Motherboard causing burn errors?

[BobK]

I have two computers with essentially the same hardware and software (some minor differences).

Until about 2 weeks ago I had no problems burning DVDs using Ritek, Ridata and TY blanks. All of a sudden, on one of the computers I started getting a lot of spikes when checking Ritek and Ridata disks burned on one of the computers with KProbe. At first I thought it might be a bad batch of disks, so I mixed several disk from the same box between the two computers- the same computer still gave me a lot (60-80%) of bad burns. Meanwhile, the TY disks still burned fine on both computers.

I tried switching DVD burners between the two computers and the problem didn't follow the burner- it stayed on the same computer. Then I tried switching cables, memory chips, ATA controller cards between the computers. I switched just about everything except the motherboard and the processor between the two computers and the same computer kept giving bad burns no matter what hardware was switched.

I finally gave up and started using only TY disks on that computer- until yesterday. Now I'm starting to get bad burns on the TYs.

As far as I can tell there's some kind of problem with either the motherboard or the processor that's causing burn problems, but I don't know what kind of problem would cause bad DVD burns without causing other problems on that computer.

My next step is get try and borrow a different motherboard (and/or processor) and put them in the problem computer, but before I do that is there anything else I can do to try and narrow down where the problem is?

[redwudz]

You could try a utility like SiSandra. Heres one version of it: http://www.overclockersclub.com/downloadcenter/download.php?action=file&id=12.

It would let you test components of the systems. It may be the motherboard, or something in the software.

[indolikaa]

Or Windows took a dump on you...

[BobK]

I'll try SiSandra.

I know it's not the software or Windows- At one point I did a clean install of Windows and then installed just the burn program to test that.

[indolikaa]

I'll try SiSandra.

I know it's not the software or Windows- At one point I did a clean install of Windows and then installed just the burn program to test that.

The fact that it would only burn TY and then started spitting those out sure sounds like an optics package that's taking a dump...

[Alan69]

Power supply power supply power supply, that's a common culprit.

Mother board is also still a good possibility. With millions of internal components and a multitude of interactions there's no reasonable way to know until you swap it out. Even if you had the test equipment it's simply faster to swap for locating problems like this. Hard drives too, even with a reinstall one could be flaky.

Alan

[gitreel]

Power supply power supply power supply, that's a common culprit.

Mother board is also still a good possibility. With millions of internal components and a multitude of interactions there's no reasonable way to know until you swap it out. Even if you had the test equipment it's simply faster to swap for locating problems like this. Hard drives too, even with a reinstall one could be flaky.

Alan

Gee alan, do you think it is the power supply? :P :P

[BobK]

Thanks for the suggestions. SiSandra didn't show any problems, so it looks like I have to track down a motherboard and try swapping it out. If that doesn't work I get a different power supply to try.

And if none of that works I guess I'll get a new computer.