DVD Burning Issues

[fisheswithpole]

Okay fellas. I am a new user, so be gentle.

I have been plagued with DVD-R Burning issues for over a month now. I am using a I/O Magic 4X Burner and Bencole Platinum Series 1-4X (4.7G) DVD-R's.

I bought two 25 packs of the Platinum Series DVD-R at Micro Center thinking I was getting a great deal at $.67 per disc. However, out of 40 burning attempts, I have made 20 coasters. These attempts have been through DVD Shrink / CloneDVD and the new DVD Shrink 3.1 / Nero combinations.

There does not seem to be any rhyme or reason behind the failures. A colleague re-installed the ASPI Layer. That help for three discs, but problem resurfaced.

I have a Soyo KT-600 Dragon Plus Motherboard. Could updating / flashing my BIOS fix this issue?

Other unrelated / related issues are:
1. Monitor not kicking on at system start-up. Power has to be manually turned off and on to get it to work at start-up.
2. System boot hanging up on Dragon Logo screen.
3. System boot hanging up on Windows XP start page.

Any help / advice appreciated.

[phenious]

What exactly are the errors that you are getting? can you copy and paste the error message?

-: phenious :-

[fisheswithpole]

Sorry, I do not have the text string for the errors anymore. The error text string came up using DVD Shrink 3.1 / Nero Combination. I have had fewer coasters with Clone DVD.

From what I remember the problems began with a TRACK FOLLOWING ERROR. Which lead to the communication between hard drive and DVD-Burner coming to a screeching halt.

With CloneDVD, the lead-in is written and then the entire program goes to NOT REPSONDING. When I shut down Clone DVD in process manager, it closes the window but still shows CloneDVD running in the processes. I end up having to completely power down and reboot to take another swing at it.

Friends think it may be just bad media. I just order 50 Ritek 4.7G (1-4X) DVD-R's from NewEgg.com for $45.99 with free shipping(Plugity-plug). They scored five of five stars with 106 customers. 100% success rate, with no coasters. The biggest issue I read was that they sometimes burn at 2x instead of 4x.

I was just hoping someone (having had similar problems) would have responding saying "YES, flash that BIOS and all of your problems will CEASE!"

[phenious]

Ok well I will tell you that you need to make sure everything is updated and Flashing your DVD-Burner may indeed help but no promises. Have you tried burning at a slower speed? Maybe you Rig just cant handle the faster speeds? Most people who get write errors stop getting them when they slow down the burn process. It takes longer but its cheaper then a bunch of coasters.

-: phenious :-

[fisheswithpole]

It is rated for speeds up to 4x. I will reset the write speed and see if that helps. Thanks for your advice.

[Kreuzemissle]

I found myself making 3 coasters to start out using Memorex -R's. I figured out that I was trying to max out the full capacity of the disc (suppose to be 4.38GB); but once I tried a disc closer to 4.2GB all the Memorex -R discs worked perfectly. Try and create smaller files, say closer to 4.2GB or even a bit lower, and try to burn one. That was the simple fix for me. I also found that using Memorex +RW's I was able to fit the max 4.38GB on the disc's. Maybe try different brands and different formats also, just don't buy massive packs until you know that the formats and brands burn and play to your desire. Hope this helps.

[osprey4]

Originally posted by fisheswithpole
It is rated for speeds up to 4x. I will reset the write speed and see if that helps. Thanks for your advice.

Remember that there is more to burning speeds than the writer. Your hard drive, IDE controller and chipset influence the ability to get data to the burner.

Try using the Nero feature to test the burning speed first (under options on the screen where you see the "Burn" button). Nero will tell you the fastest sustainable burn speed based on the whole system, and it will also tell you where the bottlenecks are.

[fosin]

And if you don't have Nero, you can download their free testing software called Nero CD-DVD Speed at http://www.cdspeed2000.com/go.php3?link=download.html. It can help you troubleshoot.

Yea, quality of media does make a difference.
“Preliminary Test Results Conclude That The Most Critical Factor in DVD Compatibility Is The Quality of Media”
http://www.osta.org/osta/press_releases/pr030812.pdf

If you haven't already, you can go to soyo's website and download the latest ide and chipset drivers or bios update. Your system hanging like that is not a good sign, but hopefully you move/change things around and get it to work.

[thekatna]

I bought that burner and sent it baack you should do the same i have hival now and it's just fine. if you don't believe me go to i/o magic forum a lot of people had problems with that burner sorry

[dr_roberts49]

I heard the same story. Several weeks ago, I was in the market for a DVD burner and I saw the I/O Magic DVD burners on sale at Staples. My son had problems with one of their video cards a couple of years ago, so I thought I would do some checking on the internet. Saw the same thing thekanta saw. Case closed. Bought a NEC 2500A 8X DVD burner from Newegg for a little over a hundred dollars with free shipping. Ordered it Monday, got it and installed on Wednesday. That was 3 weeks ago. Not a single coaster to date. Using NERO 6 Ultra and DVD Shrink.

Robert