MAJOR problems with DRU500A and certain media. Any help?

[Solo4114]

Ok, I need some serious help here.

I've had my DRU500A for a while now and, for the most part, it's performed just fine. Certain media simply will not work (IE: Memorex DVD-RWs), but other media has worked pretty well (KHypermedia DVD-R 1x).

Lately, I decided to branch out and try some other media brands. I picked up 10 of Sony's DVD+Rs and 10 of their DVD-Rs, and also got about 20 Verbatim DVD+R 4x.

I've had, shall we say, less than stellar results.

The Sony DVD-Rs ALL gave me errors and could not complete a single burn. The one disc that did burn "successfully" had serious syncing problems between the sound and video. It's possible that that's related to the files I burned, but I'm pretty sure it was the disc or the drive.

The Sony DVD+Rs would burn successfully, for the most part, but were absolutely rife with errors and digital skips and such, ranging from merely annoying to downright unwatchable.

The Verbatim DVD+Rs would burn at 2x or 4x, would say that they'd burn successfully, but would then be unreadable in the drive itself and in two different DVD players. And when I say unreadable, I mean that it simply doesn't recognize the disc exists. On the players, it'll get to the second of five little reading phases (usually it'll get to the third or fourth then display the menu) and just freeze and keep spinning.

I am at my wits end. I have no idea what the problem is. Verbatim says that their media has no problem with the DRU500A. I'm using firmware 2.0f, but I'd been using either 1.0f or 2.0e for a while (probably 1.0f) and that gave me the exact same problems. I've tried burning at 1x to limit errors, but still no luck.

Does anyone out there have any idea what the problem is?

I'm using WinXP Pro, Veritas RecordNow, and the various media that I listed. I've got 700+ MB of RAM, so it shouldn't be a memory problem. I just have no idea what to do, and Sony's tech support has yet to respond to my e-mail. Any help would be appreciated.

[Ejoc]

I've had no problems using Memorex DVD-R's w/ the 1.0f firmware. Those are the only ones(DVDs) I've tried since I got a pack as a gift, I mostly use it as a CD burner, I've thrown lots of CD-Rs at it and have had no problems with those...

And theres a 2.0e firmware? What changes are there from 1.0f and 2.0e?

[Solo4114]

No idea what 2.0e changed. I may be wrong about that one. I know that only KHypermedia has been reliable consistently for me. Verbatim's DVD+RWs have been great, and HP's +RWs have as well, but for actual burning, I've had very little luck. I wish someone could give me an answer or a solution.

[Biodroid]

TRY THE 2.0F FIRMWARE I AM WRITTING AT 4X WITH EVERY MEDIA THAT CAN BE WRITTEN AT 4X THE OTHER MEDIA WORKS FINE MEMOREX RIDATA MAXELL VERBATIM TDK BUT NOT USED KHYPERMEDIA THAT IS THE SAME AS MEMOREX, TRY THE UPDATE AT THE SONY SITE



http://forum.firmware-flash.com/dl_all.php


OR SONY

http://sony.storagesupport.com/dvdrw/drx500uldwn.htm

SAME FIRMWARE FOR THE A AND UL

[defense]

@solo, I believe the disks aren't your only problem..as Rhegedus mentioned in the other post. You said you are having "sync" issues...chances are...that won't be caused by burning alone.

What are you using to backup these dvd's? Also, start using a +RW OR
-RW disk to test these movies on first....until you get your method down pat....the two types of disks you purchased must of been really expensive. I know Sony disks aren't cheap anywhere...so don't just burn without checkin on a RW first.

But let us know what methods you are using to backup these DVD's..sounds like you have other issues. Even if your methods were bad though...ou said the Khypermedia worked good...so that's odd...what's the manufacturer id's of those Verbatim and Sony disks?

[mkelley]

Yes, I think the last poster has some good thoughts.

It probably won't help, but I've yet to find media my Sony won't write to successfully. I'm using the 2f software, and everything burns just as it should, even at 4x (prior to 2f I could only get 4x media to burn at 2x).

I've never made a coaster yet, with 300 disks, and I've used just about all the media that's out there (including Verbatim, which is among my favorite). I don't think it's the media that's causing your problems.

[Solo4114]

Biodroid,

I actually upgraded to 2.0f already, but thanks for the link.

defense,

I'm actually not backing these up from other sources. The KHypermedia discs have always worked fine for the most part. I've gotten batches with as many as 5 out of 10 being coasters, but the ones that burned did so perfectly.

