Coasters up the wazoo... burner problem?

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KnickNut3

Platinum Member
Oct 1, 2001
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Hey. I've burned an innumerable amount of coasters in the last week or two, for various reasons. It may be because my 2 year, 200 burned CD old HP CD-Writer Plus is dying, but it may be from other reasons.

I'm getting a lot of buffer under-run or write errors. It says it's not getting the info fast enough in trouble shooting, but I've got a 1.2 GHz with 512 MB RAM and no programs running in the background in XP. That shouldn't be the problem, especially when I'm burning it at 1x!!!

It's not burning good MP3 CDs. When I scan to a song on my iRiver SlimX, it will search for it forever. Sometimes it will take a song 30 seconds to find, then skip 5 seconds in. This is flat with skip protection on, and it always happens to the same song. (i.e. Vivaldi's Four Seasons will always never play at all, Bach's Tocata et Fuga will always search for 30, then skip a lot. These are good, brand new CDs, with no scratches, also burned at various speeds down to 1x.

I'm getting a lot of just bad burns. Bad backups, bad Dreamcast backups (with the right settings), bad everything.

I'm getting more coasters than usable CDs nowadays, and am not sure if it's something I'm doing wrong or if my burner is dying. Thanks for the help.
 
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CAMS

Senior member
Feb 11, 2000
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As you didn't mention it, are you burning on the fly. Could be a problem with the CDROM not CDR. Read to hardisk first and burn at full speed.
 
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KnickNut3

Platinum Member
Oct 1, 2001
2,382
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Yes. I'm burning from images. And I'm using a variety of programs (Discjuggler, CDRWin, Roxio, etc. depending on image extension). I can't use different program because of image type, but I'm having problems with many different programs.
 
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Bovinicus

Diamond Member
Aug 8, 2001
3,145
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I have an HP CD-RW drive as well. I ran into a similar problem when I enabled digital CD playback a long time ago. Why this setting would cause me to burn coasters is beyond me, but I know for sure that it did.
 
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Texmaster

Banned
Jun 5, 2001
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<< Yes. I'm burning from images. And I'm using a variety of programs (Discjuggler, CDRWin, Roxio, etc. depending on image extension). I can't use different program because of image type, but I'm having problems with many different programs. >>



If you don't, how shall I put this, own the software you are using and you have a bad serial #, that will happen.
 
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kuk

Platinum Member
Jul 20, 2000
2,925
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Let's do this one more time ... is DMA on?

Control Panel -> System -> Hardware -> Device Manager -> IDE Atapi Controllers -> Right Click the channel that the device is connected (Primary or Secondary) -> Properties -> Advanced Settings

Check to see if DMA if available is selected, and that the device is NOT running in PIO mode.

Please post back with your results ...
 
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Turkey22

Senior member
Nov 28, 2001
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I was having the same problem with my old aopen 6x. I just went out and got a 16x cyber with burnproof and it works every time and is much faster not to mention it was pretty cheap
 
dullard

dullard

Elite Member
May 21, 2001
26,024
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<< I'm getting more coasters than usable CDs nowadays, and am not sure if it's something I'm doing wrong or if my burner is dying. Thanks for the help. >>



The easy way out: use a CDRW not a CDR. If it burns wrong, then you just burn it again. That way you'd be spending less money. Plus once you no longer play old burned games or listen to old burned music or need old backups - you have a free CD ready to burn again. So many people waste money with CDRs when a CDRW will solve most of their problems.
 
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ravedave

Senior member
Dec 9, 1999
541
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What HD do you have? I had the same problem and it was because My HD was going bad. I had a maxtor that must have been having controller problems it would max out my CPU and cause the CD to coaster. Also try firing up MSconfig and turning everythign off then burn. Possibly an App int the background stealing CPu/disk usage? Also try lighting up windows GUI, under computer properties go to setting(display? for got the tab) then advanced and turn off all option excpet window styles and font smoothing.
 
