a bit conservitive with my £100..  less than 1%

[Dack]

Not really as SVP just had a 99p shipping weekend

[TR]

Being the Impatiant sod that I am.....wanted it yesterday  

[Michelle]

Being the Impatiant sod that I am.....wanted it yesterday  

I'm a bit like that too  

[TR]

Ok..everything set up now?

BUT..

Top Drawer is the DVD/CD Rom
Next DVD RW
Then at the bottom is the CD RW.

The reason I want to keep them all in is that the CD RW records at 40x and the DVD/RW records at 16X so you see thats why I want to keep all of them in.

BUT.. although the start up screen reconises they are all there, the CD RW doesnt work

Has anybody any Ideas, racking the grey matter a bit here.


Cheers Hook

[Sandra]

I assume that the jumpers are set correctly for master/slave on each one ?
Does it list them all in the Device manager, without any yellow ? or ! ?

[Adept]

I have seen some odd things happen with CD-ROMs and CD-Writers on the same IDE channel. It sounds as if there might nbe one of these odd conflicts occurring.

Have you tried swapping the order at all?

Also do you really need the DVD/CD-ROM? The Writers are probably fast enough for reading aren't they?

[Dack]

Define "Not work"

I assume the Bios sees all the drives. (Which would mean power and jumper settings were correct).

Does Windows see all the drives?
Can you just not write (which can be down to the writing software). Or can you not read either?

Have you moved one of the drives over to the Primary IDE from the secondary IDE (in which case it could be a motherboard driver issue).

Simplest way to see if the device is correctly detected is to do the usual (windows Key) and (break) combination to get the system info, then Hardware and Device manager (as Sandra suggested). Have a look under IDE controllers and then at the properties on the Primary and Secondary IDE channels to see if the advanced settings have a difference in DMA modes.

I'd hazzard a guess that you'e got a UDMA66 cable on your hard drive which is now connected to one of the other devices that doesn't support UDMA66 - this causes all sorts of strange problems w.r.t. detection issues.

Solution is either drop back to 33 cable (and slow your hard drive down) or learn to love writing at 16x Changing the settings in the advanced settings mentioned may allow you to do a correct detect.