Goofy Lite-On 32X burner problem ... hangs with different media

[cranston]

All:

Configuration:

Athlon 1500, Lite-On 32X CDRW, Lite-On 16X DVD, WD 120GB HD, and 2 ATA-66 RAIDed WD 60GBs. Windoze 98SE. Everything updated (as much as a 98SE can be).

Here's the deal. I can run VCDEasy or Nero and burn great. No coasters, just excellent performance ...

provided I don't change _manufacturer_ of CDR media in the drive. Yup, different media brands (like Taiyo Yuden vs CMC Magnetics vs Ritek vs 3 year old TDKs) switched make the drive hang every time. Here's the symptoms:

1. Change media type in drive (you know, when you're giving a "scratch" disk to your sister, you don't bother with the TYs).
2. New media burns fine ... ONCE
3. Disk pops out and you remove it

Here's where the fun starts:

4. You put a new disk in the tray (it doesn't matter which kind) and you push the tray in the usual 1/4 of the way expecting the drive to grab the disk and pull it in. Drive never grabs the disk. You must push it all the way ... it's as if the disk just goes to sleep. When it makes it in, it doesn't get scanned, or nothing.
5. The hard disk light glows bright red ... as if I'm moving a 2GB file from one disk to another.
6. The system slooooowwwwwssss way down. 15 seconds to respond to a CTRL-ALT-DEL. Nothing else besides the burner program is running (I keep things loaded down to the absolute minimum).
7. Other applications can load, but they progressively slow the system. Load IE and a mail program and the newsreader, and the system just locks up. CTRL-ALT-DEL eventually doesn't do anything.
8. If you restart the system before starting other applications, and the drive is still out, right after the hardware boot starts, the drive sucks the tray right in.

This has been driving me batty for weeks now. I finally figured it out this morning. I've been burning a mess of Taiyo Yuden CDRs over the past three days, without turning the system off. VCDEasy or Nero, it didn't matter (both VCDEasy and Nero are up-to-date with current versions, and I've reinstalled my ASPI layer a couple times), everything worked great ... until I put a Ritek in to archive less important stuff. Hangup city. I retried it a few minutes later (after a system boot) going from Ritek to super-old (3 years from the back of the closet) TDKs (brand actually is TDK), and it stalled per usual. What's kinda ironic is the Ritek disk was a TDK also.

What it looks like to me is that somehow the drive hardware/firmware gets confused when it comes to dealing with the new media, and doesn't know what to do. I _presume_ the Liteons burn the different manufacturers CDRs with different laser intensity. Wrong assumption? Goofy part is that the first of the new media CDRs burns fine, but you only get one. I guess as long as I never changed, the drive would be fine. Has anyone out there heard or seen anything like this?

Thanks for help ... I hope someone can,

Cranston

 

[Buz2b]

The only thing I can add is that this drive "detects" the media when it is inserted and "adjusts" the burn speed to compensate for the various quality of media. You might have a CDR rated at 32X but the drive may not have it's stats and can't adjust for it. Is it only happening with the lower quality CDR's? Or, if I understand you correctly, it happens if you change media during a "multi-CD" burn. So, if you only need one CD to copy something, it works fine. If you have to burn a second CD it hangs?? Anyway, like you, I am confused here.
Have you tried updating the firmware on the drive? Go to the Lite-On homepage download area and download and install the newest firmware for the drive. I did mine and it now shows in Nero as a 40X CDRW....BONUS!! Anyway, hopefully that might help. There was mention of a "fix" for a system hang on the description of one of the previous firmware updates.

 

[cranston]

Hi Buz:

You said:

"The only thing I can add is that this drive "detects" the media when it is inserted and "adjusts" the burn speed to compensate for the various quality of media. You might have a CDR rated at 32X but the drive may not have it's stats and can't adjust for it. Is it only happening with the lower quality CDR's? Or, if I understand you correctly, it happens if you change media during a "multi-CD" burn. So, if you only need one CD to copy something, it works fine. If you have to burn a second CD it hangs?? Anyway, like you, I am confused here.
Have you tried updating the firmware on the drive? Go to the Lite-On homepage download area and download and install the newest firmware for the drive. I did mine and it now shows in Nero as a 40X CDRW....BONUS!! Anyway, hopefully that might help. There was mention of a "fix" for a system hang on the description of one of the previous firmware updates. "

Not exactly. Additional info:

Burning at 8X or 12X. All CDRs in question are rated up to 32X, and when they do burn, they're quite usable. Not a "multi-CD" burn. Literally, when I go from making one CDR, and then create a New window, and start the next disk is when the behavior happens. If I change media brand when I start the New window, that disk will go fine, and upon getting spit out of the drive, the drive goes .... flaccid. If I keep using the same _manufacturer_ (that is Ritek, Taiyo Yuden, CMC Magnetics as opposed to TDK, Fuji, Circuit City El Cheapo), all disks will work great. if I change manufacturer, the first disk works, and then the drive goes stupid.

I was running XSOK, and updated last nite to XSOX. AFAIK, the update went fine; I haven't tried to burn anything today. Drive reads good, and it comes up as XSOX.

Cheers,
Cran

 

[Buz2b]

Now you've got me curious because it sounds like a software related issue in one sense; hardware in the other. I may have to run a couple of tests myself. Just so I am clear, if you go into Nero, make/compile a CD and burn it; then close that one out (but not close Nero) and start another with a DIFFERENT brand of CD media, the problem arises. (Rattles his brain)I'm wondering if I can duplicate that. I know you mentioned using VCDEasy also and I don't use that but this happens with BOTH programs, correct? I gotta try this. Later.

 

[cranston]

"Now you've got me curious because it sounds like a software related issue in one sense; hardware in the other. I may have to run a couple of tests myself. Just so I am clear, if you go into Nero, make/compile a CD and burn it; then close that one out (but not close Nero) and start another with a DIFFERENT brand of CD media, the problem arises. (Rattles his brain)I'm wondering if I can duplicate that. I know you mentioned using VCDEasy also and I don't use that but this happens with BOTH programs, correct? I gotta try this. "


Make/compile the disk and burn in Nero/VCDEasy

Close out and make/compile a second disk OR just make another copy of what you just made, but instead load a different manufacturer's media (eg, Taiyo Yuden, CMC Magnetics, Ritek, etc)

This second disk will burn and eject just fine ... and then the door won't close and the CDRW goes flaccid. System slows down, bad ju-ju overall

I'm suspicious about something in the firmware. If you don't change manufacturer, you can burn disks for 3 days (like I did) ... but the minute you change brands, you're hosed. My hypothesis would be that once you start burning, the firmware lets you change media once (changes internal burn settings for the laser), but then gets confused about accepting another disk. Stranger firmware things have happened ... the only thing in my mind that changes here is whether the CDRW is dealing with a Short Strategy or Long Strategy (Cyanine?) dye, and changes the laser burn parameters accordingly. The other goofy part is that when the CDRW goes into this trance like state, the hard disk access light glows bright red, as if the computer is trying to communicate like Lt Uhura ("opening all known hailing frequencies, Captain, and no response"), but gets nothing back from the CDRW.

As I said, I flashed to XSOX, but still haven't played with it yet.

Cran

 

[Buz2b]

Sorry, I haven't had the chance to check this out yet but you can bet I will and I will post back my results soon.

 

[cranston]

Flashed it to XSOX and burned a couple CDRs last night. No problems. Maybe that's why XSOK is not on the market any more.

Hopefully it's fixed. If not, I'll be back.

cran