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Kinki

Senior member
Apr 3, 2001
213
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i'm guessing you have the HP 7200 burner (or something close). i had the same problem during summer. i guess it's time for it to retire (mine died after 2 years too! can u believe i paid around $400CND for one of these back then! argh).

i've formatted. installed it onto another computer and it still doesn't burn right.



so just last month i just went and bought a liteOn 24x.
 
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ravedave

Senior member
Dec 9, 1999
541
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sorry to double post...
A CD-rw costs about 5x of an R, thats why ppl dont use them. (however in this case I'd reccomend it for testing)
 
dullard

dullard

Elite Member
May 21, 2001
26,024
4,650
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<< A CD-rw costs about 5x of an R, thats why ppl dont use them. >>



I will look at retail prices on CDRs and CDRWs. The average 50 CDR bundle at BestBuy costs $25. The average 50 CDRW bundle at BestBuy costs $40. That is a 60% increase in average price. No where near 5x the price!

Now consider that you will reuse each once (either you burned a coaster or you got bored with the old games/old music):
Net cost for 50 CDRs: $25.
Net cost for 25 CDRWs: $20.

Sure lots of people will continue to play their old copied Diablo when Diablo 4 is out, but not very many. Sure some people like to listen to the same CD for years, but not very many. Thus even if you reuse them once, you save money.

 
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Macro2

Diamond Member
May 20, 2000
4,874
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I've been getting the same thing lately with a 8x Creative. Interestingly it burns some files fine and large corel files it buffer-underruns. At least it boils down to that. I'm wondering if it has something to do with the HD as it usually ends up saying something like can't find end track. The HD is pretty full and I had no problems until I defragged it. Using nero 5.4.

Mac
 
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KnickNut3

Platinum Member
Oct 1, 2001
2,382
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Thanks for some suggestions.



<< If you don't, how shall I put this, own the software you are using and you have a bad serial #, that will happen. >>


Uh... no, I'm not burning illegal games, and no, no where did I say I was using serial numbers, and bad ones at that. These are simple backups that don't require serial numbers.



<< Is DMA on? >>


Device 0 - Auto Detection; DMA if available... current mode: Ultra DMA Mode 5
Device 1 - Auto Detection; DMA if available... current mode: Not Applicable



<< The easy way out: use a CDRW not a CDR. If it burns wrong, then you just burn it again. >>


Nice idea, but my Dreamcast, 1 CD player, and old PC don't read these. I'll try it on the others though.



<< i'm guessing you have the HP 7200 burner >>


Close... 9100 series. It was about $250 when I got it as a gift. Guess I just refuse to let that money go, though I probably should pick up a nice Lite-on or something. My father will probably take mine and buy me a new one.



<< What HD do you have? I had the same problem and it was because My HD was going bad. I had a maxtor that must have been having controller problems it would max out my CPU and cause the CD to coaster. >>


Uh oh... a Maxtor 40 GB 7200 RPM. I hope this doesn't screw me over...

I'd appreciate any more suggestions. I've tried closing most everything. Plus, with that much RAM and very little PC usage, could the PC set it off anymore? I could understand it when on my old PII 400 with 64 MB RAM and 500 MB free space that I couldn't touch it without a fail, but I find it hard to believe that my 1.2 Athlon, 512 MB RAM, and partitioned, defragmented 40 GB hard drve could be screwing it up like that.
 
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KnickNut3

Platinum Member
Oct 1, 2001
2,382
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How can I be sure it's the drive? I really don't want to do the effect of an entire format, somehow back everything up, send it back, only to have them say "It's fine, there's nothing wrong," and charge me some extra fees.
 
K

kuk

Platinum Member
Jul 20, 2000
2,925
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<< Device 0 - Auto Detection; DMA if available... current mode: Ultra DMA Mode 5 >>



Nope, that's your Hard Drive ... take a look at your other channel. No CD-Writers run on anything higher than UDMA 2.
 
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