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  1. I have the wierdest problem I've seen in CD/DVD-burning. Exactly every second disc is bad. It is like a clockwork, one good, one bad, even restarting the machine can not break the rythm. Just to clarify, it is not just 50% of the discs, it is exactly one good, one bad, all the time.

    I first I thought it to be some copy protection on the CD-burning software (Nero), so I installed from the original CD instead with no success. I even installed Media Creator and CloneDVD with the same result.

    Wierd?

    It gets better. I have during the last few years encountered the same problem twice before, but with CD-writers. All three times has been different writers (NEC, Plextor, TDK), different computers with very different hardware, different Win2000 versions (servicepacks and language) and of course different media. I've checked with an up to date vireus checker which came up clean. As far as I can see, I've killed all non-essential processes. Different software, different hardware. I've even tried to pull the network cable just in case.

    I just can't find the common factor or a reasonable cause to this problem. I'm out of ideas. Anyone who recognize this problem and have a solution?

    My current "solution" is to use a bunch of 250 crappy CDs I bought cheap a couple of years ago which goes bad a week or two after burning as throwaway discs for the bad burns, then use good disk for the good burns. That way, at least I don't ruin any usable disks, but it is still an annoyingly awkward solution...

    This problem is annoying the h*ll out of me.
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  2. Member tekkieman's Avatar
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    Option one - reboot after each burn, and see if that helps.

    Option two - separate out every other disk, use those, and sell the others to someone.
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  3. Option one - reboot after each burn, and see if that helps.
    Nope, doesn't work. If the last disc was good, the next one after a reboot will be bad. If the last one was bad, the next one will be good.

    Option two - separate out every other disk, use those, and sell the others to someone.
    Nah, use it for backup purposes, no one would want to buy my backups, especially on broken discs... I also would like to be able to trust my recorder. 50% bad discs is just not acceptable.
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  4. Member Roderz's Avatar
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    Option one - reboot after each burn, and see if that helps.

    Nope, doesn't work. If the last disc was good, the next one after a reboot will be bad. If the last one was bad, the next one will be good.
    Have you tried actually pulling the power lead out instead of rebooting?

    suprised you ain't chucked it out the window by now!

    I had a issue with my burner where it wouldn't burn cds at all if I had burnt a dvd (drive firmware problem - fixed now, all hail the optorite gods)
    but I could get around it by firing up burnatonce and using the 'reset writer' in the tools menu (I think it was tools - no longer installed)
    this would errr well reset the writer (saving a reboot) and I could then burn cds OK !?!?!
    might be worth a try in your case - best of luck
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  5. Have you tried actually pulling the power lead out instead of rebooting?
    Switched off at the back of the power supply, should be the same thing.

    suprised you ain't chucked it out the window by now!
    It is in the basement, no windows.

    I had a issue with my burner where it wouldn't burn cds at all if I had burnt a dvd (drive firmware problem - fixed now, all hail the optorite gods)
    but I could get around it by firing up burnatonce and using the 'reset writer' in the tools menu (I think it was tools - no longer installed)
    this would errr well reset the writer (saving a reboot) and I could then burn cds OK !?!?!
    might be worth a try in your case - best of luck
    I'll try something like that.

    If nothing else works, I have some money incoming and am considering building a completely separate machine for DVD burning. If nothing else, it wouldn't block my gaming machine while I'm burning.
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  6. u said these are cd's? Hmm, some DVDR manufacturerers were intentionally selling lower grade media mixed in with higher grade. The resellers benefit mostly from this practice and it still happens. Cost of actual cd's to produce are dirt cheap these days, however, over billions of pieces, even a single penny makes a huge difference.

    I've had this occur with certain DVDRs, almost the same as you. Every other disk was a coaster/poor quality disk. This seems like the problem as you've used a variety of both cd burners as well as dvd burners. If you have a seperate setup, try that, but it appears you've tried everything. I was aware of this issue before it happened to "me" so when It occurred I already knew what it was. Major retailers take no part in this, it's only the online sites. And often times they don't put the garbage disks every other, they do it throughout the pack. Three here, three there, two here, two there. Most of the time it's 90% legit media, but unfortunately, many times it's considerabley less.

    Where did you buy the disks and what brand are the disks?
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  7. Sorry, it is not the media. As I said, I have had this problem on three different machines during a couple of years. During this time, I have used many different media, all with the same problem. In fact, I'm notoriously bad at planning ahead when I buy media, so I just drive to whatever store is open at the moment and buy the cheapest media of a wellknown brand (often Verbatim, Memorex or Maxell). Some problem with CDs and DVDs. I would be very surprised if they managed to arrange it so perfectly across brands.