I'm not really sure how to check the manufacturer ID on the discs, but I've burned plenty of DVDs by now (mostly KHypermedia) and never had any sync problems. The only sync problem I had was with the one disc.

I haven't been testing the files on an RW before burning, but once they've burned, there hasn't been an issue. I've checked them out using my computer's DVD software prior to burning, though, and never found any issues in terms of digital skipping and such. I really do think it's the media.

I've cleaned the drive, tried burning at slower speeds, etc. No idea where the problem is. The weirdest part is when Veritas tells me the disc burned fine, and then I get either errors on playback, or it won't play back at all.

As far as expense per disc, for the most part they've been about $1-$2 per disc. I don't have the funds to buy in bulk right now, so I've been getting ten-packs here and there, or the occasional 25 pack spindle. The Verbatim discs I got at Microcenter for $15 a box. 9 DVD+Rs and 1 +RW per box.

Oh, as a side note, anyone know where the hell to get Veritas DLA?? When I upgraded Sony's firmware, they said to uninstall it, and now I cant find my CD, and the friggin' website says that it's no longer distributed (apparently, Sonic bought out Veritas and promptly dustbinned 'em).

Maybe the problem is with my software somewhere. Like I said, I'm using Veritas RecordNow which has, for the most part, proven quite reliable. I never bothered to upgrade Nero since the version I have burns CDs fine, and I'd heard that Nero had problems with DVD burning. I suppose I could always get the DVD plugin for Nero and try that.

I'll be happy to offer any info on my system if folks are interested. My process is as follows. I'm basically converting AVIs to DVDs using the procedure outlined on this website. I'll begin by decoding with TMPGEnc, usually at around 4000Kbits for a raw video stream. I use virtualdub to extract a WAV file audio stream at 48Khz. Then I'm using SpruceUp to author menus, add chapters, etc. I burn them to a disc image (which basically means I've got an AUDIO_TS and a VIDEO_TS folder on my computer) and then just burn those onto a DVD using Veritas RecordNow. I've tried playing with record speeds, but no luck thus far. If people have any other questions, I'll be happy to answer.

--EDIT--

I've since compiled a bit more information on the discs. Here's what I found out.

My KHypermedia discs are CMC discs, and out of 10 from that particular batch, 5 burned successfully. The rest were coasters, which will be sent back for replacement. Here's the info I got using DVDInfo:

Media Information
Disc is Region 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8
Media code/Mfr ID CMC00RG200
Formatted Size 3.96GB(4.25GB)
Total Size 3.96GB(4.25GB)
Book Type DVD-R
Media type V2.0 DVD-R
Media Id Code Speed 1.0x 1385KBs
Write Srategy Speed 1.0x 1385KBs
Current Drive Speed 1.0x 1385KBs
Default Rotation Control CLV
Linear Density 0.267um/bit
No of Layers 1

00 6A 00 00 01 40 C1 FD 9E D8 50 00 02 87 0D 12 .j...@....P.....
87 99 70 00 03 43 4D 43 30 30 52 00 04 47 32 30 ..p..CMC00R..G20
30 00 00 00 05 22 30 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 0...."0.........


The Sony DVD-R disc gave me the following information:

Media Information
Disc is Region 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8
Media code/Mfr ID
Formatted Size 4.06GB(4.36GB)
Total Size 4.06GB(4.36GB)
Book Type DVD-R
Media type V2.0 DVD-R
Media Id Code Speed Unknown
Write Srategy Speed Not Defined
Current Drive Speed 4.0x 5540KBs
Default Rotation Control CLV
Linear Density 0.267um/bit
No of Layers 1


00 6A 00 00 01 40 C1 FD 9E D8 50 00 02 00 00 00 .j...@....P.....

This struck me as REALLY weird, considering it doesn't seem to believe that ANY manufacturer made the discs. I guess they just appeared out of thin air at the store. None of the other 9 discs (which are now coasters) are readable in the drive. It simply says "drive not ready" when I tell it to pull the info on 'em.

Here's what I got for the Sony DVD+Rs:


Media Information
Disc is Region 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8
Media code/Mfr ID RICOHJPNR00
Formatted Size 4.05GB(4.35GB)
Total Size 4.05GB(4.35GB)
Book Type DVD+R
Media type DVD+R
Media Id Code Speed 2.4x 3324KBs
Current Drive Speed 2.4x 3324KBs
Default Rotation Control CLV
Linear Density 0.267um/bit
No of Layers 1

08 02 00 00 A1 0F 02 00 00 03 00 00 00 23 68 EF .............#h.
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 52 49 43 4F 48 4A 50 4E 52 .......RICOHJPNR
30 30 01 38 23 54 37 0C 00 50 6C 00 C8 66 16 18 00.8#T7..Pl..f..
0B 0B 0A 0B 01 19 1B 0B 0B 0E 0F 01 00 00 00 00 ................
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 03 00 00 ................
00 23 68 EF 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 .#h.............


