Video burns to DVD constantly fail

[djdrew201]

I have several known good .avi files that I was going to burn to DVD video, and I have never been so stumped. In Nero 7 and even Windows Media Player burn-to-dvd program, it encodes or whatever it does at the start of the burn, then when it is ready to actually start the burn process, it fails.

I bought two SATA LG DVD burners and installed one-at-a-time, they include the "M" technology, and still I have no idea why these files won't burn. It cannot be the files themselves as I have re-downloaded them to burn, and still the same occurrence.

I have AVG 2012 that I installed on my computer a while back, but an anti-virus suite shouldn't affect burning issues? Also, I have burned several movies to DVD since and had no troubles at all till last week.

I was so perplexed I even went to the effort of a full re-install of Windows, to no avail. I installed no other programs but the basics and left additional programs for later, and still I cannot burn DVDs.

I had purchased a new SATA Blu-ray Lite-on BR-ROM/DVD-writer and it won't burn the same files to DVD either. Same error, cannot burn to disk.

Has anyone ever run across a failure like this?

Here is system information:

ASUS M2N32-SLi Deluxe
AMD 9760b Quad core
Geil 4G PC2-6400
ASUS 9500GT
Seagate 500G HDD

I am using Verbatim DVD-R 16X 120 minute 4.7G blanks and am sure they are good disks. Like I said, it burnt with no troubles for several years, and it burned well on an ASUS DVD writer to these disks before the problem.

Its been a while since I posted with a problem, so I hope you guys can help me like you always have.

Thanks in advance.

 

[AnitaPeterson]

I'm not sure what you're saying; you provide lots of details, just not the proper ones. You say the burn "fails" - but it's not clear what that means, what's the error message (if any), whether the files were successfully converted to DVD format, and so on. And the fact that you went as far as reinstalling Windows... really? Hasn't it occurred to you, yet, that your entire approach is wrong?

Try a real avi-to-DVD conversion program, not the "all-in-one" Nero. You will NEVER see people who are serious about their multimedia using Nero for encoding. Nero is a disc burning program; everything else is just varnish. The Film Machine is free, and it has an excellent encoding engine. Alternatively, use TMPGEnc, or ConvertXtoDVD (if you have them). Go to videohelp.com, look at a couple of tutorials, if you need more help.

First create the DVD image file (which you can double-check with VLC). THEN burn it to DVD - and use a SLOW speed, with verification at the end. I am always wondering about the mentality of those people who burn CDs and DVDs at high speeds, then they wonder about the errors on the resulting discs. If their time is so precious that they want a disc to be ready in two minutes, they really must not care about the quality of the burn.

It could also be that the discs are just crappy?... Memorex is notoriously bad, for instance.

 

[mfenn]

I'm not sure what you're saying; you provide lots of details, just not the proper ones. You say the burn "fails" - but it's not clear what that means, what's the error message (if any), whether the files were successfully converted to DVD format, and so on. And the fact that you went as far as reinstalling Windows... really? Hasn't it occurred to you, yet, that your entire approach is wrong?

Try a real avi-to-DVD conversion program, not the "all-in-one" Nero. You will NEVER see people who are serious about their multimedia using Nero for encoding. Nero is a disc burning program; everything else is just varnish. The Film Machine is free, and it has an excellent encoding engine. Alternatively, use TMPGEnc, or ConvertXtoDVD (if you have them). Go to videohelp.com, look at a couple of tutorials, if you need more help.

First create the DVD image file (which you can double-check with VLC). THEN burn it to DVD - and use a SLOW speed, with verification at the end. I am always wondering about the mentality of those people who burn CDs and DVDs at high speeds, then they wonder about the errors on the resulting discs. If their time is so precious that they want a disc to be ready in two minutes, they really must not care about the quality of the burn.

It could also be that the discs are just crappy?... Memorex is notoriously bad, for instance.

:thumbsup::thumbsup:

Split up the process and test the output at every step. That's how you find errors.

 

[djdrew201]

I have never yet gotten the problem resolved using any or all of the proposed fixes and even installed two new ASUS optical drives too that I happened to order because they were on sale and I could use them later for other computers. I am having issues also with recognizing external portable drives via the rear or front USB slots. See article:

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2220926\

So I am not sure what to do next...any other suggestions?

I used FilmMachine and transcoded all files to an .iso image, or a regular DVD format. I used Alcohol 120, BurnAtOnce and Nero7 to try to burn disks and was sporadic to total failures using those venues although FilmMachine worked well. DVD's and CD's get to the end of the burn and either give a failed burn message or "could not finish closing single session burn".

I even tried one fix I found online which gave me troublesome results but was able to fix the problems with the fix??? Ain't that a common?

http://www.techspot.com/vb/topic137666.html#post815753

 

[VirtualLarry]

DVD's and CD's get to the end of the burn and either give a failed burn message or "could not finish closing single session burn".

That sounds like a media incompatibility problem. What brand of discs are you using? I suggest Verbatim, and don't burn faster than 16X. (prefer 8x or 4x)

 

[djdrew201]

I got brand new Rosewill CD-R's and Verbatim DVD-R's, from Newegg.com and have hardly any troubles before with any media from them or the brands, but I know sometimes bad ones go through. Yet, I would be prone to doubt , wouldn't you too, if both the DVD's and the CD's were bad from the get go? However with my luck lately, I wouldn't be surprised any...smiling.

