NEC ND3500 DVD, can't burn DVD's, and only 8x on CD-R's

[richardrds]

My new PC has a NEC 3500 DVD burner in it. According to the specs for this i should be able to burn at up to 48x on CD-R' and 16x on DVD+/- R's, but i can only get it to burn CD-R's at 8x, CD-RW's at 4x. It can read DVD's, and play a DVD movie with the nero6 software that came with my PC, but whenever i try to burn a DVD (movie or just data) the nero application hangs when it trys to burn the first byte. It is like dvd burning is not allowed. When i got the PC 2 weeks ago the mobo was DOA and a tech replacedc it. the rest of the PC seems to be working fine except for these pblms i am having with the burner. The tech who replaced the mobo told me he left all the bios options at default. I took a quick look at the bios and all i could tell is the burner is on IDE ch 2 and set to master, there is no slave on that ide channel.

Could there be some other bios option that i am missing that is limiting me to 8x CDR burns and not being able to burn DVD's. I am not that good at interperting the bios settings and made sure i quit the bios without saving any changes.

Any other help you could give me would be appreciated. i called the PC helpdesk from the place where i bought the PC but they were no help and just blew me off with saying i must be using bad media. The CD-R and CD-RW's that i am using are memorex that i purchased 4 yesrs ago in 50 pack spindels, they don't have any speed rating on them. The DVD+R that i am trying to burn is a brand new 25 pack spindle (Memorex DVD+R rated at 8x).

The software that i am using is nero6 and i am running XPsp2. You can see my hardware in my sig.

 

[tiap]

Right ckick drive>properties>reccording tab>make sure windows recording is unticked>apply>ok
reboot
Your 4 year old media may be limited to 8 times
Check that the drive is in udma mode
Download and flash latest firmware for drive at nec website
Make sure there is only one burning program installed. Progs like nero can stay in memory and can jack with system

 

[n7]

Hmm...i had a very similar problem with my comp not so long ago.

My DVD RW would burn CDs & play DVDs, but would hang when trying to burn a DVD.

After screwing around forever, i eventually came to the conclusion my VIA IDE chipset drivers had gone south (still cannot say for sure), & reformatted.

After the format, all has been well.

 

[richardrds]

Update on my DVD Burning pblm.

1. I went out today and puchased a Fujifilm 10 pack of CD-R's that were rated at 48x. when i did nero info on the disk it said the manufacturer was TY's and they were rated at 32x. burnt a 50 minute elvis cd in aboyt 5 minutes (roughly 2.5 minutes of that was the actual burn part). the status screen in nero express 6 was saying it was burning at 32x so i guess this pblm is OK now. My 4 year old cd-r's only supported 8x when i did a nero info check on them.

2. I still have the pblm with not being able to burn DVD's, (video dvd's and plain data dvd's). I was originally trying with Maxwell DVD+R 8x discs (nero info shows Prodisc R03, supported speeds 12x/8x/6x/4x/2.4x)

Today i bought some TDK-R 8x disks (nero info shows TTG02, supported speeds 8x/6x/4x/2x)

The pblm is the same no matter if i use the +R discs, the -R disks, tried at all suported speeds, tried making plain data file backup with nero6 OEM (6.6.0.3 latest version). Also tried making a Movie DVD using Squeezit to remove copy protection and reauther to fit on a single sided DVD5. I get the same results.

What i get is the nero status screen shows the initial data caching while it procceses the data/video files. Then it tells me to put in my blank media. after i put in the blank DVD it says it is starting to burn at 12x for +r, 8x fpr my -r discs. Then it just freeezes there, the buffer status dosn't change , no additional burn status. i wait 5 minutes and still nothing changes. I try and cancel the job or quit the nero app and windows xp tells me the app is not responding. I even do a ctrl/alt and try to manaully end the nero app and the app does not respond. I have to power cycle or hold the power button in for 4 seconds to force a reboot to have windows reload at this point becaus ethe nero app is fozen and won't restart

So it seems to me that it may be a sw pblm between nero 6 and xp or my nd3500 drivers. Running xp home sp2, stock2.18 drivers for the nec3500, and latest nero6 code 6.6.0.3.