Of these discs, probably only two or three of 'em burned with sufficiently low errors to be comfortably watchable. The rest of 'em were either coasters or burned successfully but are fraught with errors and skips and such.

And finally, the real mystery, is the Verbatim DVD+Rs. Here goes:



Media Information
Region info N/A not a DVD-VIDEO
Media code/Mfr ID MCC 002
Formatted Size Blank
Total Size 4.38GB(4.70GB)
Book Type DVD+R
Media type DVD+R
Media Id Code Speed 4.0x 5540KBs
Current Drive Speed 4.0x 5540KBs
Default Rotation Control CLV
Linear Density 0.267um/bit
No of Layers 1

08 02 00 00 A1 0F 02 00 00 03 00 00 00 26 05 3F .............&.?
00 00 00 00 00 00 01 4D 43 43 00 00 00 00 00 30 .......MCC.....0
30 32 00 38 23 54 37 13 02 4A 71 02 90 66 16 16 02.8#T7..Jq..f..
0B 0B 0A 0A 01 1C 1E 0B 0C 12 12 01 00 00 00 00 ................
00 00 00 00 01 00 38 38 02 26 60 38 06 30 22 10 ......88.&`8.0".
08 20 1C 01 00 00 02 26 60 38 06 30 22 10 08 20 . .....&`8.0"..
1C 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 03 00 00 ................
00 26 05 3F 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 .&.?............

So, now I'm REALLY lost. It looks like the Verbatim discs SHOULD be burning properly, given that they're MCC discs and not CMC, but even the CMC discs did alright. What the hell is going on here? Could the problem be with the drive itself? I clean the thing fairly regularly. I don't think there are any background programs running that should be causing THIS kind of problem.

I guess for further info, I'm using an AMD Athlon XP1600 CPU, on an MSI N420 motherboard (that's one of the Nvidia nForce boards). I just don't get it. Why would what's supposed to be the GOOD brand burn poorly, and the CRAPPY brand burn well?? Oh, and as for the Sony DVD-Rs, I'm not sure who made 'em, but they say they were made in Austria of all places. Go figure.

Well, that's it for now. If anyone's got any insight, I'd be delighted to hear.

[Solo4114]

Oh, something else. My drive is the master on a regular IDE cable, with my CD burner as slave. I may try uncoupling the slave drive and seeing whether that makes a difference. Oh, and I have two UATA hard drives on the other IDE controller on the motherboard.

[tfj]

I had problems with memorex it would only burn a portion of the disc. The company gave me some samples
DVD-r will not burn or partly burn
DVD+R will burn but my dvd player will not play them
DVD+rw will burn and the dvd player will play them but the disc froze at chapter 5

My novice opinion dvd burning is sensitive
It depends on the program you are using,and to some degree your computer and what version of windows. I use 98 se.

My comments on burning are based on using DVD X press
I will also ad that I have the latest firmware from Sony which is suppose to cure some of these problems.

I buy TDK x2 dvd-r from Costco(Canada) for 12.50 plus tax and they work everytime so I will stick with them.
I tried Princo and Matsui and the results were mixed

TDK will be my brand until I find something else as good and reliable.

[Solo4114]

Well, if the discs I've burned are any indication, I won't be buying any more sony or verbatim discs. I just tried unplugging my CD burner so that the DRU500 is a single master on the IDE line, and then burned another Verbatim disc. No luck. I put it into the drive, it spins up, then doesn't recognize that there's even a friggin' disc in there. I put it in the player, it gets to 00--- and just sits and spins.

I'm at my wits end. I have no idea what to do to get these discs to work, and it appears that I'll be limited to KHypermedia discs if I want to be sure that they'll burn properly. I'll have to endure the occasional bad disc, but as long as KHypermedia honors its lifetime warranty and replaces my dead discs with good ones, I'll just stick with it.

Unless, that is, someone can offer me a solution.

[mkelley]

Of course, it's always possible you have a lemon drive.

That's begining to sound like it to me -- I don't think you should have that much trouble with media. As I noted, I've burned everthing in my Sony, even cheapo 90 cent disks which I just bought on a lark from Meritline. I use Record Now, nothing fancy, and have yet to burn a coaster in 300+ tries.