    I've stopped buying cheap noname brands or budget brands. My data is worth more than that and I learned the hard way when I bought 250 CDs which lost their contents a few days after being burned (In fact, they were so crappy you could see irregularities in the recording surface with the naked eye!).

    Edit: By the way, the media that gives me a bad burn every second time works fine in other machines.
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    While I can't think of why this would happen, I had a couple thoughts for an interim fix.

    First off, have you tried doing a SIMULATED burn when you are expecting a 'bad' burn? Most software has a simulate mode which should be identical to a real burn. That might allow you to spare yourself burning duds. Another way to avoid duds might be to use a RW disc, and when the burn dies, just erase and restart the process on a good disc.

    It definately seems like a hardware issue. Have you tried moving the drive onto another IDE controller ad power cable?

    Regards,

    Savant
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  9. First off, have you tried doing a SIMULATED burn when you are expecting a 'bad' burn?
    Good idea, I'll give it a try later.

    Another way to avoid duds might be to use a RW disc, and when the burn dies, just erase and restart the process on a good disc.
    I think I'll go through my stack of 200 worthless disks first. It is not like I can use them anyway.

    It definately seems like a hardware issue. Have you tried moving the drive onto another IDE controller ad power cable?
    I don't think so, I have had this problem in three different machines with different hardware, with three different burners. That would just be too much of a coincidence.
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    i had a similar problem at one time, it turned out to be my aspi layer
    member since 1843
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  11. Just an odd thought on hardware issue.

    If your drive is heading out the door on you maybe that's the cause. When you had the problem before, did you get it figured out or end up with new drives or what?

    I am thinking in part the laser has to travel from center of the disk to the outer edge (or however far that disk gets burned). Now if it is sticking somewhere along the way back to the center hub maybe that is trashing the next disk.

    So you start disk one with the laser at the hub, it travels and burns fine to the outer edge. Disk burns great, BUT on the way back to the hub the laser sticks and only makes it half way back. Now you insert disk 2, the laser being in the middle cannot burn at the hub so you have a disk crash, now the laser starts moving to the hub again after the disk aborts and it makes it to the hub. Now you insert disk 3, since the laser is at the hub the disk burns fine, but again it sticks in the same spot on the way back to the center. So of course disk 4 is trashed, but laser returns to center for disk 5.

    In an odd ball case like that it would take 2 tries to get the laser to the home position, so one disk burns, one disk fails but your home for the next one.

    Could be a weak drive motor, slipping belt, dirty shaft, burr on a gear or other similar things that could cause something like that.

    Maybe next time you are ready for the bad disk, use one that you already trashed. See if it crashes like it should, but if the next disk does work like normal. Once you ruined a disk, have you tried to use it again on the bad cycle? Maybe it's just needing to try to write a disk and you won't need to actually trash a good disk each time. Heck maybe even try a ROM, it might not even need to try to burn, maybe just a wrong type disk failure will reset it for the next disk?

    Are you reading disks with this drive also besides burning them? Is that working properly everytime? Have you tried burning a disk, reading a disk then burning the second disk. Does it still fail every other disk if you read a disk in between?

    I had an OLD CD drive years ago, before burners, and it got to where it would only work ocasionally, and it seemed a couple of my most used disks were the ones it would not even try to read. I found on that oldie that the motor was week, my most used disks were slightly heaver than others it seemed and the motor would not spin them from a dead stop.
    I mounted the drive in a lower bay with the top cover off, then I inserted my disk gave it a flip of the finger to start it spinning when the tray closed and it worked fine. That is untill I changed disks, then I had to manually start it spinning again. That one drove me nuts for while when it first went bad because some disks worked fine but others would not, and it was the same ones not working all the time. That was when a plain CD Drive cost alot more than todays 8x and DL burners cost!
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  12. If your drive is heading out the door on you maybe that's the cause. When you had the problem before, did you get it figured out or end up with new drives or what?
    In both cases, I just got annoyed with the problem and put the drives in another machine, which solved it. What the difference was I don't know, it was different hardware, different windows, different software installed.

    Don't think it is bad hardware in the drive, though.

    Are you reading disks with this drive also besides burning them? Is that working properly everytime? Have you tried burning a disk, reading a disk then burning the second disk. Does it still fail every other disk if you read a disk in between?
    Reading does not affect the good/bad rythm.

