External DVD-burner burns CDs but not DVDs

[gk20001]

Hi
I have an AMD 700 processor, Windows 98, an internal CD-burner and an external DVD-burner (LG GMA 4020B, via USB2). If more specs needed, please indicate.
It burns audio cds ok, but no vcds or DVDs (in the case of DVDs not even an ISO one). I am using Nero6.
Anybody any idea? it's really frustrating.
Thanks,
Greg

[dcsos]

USB is a genuinely bad way to hook up burners
-even 2
USE FIRE WIRE or SCSI

that said
IS ASPI updated?
are there any peripherals other than the burner on the USB..
if so..UN INSTALL THEM COMPLETELY after updating aspi and try again
SOME OTHER DEVICE PLUGGED in (even the mouse) could be dogging the USB 2 spped below DVD speed required

[Vanster]

Check out the Nero website. You might need to buy a DVD MPEG 2 plug-in. I am not familiar with Nero 6 but I did have to buy the plug-in for my Nero 5.

[gk20001]

Thanks for your answers.
Nero6 can burn DVDs, it's the retail version.
ASPI 4.6 is installed and works fine according to a little tool called aspichk.
I actually have quite a few USB appliances attached. If I uninstall them and the burner works then, will it not be the same problem when I attach them again? In that case I rather return the burner.
Thanks
Greg

[dcsos]

I'd buy a $29.00 usb add in card for USB 2.0 from Belkin, ADS or some other quality USB board and use the seperate chain with my burner exclusively
unless there was no hassle returning and exchanging it for a similar firewire burner

[Gazorgan]

Are you sure you got USB2.0? Unless it's a add-on card you most definately do not ith a machine your age. The symptoms you have are indictative of a USB 1.1 connection. I bet you burn CDR's at a 4x-6x ?

If you can burn CDR's at 16x or better, then update your burner software, it's nto recognizing the DVDRW aspect.

[dcsos]

Gazorgan's right..
You are working on 1,1 unless as he says its already an add in..

So if its already an add-in card..think about getting a second chain going with another USB 2 card...

YES YOU CAN HAVE 2 in the same system..
JUST MAKE SURE you buy a different brand the second time so you don't go nuts trying to figgure out what is hooked up to which to hot swap

[gk20001]

You guys are really good! Well, haven't tried it yet but sounds to me like the best explanation I have heard so far. Thanks a lot!
I actually have added a USB 2 card with four slots, but I have like another hub connected for digital camera, scanner, mouse etc. The only things needing USB 2 would be my external hard drive and the dvd burner.
So: Do you think it could work by connecting the hub with all the other stuff to the normal USB 1 and only the hard drive and the burner to the card. Or must only the burner be connected to the USB 2 card?
Sorry, I really had no idea that connecting more than one peripheral or a hub could bring the performance of USB 2 down. Also I must say that I don't know a lot about these things and hope I got you right...

[Gazorgan]

Whoh. You just said the problem. Try removing all USB 1.1 devices. USB hubs can be like Eithernet switches, dynamically dealing with 1.1 and 2.0 . However, some don't, and go with the slowest connection. Try a clean boot with just the DVD/HD connected and see if you can burn. This will help you isolate a hub/1.1 issue.

[dcsos]

So: Do you think it could work by connecting the hub with all the other stuff to the normal USB 1 and only the hard drive and the burner to the card. Or must only the burner be connected to the USB 2 card?

YES YOU WILL BE GOOD WITH everything but those 2 on the speedy card....

[gk20001]

I tried it last night, but unfortunately no change. I unplugged EVERY USB application except for the burner which I plugged into the USB 2 card.
I tried to burn some data to DVD, but Nero gave up during lead in with a "Unspecified host adapter error", just like before.
Then I wanted to check whether the USB 2 card worked at all. I connected the external hard drive to it and transferred a 700 MB file to it from C-drive. That took about 2-3 minutes. Then I did the same after plugging it into the USB 1.1, which then was scheduled to take 15-20 minutes (maybe even more, but I cancelled the transfer).
So the card works, I guess. Maybe it's the burner playing tricks.
Nevertheless, thanks for your help, that could very well have been the problem (as I said before: best approach so far...).
If you have any other ideas, please shoot .
Thanks,
Greg

[gk20001]

Oh by the way: I have also installed the latest firm ware update A 109, which also did not help.

[dcsos]

I have no more ideas at present so I'll post something I found thats similar..but not the same

Hey guys,

I've bought both a Pioneer A06 and a NEC 1300a and have put both in external USB 2.0 enclosures. With both I am able to read discs, and burn DVD+R no problem... BUT I am completely unable to burn any DVD -R. I've tried Princo, Ritek, Memorex (all of varying speeds) in both burners and I always get "Failed to Write Disc-at-Once" in Nero 5.5.6.10 - 6.0.0.15. This happens when I wrote both data and video. I also tried other programs such as DVD Decryptor and Record Max without success.

I can't figure out whats wrong with this setup, The PC is Windows XP and this is the only USB device on the bus. Has anyone else been able to get this to work?

Thanks
boojew posted 2003 Sep 10 23:38

http://www.dvdrhelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=178087

[gk20001]

Thanks for that, I'll follow it.
Maybe you can give another pece of advice. Someone told me I should update the IDE drivers to remedy the problem. But doe the IDE drivers influence USB drives at all? Thought they were only "responsible" for internal drives ?
Thanks
Greg

[dcsos]

No IDE doesn't affect USB performance normally
USB is either a resourse of the MOTHER BOARD or is accessed thru the
PCI BUS...You did tose tests with copy times to a hard drive..so you know your going at the right speed now..Now you need to see if its just a case ofthe burn program not understanding the drive..
did you reinstall after seperating the devices? It might be a good Idea to try a seconday burning application like STOMP if it works with your hard ware

finally IDE drivers needen't ever be ubgraded ..unless they're non standard hardware..rare
What they may have meant was re-install the current IDE drivers by removing them and having windows plugandplay the IDE devices again to (hopefully) re-connect them correctly
!% of the time you might crash, but removing the ide devices (primary and secondary) is a typical wasy of foring the IDE drivers themselves to REINSTALL

[gk20001]

Thanks for the explanation, that's very helpful. I better leave the drivers alone then!
I thought about uninstalling it all again and trying again, but I felt that hardly ever every trace of a program is removed after uninstalling.
So I asked a colleague to please attach it to his PC and install Nero there:
I could just not believe it: Same story there! It never seriously struck me that the problem could be with the hardware, because it burns CDs and reads DVD-ROM. Apparently the one thing that would not work is the DVD burning and that can only be a hardware fault after trying it at a different machine!
This teaches me a valuable lesson: Whatever problem occurs...first try it out with a different PC. I had to learn that the hard way after experimenting intensively for months!
So sorry to have bothered you guys and have taken your time for nothing.
Well, not quite nothing, because I have learned a lot through this thread.
Thanks very much and again my apologies!!!
Greg