Before this problem appeared a few weeks ago, I could burn through Nero7 at 06x speed.

If you would, look at my other post please for a few minutes concerning external drive failure to be recognized that I mentioned earlier. Does it possibly have any relation to what is occurring?

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2220926\

At this point, any suggestions besides throwing this troublesome computer away would be helpful.

Thanks in advance.

 

[djdrew201]

Time stamp of this log file: 1/21/2012 3:44:55 PM *********
15:44:56 Processor info: AMD Phenom(tm) 9750B Quad-Core Processor x 4 (2410MHz)
15:44:56 Physical memory available to Windows: 4,192,760 KB
15:44:56 Memory Buffer size: 512 MB
15:44:56 Image file loading: E:\downloads\programs\Windows 7 all versions fully updateable\Windows 7 all versions and fully updateable\Windows 7 all versions and fully updateable.iso
15:44:55 DVD Source Info: Session: 1, Track: 1, Length: 3.57 GB / 1873824
15:45:41 (D ASUS DRW-24B1ST (3:1): Recording Method/Speed
15:45:41 Recording - DAO - 6.0X (8310 KB/Sec)
(D ASUS DRW-24B1ST (3:1) - Media format: DVD-R
15:45:41 (D ASUS DRW-24B1ST (3:1): BURN-Free activated
15:47:00 (D ASUS DRW-24B1ST (3:1) - [Write ERROR] LBA: 0, Length: 32
S:KEY - 04/3E/02 - "Timeout On Logical Unit"
15:47:00 (D ASUS DRW-24B1ST (3:1): Recording failed!
15:47:00 Error message: [04/3E/02] - Timeout On Logical Unit
15:47:00 (D ASUS DRW-24B1ST (3:1): Recording failed!
15:47:00 Image file loading aborted!
15:47:02 Something is wrong with the recording procedure! Please check the log file and report any errors to Technical Support.

 

[C1]

Look at these posts:
http://www.wiki-errors.com/err.php?wiki=32

http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/1298203

It would seem that you're experiencing some kind of OS - DvD Writer incompatibility. A possibility is to first close all DvD writer applications and cancel any/all pending OS DvD write jobs. Then, in device manager, first delete your DvD Writer then uninstall the SATA controller that it is on, then reboot and let the OS re-find everything and re-install. Hopefully the OS will hook up/configure everything correctly.

If that doesnt work, I would borrow someones DvD Writer (different brand) and see if that works.

Good luck.

If or when you resolve this issue, be sure to let us know what you concluded.

 

[djdrew201]

did as you exactly prescribed, yet the diagnosis afterwards was no change. This computer is giving me headaches with external drives even though it will read 4G thumb drives, as posted in my other thread...but I am not sure the two are related. I have found the only available drivers for this board, having to use Vista 64 bit drivers in many instances since ASUS was too lazy to make and file explicit win7 64 drivers for it. But all the drivers in device manager show good. I uninstalled and let windows update re-install all the drivers once I deleted the ones for both optical drives, and also for the SATA controllers and such.

I am still perplexed on how this board could be bad but running in all other instances well.

I still cannot burn to DVD or CD without error messages in all programs, Alcohol 120, BurnAtOnce or Nero7.

Any other ideas?

I have run SFC.exe /scannow drom an administrators cmd prompt and didn't find any problems.

 

[C1]

It encodes or whatever it does at the start of the burn, then when it is ready to actually start the burn process, it fails.

That part of the burning is "the lead in", but it looks like it fails when it gets to writing of the actual data. I suppose that there may be a possibility of DRM (digital rights management) being involved. Is it just the downloaded avi files which wont burn or is it everything now (as you were able to burn videos to DvD at least at one time)?

If it is just the avi files, then I would suspect DRM. If that is the case,try to load the avi into another application and resave it. Ive actually had a similar problem with downloaded mp3s which I edited. As I recall, I would get "write fails" with the edited products. I finally had to load the media files into another application (Steinberg's Wavelab Lite) and save it from there and they they would burn. Weird.

 

[mfenn]

Some ideas:
- Do you have another machine that you can test the drives in?
- How about SATA cables, have you tested those?
- Do the drives read OK?

 

[oynaz]

Sounds like you have a hardware issue. Bad mobo or RAM, maybe?

 

[AnitaPeterson]

In your other thread, you say that you'll upgrade your power supply with something better and sturdier. Did that work? Are the burning problems also solved?

I googled your motherboard, and it looks like it has a PATA port - it may be worth investigating whether an optical drive connected to it will burn discs successfully.

If both of the above fail, I'd say your motherboard may be at fault.

 

[djdrew201]

Check this thread for my other problems with external hard drives and you can browse the history of the problem and the fix.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2220926

By listening to "C1"s suggestion on USB voltage, it gave me the idea'r that I might have a voltage problem overall, so I installed ASUS Probe2 on my machine and saw under voltage problems. I replaced the power supply with a good 680W PSU and walla! All the problems of DVD burns and external USB drives resolved right off the spot! ASUS Probe showed low voltage on the +3.5V rail and the +5.0V rail.

As "Old Hippie" said in the other thread, you learn something new everyday and a bad PSU can definitely spin you around with weird hidden troubles with goofy symptoms.

Thanks "everyone" for all your input...you're a gift and a blessing.

 

[mfenn]

:thumbsup: Glad you got it resolved!