    I've just found out that burning with Roxio Media Creator, then closing it, starting Nero, closing Nero, start Media Creator again and burn seems to work. However, doing it the other way around does not help. This sure makes it look like it is some wierd reset problem.

    To bad it's not possible to easily run the programs through batch files. (Anyone knows about a program suitable for batch runs, a program that can be controlled through command line parameters?)[/quote]
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  13. Member HAMP's Avatar
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    Im gonna take a crazy swing at this... Are you using a optical mouse?

    I had a similiar problem with a machine and it was the mouse, changed the mouse and everything was fine. I would just notice how the light on the mouse would change brightness without even touching it.
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    What a wind up!
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    Update your burner firmware.
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  16. Member ViRaL1's Avatar
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    Might want to also try manually clearing your Temp folder before burning.
    Nothing can stop me now, 'cause I don't care anymore.
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  17. MOUSE??

    Yep, maybe it's another hardware conflict causing that. Have you added anything strange, new stuff or make changes to anything lattely? Right before it started?

    My surround sound speakers caused problems for me with the audio in my captures for while, just plugging them in! Strange thing was some captures were fine, others had a wierd rythmic Dwoop dwoop dwoop noise in the back ground. Also muffled the audio, and I never knew if the capture would be good or screwed, it was random. I could do a short test it work fine, then the actaull capture screwed. Or I do a couple tests and the audio screwed in all of them and decide I wanted just the video captured and do it anyway, and yep, the audio would turn out fine.
    Really strange thing about that audio problem was I had used the speakers for a long time just fine, took those off and used a set of 2 desktop speakers for some testing, then latter re-connected the same surround sound set. I had never changed the audio properties or anything, they were always set to surround 5.1 or what ever even with the 2 speakers only. I never decided what actually caused that, but I got it working correctly when I found it was the surround speakers.

    If sticking the other drives you've had this type problem with before into another system has gotton those working in the past, then I would say it's a hardware conflict with the stuff you are using or the way it is set up. Or software, your burning programs conflict with each other? I would try removing EVERYTHING you don't have to have for hardware and try a couple disks. Just run the basics, boot drive, burner. If you get 3 disks in a row that work, then connect one item and try again, continue burning 3 disks untill you either have the problem agian or everything is connected back up and still working. If your having some type of IRQ conflict this might fix that and you never even find the problem.
    If on the first try with just a boot drive and burner you still have the same problem, then of course the other stuff wasn't the problem and just connect them all back up again.

    Then I would probably start removing programs! Are you using any combination of programs you always use like on the other systems too?
    Maybe something like Nero, Roxio, Alchohaul 120 and then they are conflicting with each other strangely. Even if they are newer versions of the same programs, maybe they cause the same problems you had before like this. Some programs don't like each other!

    Strange but it sometmes seems as if programs will fight each other. I have an OLD win 3.1 type program I love and still use. A new program, I think it was an Adobe one, will not behave itself. I could use the old program once then the next time it would not load unless I rebooted first. It worked great all day long or even for several days if I left it open, but close it and try to open again even without doing anything else and it would not load without rebooting first. That one I tracked down to the new program was seeing the old progam being used and got jellous! So it would lock a resource (even though it was not being used at all) and that prevented the old one from loading. The solution for that was simple, toss out the $400 program and keep the old $100 one
    After deleting that new program I never had a problem with the old one again! Could be you have 2 burner programs fighting this way, but instead of having to do a reboot the bad program is happy to just trash a disk and let you go back to work after words.

    For me (since I build systems) it's easiest to trouble shoot the hardware first, just pull all cards and cables for anything not needed to boot the system or burn disks. Course make sure you have some files you want to burn on the boot drive ready to burn
    I forgot to do that once and had to re-install my ide controller and extra drives to copy files to the boot drive then take it out again
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  18. OK, lots of suggestions. First a quick status report. The program swap thing I described earlier worked for 50 or so discs, but now the problem is back.

    As for hardware and conflicts, this is a simple machine, nothing extra. In fact, everything except graphics is on the motherboard. Of the other two machines with this problem, one was also this simple, while the last one was a dual CPU, quad monitor, dual network adapters, dual sound card, three HD thingy with lots of stuff installed. I'm fairly sure that there is no hardware conflict.

    As for optical mice, that just sounds like a weak power supply. Nevertheless, I tried unplugging the mouse with no success.