I also wonder about how you keep saying you clean your drive all the time. Back in the day (when I worked in the video business) we used to laugh at all the home consumers who wanted to "clean" their VCR heads. I'm not saying there is an analogy here -- the writing technology is far different, but it does occur to me that perhaps you may have cleaned it too much. The old "if it ain't broke" always reminds me that cleaning something that works fine isn't always a good idea. (Then again, if you were having problems before you cleaned forget I even mentioned this).

If I were you and had bought my drive locally (which I did) I'd just go back to the store and make them give me another, on the theory that at least you could eliminate the drive as the cause of your problems. But that's just me.

Good luck, mate.

[Solo4114]

I don't mean that I clean it regularly. I mean I used a lens cleaning disc at the start of the summer. I do this about once a year on my various players and it seems to work reasonably well. Actually I just did this to see if maybe there was some problem with the laser itself. Anyway, I think I'm going to get in touch with Sony via phone (instead of waiting for them to get back to me via e-mail). I bought this drive around Christmas from a Circuit City near me, but I don't know if they'd still have a record of it. If they did, I doubt they'd accept it after it's been in use this long. I think talking to the manufacturer is my only real option here.

[yx]

Solo4114, I also think your drive does not work correctly. I have burned more than 100 DVDs with my SONY 500AX. There were no problems at all with Verbatim, Imation, HP, COMPUSA, TDK, and SONY discs. The burning software I have been using is RecordNow DX 4.6 and Easy CD Creator 5 Platinum. Get the burner exchanged or fixed! When you use RecordNow, make sure to check the option to finalize discs, otherwise, your PC cannot read anything from the disc.

[Solo4114]

The finalizing option is definitely checked, so I know that's not it. I'm thinking you guys may be right and it really just is a bum drive. I guess the simple thing to do at this point is call sony's tech support and see what they have to say. Dammit, but this REALLY pisses me off....

--UPDATE--

Am downloading the latest version of RecordNow (which is now apparently RecordNowDX) and will try that. I tried the DriveCheck program that Sony offers, and it seems to have worked properly. No problems diagnosed. Could be the problem's on the software end here. Who the hell knows at this point...

[Solo4114]

Ok, I contacted Sony's tech support which proved not terribly helpful, aside from recommending that I upgrade to RecordNow DX (which I've done) and running their drive check, which diagnosed no problems.

I've since tried using RecordNow DX (which actually does seem to be a better program) with the Veritas DVD+R 4xs.

No luck. Just coasters this time around.

BUT, now I have an error message that I can check on.

"Error -10 at Sector 1964370 - Disc Write - Error - Command: 00 Sense: 03 ASC: 0C ASCQ: 08"

I've gotten it consistently on the last 3 Verbatim discs I burned (which are all I have now that are blank -- the Sony media is all burned and coasterfied or full of errors).

Apparently, it means "Write error - Recovery failed". Anyone know what that means?

[Dr_Layne]

I think what might be overlooked here is to make sure the drive is using dma mode and not PIO mode. This can have a major affect on the data rate to the drive.

Steve

[Solo4114]

Nope. That's not it. DMA is definitely enabled. I'm trying to contact the RecordNow DX people to see if they can offer any solutions.

[Solo4114]

Ok, I've now tried just about everything except doing a total reinstallation of WinXP Pro and my burning software. I've updated my ASPI files, renamed logagent.exe to avoid any conflicts, uninstalled Veritas' software, and tried burning a Verbatim disc with Nero, and have received identical results. I'm convinced that, at this point, only one of three things is possible, and I'm more inclined to believe only one of two things.

1.) The Sony DVD-R, Sony DVD+R, and Verbatim DVD+Rs were all bad discs (HIGHLY unlikely, but possible).

2.) There is a problem with my system that only a full reinstall of both Windows XP Pro and my burning software (starting with Veritas' software alone -- no Nero, to avoid conflicts and to satisfy the Sony people that it's not a software issue) can fix.

3.) The drive is bad and Sony's drivecheck utility isn't sophisticated enough to determine where the drive is bad.

I'm most inclined to believe #3 since I HAVE been able to burn other discs successfully, and we're talking a crappy brand here, too. Granted, some of 'em turned out as coasters, but this IS KHypermedia we're talking about and the ones that turned out well have zero errors or problems.

We shall see what happens, but I'm betting that eventually, I'll just have to send Sony the drive itself. If they send it back to me, after I've done everything to fix problem #2 and tell me that the drive is fine, I'm going over the heads of the tech support people and writing to higher-ups to complain and demand a new drive.