DVD Burning Problems

wildfire

Help one burn then fail
I am having a nightmare with my DVD Burner,

When writing any sort of DVD (Video, UDF etc) I can write one DVD successfully then when I try and write another it begins but doesnt move from the writing leadin stage after about 4 mins it bins out with a fail. If I restart I can write one DVD no problems then same again, so at the moment I am having to restart all the time. I am using nero but have tried using various other programs, even dvd decryter image writer.
My Drive is a sony DVD RW DW-D22A
Amd FX-53
MSI KN8 NEO2
4X Corsair XMS 4500 DDR (2GB)
2 X Seagate 160GB RAID 0
Windows XP SP2

Plantwiz

just a note, I hate MSI mobo's and dislike Sony drives - many, many defective and problem parts over the years

That out of the way

What type of media are you using? Confirm on Sony's website that the media you are using is rated for your drive. Ususaly Verbatim disks will be rated. They are more money, and are worth it!

Beyond the media issue, Nero is the program I'd highly recommend, are you using it because it came with your drive or you bought it? Some drives will only support the lite version if it shipped with the drive to minimize software swapping.

Things to check:
1. malware - run spybot, MS beta version, hijackthis, etc..
2. scan for A/V if you do not have current definitions, update and/or try an online scanner like housecall from Trend Micro
3. Did you have this problem before you installed SP2?
4. Do you have additional Atapi drives or only the DVD burner? How is that set up? Master/Slave? Primary/Secondary channel (if you have 2)? DMA enabled?

wildfire

Thanks for your response,

nedia wise I have tried different types from 2 speed to 8 speed, including princo, ritek, verbatim. No difference, one good burn.

Pinnacle instant CD+DVD came with the PC, however I bought a copy of Nero and have used that for years, I normally build my own PC's but I have been unlucky with stuff blowing up all the time over the years I bought an off the shelf built to spec for once.

1. Malware wise I have run spybot and Ad-ware SE
2. Tried various AV scans and nothing
3. I will have to try pre SP2, problem is I do a reinstall of XP and cant find SP1 to download anywhere I contact Microsft about SP1 and they said it was no longer supported!.
4. No aditional drives, the DVD burner is set as the the secondary master, DMA is enabled.

its starting to annoy me, I contacted sony and they say it must be a software problem as they have had no reports of problems with that dirve!

Plantwiz

Just a quick sec, this morning....


So, your XPsp2 is was on the disc as you installed it? You did not have an early XP or XPsp1 disc whereby you merely downloaded the SP? (just trying to understand)

Sony will likely say it is software related (as would any drive MFG), but you do need to rule out the obvious, so it is a good practice to call regardless.

One other quick thought this morning....how much free space do you have on your drives? I realize you stated you have 160GB as a RAID 0, but do you have enough free space to 'cache' the video you are creating?

Drakonblayde

The problem is either XP or the drive itself. It is possible you just got a bad drive. I don't suppose you have another burner you could swap in and try? I had a somewhat similar problem to this years ago... had a CD drive that wouldn't recognize you'd actually changed CD's until you rebooted the entire box. Once I swapped the drive out, worked perfectly.

Of course when it comes to burners, I only buy two brands. Lite-On and Plextor own.

wildfire

Yeah it came with XP SP2 I have an XP disk aswell but I cant find SP1 anywhere,

The hard drive is 2x160GB so its 300GB after overhaeds, Ive got 129GB free, plenty of RAM free, I also borrowed a new drive we got at work, NE ND-3540 and have used a USB 2.0 Caddy, 8 burns in a row without a fail, I rang Sony and they say that if it makes one burn then the drive MUST be ok! the fact that subsequent burns fail must be some error on my part! cheeky Bas$%^ds ! I might as well throw the damm thing away, I have yet to try the NEC in the IDE and the sony on the Caddie.

Plantwiz

Well, it may work on a different system, but possibly not. If you can test it in another box with the same fails...likely a bad drive and one of the common problems I had with Sony's years back.

I like Plextor, but they are pricy. Lite-on is now labeling drives and I've had 98-99% sucess with the thousands of drives I have installed (sold for installs).

You could try a different IDE cable, but in my time I find that I do that step anyway but little success...once or twice it fixed the problem.

AOpen has some labeled drives now that if stock is unavailable in Plextor, and Lite-on I'll get that.

Sounds like you may be in Europe....I forget what your big resell places are. I like NewEgg.com for small orders or Ingram for larger orders....NewEgg may ship overseas...don't know??

Drakonblayde

Unless they recently changed their policy, Newegg doesn't ship overseas. I'm a big fan of theirs as well.

So it sounds like using another drive worked alright, so yeah, it's probably the drive. Maybe something on the controller interface is frotzed up, or maybe the firmware is screwed or some other esoteric problem.

This is one reason why I like building my own boxes. Modularity = good. If one part goes bad or comes in bad, I can either return or RMA that individual piece.

cliffjag1987

So you were looking for xpsp1:

Here is a link to download

http://software.parbo.net/microsoft/XP/xpsp1_en_x86.exe[code]

This is what i was going to do when i had this problem :

-As what i have always learned is to test something first in a lab.
-Ok you can download a free version of virtual pc from microsoft ( trial version ) & install it ofcourse
-Install xp (without sp1) on the virtual pc
-Test your dvd burner ( burn more than 2 discs )
-If still same problem install sp1 ( look if its working )

another thing.

Don't burn on the fly. Try to burn from your hd to dvd. Also look if you can burn a normal cd with eg music.

hope it helps!!!