I even tryed to backup just a small 100M data file at 2x speed and the same think happens, the nero app freezes when it trys to start the dvd burn process. But the same nero6 app can burn CD-r's at 32x fine on the same nec3500. I don'r get it.

This very frustrating to me because the main reason i bought this PC was for gaming and backing uo Video DVD's.

Any one with any furthuer sugestions would be appreciated.


3. Can anyone sugest another DVD burning application that i could try (prferably freeware) so i could try to pin this down between a nero6 software bug with my nec3500 or bad hardware. Has anyone seen this before where bad hardware in a dvd drive would allow it to burn cd-R/RW's, but not allow it to burn dvd's.

 

[Baked]

Have you tried asking this question over at club.cdfreaks.com? They might be able to solve your problem. If you're lucky, it could just be a busted drive. Exchange it and see what happens.

 

[n7]

As i mentioned above, i was having the exact same problem where i would have to power off the PC via the button due to it freezing exactly like you described.

Reformat. Seriously. Make sure you have the latest chipset drivers for your mobo when you reinstall.
I'm betting that will fix your problem.

The reason i am convinced it is a corrupted chipset drivers issue is that when i went to check in the device manager to see if DMA was enabled...there was no Advanced Settings tab (to check for DMA) where it normally is!

Go to your Device Manager > IDE/ATAPI controllers > select Primary IDE Channel (or wherever your DVD burner is) right click & select Properties > select Advanced Settings tab.
My guess is that there will be no Advanced Settings tab.

If i am right, i would recommend reformatting, as i my guess is that somehow your chipset drivers (the same ones as i have) got messed up somehow.
If i am wrong, you can ignore me, but it seems identical to my situation, & i tried everything you have, as well as various other DVD burning programs, all to no avail.


Good luck!

 

[tiap]

As i mentioned above, i was having the exact same problem where i would have to power off the PC via the button due to it freezing exactly like you described.

He has a good point, but before you possibly reformat, and if your drives are not in udma mode, uninstall the drivers for them and then reboot and let xp find the controllers and reinstall. An os reinstall should not be necessary, but is always best. And it goes without saying that you should always be using all the latest stable drivers on your system

Personally I don't like nero (way too much overhead). Try CopytoDVD it has a free fully functional trial time and frankly I have never had a coaster with it. It burns almost anything.

Make sure you uninstall any and all burning software first and reboot.

 

[richardrds]

Well, finally good news. Thanks you N7 for pointing me in the right direction. You were correct the advanced setting tab were not present on the IDE channels.

I did a new install of XP on top of the old one and had the same pblm. So i said screw it and i reformatted my hardrive, and then did a new xp install, and then the advanced option tabs were there and they were set to mode 2 and use dma. Well quess what, my nd3500 is burning rubber now. Yippieeee!!!!!! What i royal pain, took me all day to reinstall all my apps.

Tahnks for all the help guys!!!!!, and especially you, N7!!!!

 

[n7]

Originally posted by: richardrds
Well, finally good news. Thanks you N7 for pointing me in the right direction. You were correct the advanced setting tab were not present on the IDE channels.

I did a new install of XP on top of the old one and had the same pblm. So i said screw it and i reformatted my hardrive, and then did a new xp install, and then the advanced option tabs were there and they were set to mode 2 and use dma. Well quess what, my nd3500 is burning rubber now. Yippieeee!!!!!! What i royal pain, took me all day to reinstall all my apps.

Tahnks for all the help guys!!!!!, and especially you, N7!!!!

I knew it!

I figured your situation was far too identical to mine to be coincidence.


Glad to hear you got it working