    Software problems is unlikely, I have killed all nonessential processes. The problem started with only Nero installed, so conflict with other burning software is unlikely.

    Before the problem started, I was able to burn 30-50 OK discs. I did not do anything with the machine or hardware.

    For the moment, I'm back at considering some wierd copy protection on Nero (I installed from a copy since the original to be supplied with the drive was on back order), which remains even though I have now recieved and installed the original. Something which allows me to burn a certain number of discs during a certain time period, then starts messing them up until the time period has passed, at which time the cycle resets. Anyone encountered this?
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  19. Hmm... not a clue then.

    And this is mesing up other burning programs too, not just nero?
    If so, doesn't seem like a trialware time lock reset protection thing really as it should not effet other programs. Besides only thing I ever had was a program stop working when a trail quites working, not trashing disks.
    Could be though who knows, never rule out anything till you find a real cause.

    If you have another drive around handy, swap em and see what happens, or if you can borrow one. Maybe run down to Best BUY or Wal-mart and buy one for the weekend? See if it installs and burns fine all the time or has problems too, just don't change anything other than pull this one and plug in the new one. If the new one works, try the old one again, see what happens?

    If a new one does work, and this one don't still, then keep the new one you probably need it. If it doesn't work either then take it back for a refund and keep looking.

    Some of this stuff gets wierd, My 8X for no reason has started burning my 4X disks at only 2X also. Over 4 in a row now, every disk before this started burned at 4X perfect, same spindle of disks. Nothing at all changed on my system, nothing installed or removed, and not connected to the net either. Just turned it on one day and started getting 2X burns!
    I never looked to fix it yet, not burning that many disks now, and captures are still perfect and what I been needing to do recently. When I get the captures done I'll look into my problem. For now I just put up with an ocasional burn at 2x instead of taking a chance on scrambling my captures or worse. I just eat a sandwich durring that extra 15 minutes!
    But why do these things just happen for no reason?
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  20. The same problem affects Nero, Media Creator and CloneDVD, but the problem could be deeper in the chain between software and hardware.

    I will probably build a clean test machine with only windows, drivers and burning software installed. It would be nice to be able to burn discs without blocking some other machine anyway. It will have to wait until the end of the month, since I have some other things that will eat my money at the moment.
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  21. Yea it's nice to have another system to test this stuff on when these things occure!

    I'll probably pull my burner and stick it in the system at the office and see if it does 4X then before I mess with this system to deep. Everything works great other than burns only at 2x. If it still only does 2x then I geuss I'll rma for another one. Or maybe try the DL firmware on it and see if that brings it back to at least 4x again.

    If it works ok there then I have to dig into this system and start playing with stuff.

    But always nice to have that extra system for simple testing!
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  22. That reminds me, one other thing that does not affect the problem: burning slow. Even at 1x every second disc goes wrong.
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  23. If you've had this problem before with cd burners in different computers, then I would suggest that it may be an environmental problem. Have the computers been in the same room in your house, maybe in the same outlet? I'm thinking it might be a power issue, especially if this was something that developed over time, not immediately. Power fluctuations can do strange things to computers.
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  24. Hm, you may be onto something there.

    The computers has been in different rooms, even in a different house since I moved a while back, but I remember 12-15 years ago when I had a problem where my modem dropped the connection at regular intervals. After much searching and asking the phone company, I found out that everytime the steel mill in my town lights up their smelting owens a power spike appeared on the power network. Even though my town has a very strong power network, the two industries in the town use 4% of Swedens total power consumption, which is a lot, so some irregularities can be expected.

    Perhaps should try with a UPS, although that would have to wait a bit now, a lightning strike took out one of my servers (probably just the power supply, but I havn't had time to check yet) and I'll have to fix it first and payday is still a bit too far away.
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    Originally Posted by DVDeeZ View Post
    I was aware of this issue before it happened to "me" so...
    Gosh, it's just my luck. Almost every time I want to respond in one of these places just after I had found it from a web search, it's like WAY old, such as this one from a decade ago!

    Well anyway, since I just barely found it now, in 2014 instead of 2004, I'll still respond to it.

    What's supposed to be the point of those nonsense quotation marks around "me"? Are you saying that people think of that as you but it isn't really you, so you're just using quotes because they would say that anyway?
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  26. I'm a MEGA Super Moderator Baldrick's Avatar
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    Bye bye. Grave digging just for fun is not okey.
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