Topic: CD-RW Problems - ANy Suggestions

[pictec]

Having problems burning cd's on my CD-RW drive. I have always burned cd's using music match jukebox with no problems up until now.

But suddenly its just started producing messed up disks. There is buts of music on there but it jumps about all over the place or has bits of interference.

Tried using different software like Real. But that just says there is an error on the disk. As I've bought brand new disks of more than one brand this cannot be the case.

Any suggestions on what I can start checking?

Cheers in advance.

Mark

 :'(

[Simon]

Hi Pictec, and

Have you got one of those CD Laser cleaners?  You just pop them in the drive, and they are supposed to clean the laser head, I have to admit, with varying degrees of success.

Other than that, have you access to another CD-RW drive you could try?  I'm not saying this for definite, but possibly your drive could be on the way out.  

One of our 'proper' techies may be able to give you more advice later.  

[Sandra]

Have you tried a SIMULATED burn or had it VERIFY after burning Pictec ?
Are you burning off the hard drive or copying CD to CD ?
Does it happen with just one method or both ?

Have you tried burning at a slower speed to see if this rectifies it ?

[pictec]

Simulated burns work fine.

It is hard drive to cd. Haven't tried cd to cd in a while. I'll give it go tonight.

Tried burning at lower speeds. No affect.

Haven't tried a laser cleaner. But if it was that wouldn't it have problems reading cd's as well? And it has no trouble reading stuff.

Mark

[Sandra]

Do you get a buffer underrun at any time while it burns or does everything appear normal and say its been successful at the end of the burn ?

[pictec]

Depends which software I'm running. One piece of software runs though ok and says its successful. Real on the other hand fails on the first trcak complaining of a disk error.

Mark

[pictec]

OK. Lst night I tried doing a cd to cd copy. Didn't even get past the read stage or the original cd. Just sat the all nite trying to do the read but stuck on the 12% mark of one of the tracks. Didn't give an error though. Just ended up cancelling it.

This narrow the possibilities down?

Mark

 

[Sandra]

It seems unlikely that both burning programs have got corrupted,although there is always that possibility.
Have you got an almost full hard drive by any chance?
I am wondering if its running out of space for the swap file or similar.
Failing that it does look as if the writer has developed a fault.
Maybe you could try using a different burning program such as Nero  

[joudi]

Hi Pictec,

     Don't worry Pictec, you are between good hands (Sandra's). But just a small question:

     Although you have entitled this topic "CD-RW problem", permit me to ask whether the CD to which you want to transfer and burn music Is CD-R  Or  CD-RW?

    I read once that it is not adviced to burn music on CD-RW.  So, does your problem happen also on CD-R?

[pictec]

Actually I am using CD-R. Makes no odds.

Downloaded a trial version of nero and gave it a go. Appeared to work. But when I tried to play the disk nothing coame out.

As for my hard drive....its two thirds full.

Use 8.2G. Free 5G. I've tried cleaning things up by removing lots of junk using regcleaner.

Mark

 

[pictec]

Well, I have now checked the inside of the tower to make sure all the wires and stuff are still fitted. All ok.

So I am now completely stuck. Any one with any final suggestions?

Mark

 :-[

[Dack]

A burn with verify - what did that give you?

A simulated burn would just check the HD to writer transfer speed and would not actually check the capability to write to disc.

How old is the drive - it may just be that the laser is on its way out (as the power to burn is less than that needed to read the disc this would be why you can read but not write correctly). As you have now got problems reading then it would point towards that.

Trying a drive cleaner may be a quick fix but it sounds as if the drive is on its last legs

[lobo]

@pictec
Hi m8, what kind of files are you burning to CD-R, are they MP3s converting to CDA or some other format?

Brian

[WhiteDevil]

ive been having a bit of trouble at the moment playing MP3s, they sound really scratchy in places, but in others they are perfect... Play the MP3s, (or whatever) and check that they are ok, if they are, i suggest getting a new burner  8)

[ketamininja]

There are some essential files from Windows itself that I believe are used in a burning process. Are you using XP? XP has its own built in recording software, which could be conflicting...

I'm afraid that you maybe have a duff drive otherwise
I hate those answers, don't you?