pioneer 105

[tricktum]

Can anyone help.

When trying to burn dvdr using nero or prassi, I keep getting power calibration error's. This problem seems to go away when using 2 or 1 speed. This problem only seems to have started in the last 2 months and seems to be getting worse.
Also when trying playback on any other pc dvd player the disc never seems to loads up and hangs the pc for some time.
The dvdr seems to play ok on stand alone dvd players.

all speeds seem to work ok when burning cdr's.

is this the first sign that the writer is on its way out ????

It has been mentioned that flashing the bois of the writer might correct
this problem does this ring true.
or is it possaibly a driver issue - I think I have the latest aspi drivers installed

hope you can help

[disturbed1]

Sounds like cheap media to me.

I have an A05 with firmware 1.30, and others at 1.33. I notice no difference with the media I use (Taiyo Yuden, Prodisc).

[offline]

power calibration error:

Prior to writing the leadin, DVD burners 1st burn a little sample onto
the recordable DVD media as a test and also to calibrate laser settings etc. When this fails you get the above error message. For some reason the DVD recorder cannot read what it has written. This is usually a media issue (some DVD blanks are just plain bad) although it could mean that any number of things are wrong - spindle motor fail/ laser fail/unbalanced or slippery DVD tray- it is kind of a generic error.

Buy a different brand of blank DVDR and retry.

[kiki]

Just a thought.
Are you a smoker or is your machine in a smoker environment????
Myself and a friend had issues with our 105's not burning rw's correctly.
Also some of our dvd-r burns were iffy at times.
The situation was steadily getting worse.
We are both smokers. I cleaned the lenses in both our 105's and
they now function perfectly again.
Just something to consider

kiki

[tricktum]

Kiki

Yes I am a smoker and lets face it I'm one of the sad gits that spends most of my time playing on the pc...

How did you clean the writer - I have seen replies suggesting this..

I have one of those cd clean kits but fear sticking it in my writer.

[tricktum]

Offline

I did think it could be the media - so I have tried 2 other brands.
Bulkpac and Datawrite and some 'silver things' !!!!!.
I also have just had a few shots using re-writable
I must admit in the past I have had no problem with bulkpac ( think thats what they called )..
not really sure what are poor/ok/good or excellent media to use.
but cleaning sounds a good bet

[jaeshin]

I just started to experience this error last night with 4x disks from Ritek.
For about a year, I've had no problem what so ever with G03 disks, burning at 2x with hacked firmware. Since 4x disks are getting cheap, I bought a bunch of them (ritek G04 geuine) and experienced the calibration error for the first time.
I was worried that I wasted the disk but somehow when I tried to burn again, it worked.
Then another disk... no such luck for several tries then when I restarted the computer, it worked fine for two consequetive disks.
I doubt it's the disk. Can it be the dirt as someone suggested? I am not a smoker but the driver's been used for over a year, burning over 200 disks.

power calibration error:

Prior to writing the leadin, DVD burners 1st burn a little sample onto
the recordable DVD media as a test and also to calibrate laser settings etc. When this fails you get the above error message. For some reason the DVD recorder cannot read what it has written. This is usually a media issue (some DVD blanks are just plain bad) although it could mean that any number of things are wrong - spindle motor fail/ laser fail/unbalanced or slippery DVD tray- it is kind of a generic error.

Buy a different brand of blank DVDR and retry.

[jaeshin]

Well... I've done some research on this problem with "power calibration" and found out that most people point at the media.

It's due to bad, cheap media.

Frustrating thing about that statement is I am having the problem with my Ritek G04 4X media which is supposed to be better ones. If I am using Princo or something, I would understand but Ritek? Now I should buy Taiko for more than 2 a pop to prevent the error?

Anyways... According to people...

The problem is most likely not from the drive with bad flash. A lot of them tried different versions of flash, from original manufacturer's to hacked ones but once you have the problem, it remains.

It's not definitely a software problem. I tried using Nero and Stomp RecordNow. At least, Nero tries to test the media and if it is not successful, it stops. Stomp just keeps on going and makes coasters.

One thing I realized though is that if you turn off the computer and turn it on, you can make one correct DVD at 4X. Then from the second, problem starts. Does this say something? Hmm...

Someone suggested that 105 drive likes to be on the master position. I will try that. Also I am going to take out a few components such as extra hd to see power is the issue here.

I know that I can burn them at 2X but I paid extra for that extra 2X over G03. I want to make it work!!!

If you have any suggestions, let me know.

[tmaxwell2435]

Let us know what you find out. I am having similar issues.

Thanks!

[jaeshin]

Somehow I think I solve the problem but I am troubled by the method.

Here is what I did...

1) Just in case, there are insufficient power (literal power), I took out a hard drive and a few unnecessary PCI cards. Result - no luck, still the same problem.

2) Then I downgraded the firmware to official 1.33b from Pioneer website by using Gradius utility. Everthing went well but still the problem remained.

3) So I tried to re-upgrade to hacked 1.33 but this time, instead of using 1.33 with rip hacked and 2X ability, I just used rip hacked version. (You can find all this at http://gradius.rpc1.org) Result - still the same problem.

4) Finally I downgraded it to 1.21 which was the original firmware when I purchased the drive. Guess what! It worked. After the firmware was changed to 1.21, I was able to burn Ritek G04 at 4X as it was intended. I burnt two disks so far and I doubt it is a lucky coincidence at this moment. If I experience the same problem, I will let you know.

In conclusion, since v.1.21, something happened that prohibits the drive function as it's supposed to do. I am not sure what it is but I guess I going to stick with this version for now.

Only if I have 1.21 version with rip speed hacked, I will be a happy man.

* FYI, I used the same ritek disks (both of them) that was rejected by Nero when I used the drive with 1.33.

* I also deleted the CD from Device Manager in between the flashings.

[SnoopX]

I have recently started experiencing these same problems - I will try and revert back to 1.21 and see how I go - thanks!