Is my pioneer 104 dying? Smears in burned disc's

[darkhunter]

Ok this is hard to describe.

1st i'm using the true 2X media from allmediaoutlet

Before anyone says that media is crap, I have burned 100's without trouble until now.

I'm using nero.

I'm using a pioneer 104 burner.

Now on dvd-r's when I burn them, the last 10 I have done (I did'nt notice it right away) the disc's have a diagonal "smear" on them starting at the inner part of the disc's going out about an inch long.

It's like a darker area like it's unburned right in the middle of the burned portion. Does this make sense?

I tried searching but can't find anything related to this problem.

Has anyone else experienced anything like this?
Any suggestions? New firmware, bad batch of disc's, burner dying, nero gone bad ???

thanks.

[JamesB69]

I ran into something sort of like this on a A03 that i was using although it was more like little blobs. It would cause skips or freezes depending on the player. I think it was just a bad batch of disks cuz only one pack had the problem.

[darkhunter]

I was thinking bad disc's maybe but I just tried a 2X Verbatim from the best buy deal and same kind of smear.

[davehearne]

I recently installed an A104 and i think i get a similar type of problem. Ive upgraded the firmware and it has gone away. I also change media so it could be both or just the media or just the firmware !!! not much help really !

[thursday]

Does the smear look like someone wrote wavy lines on it with a small marker? I have burned about 200 with my a04 and just had one that would only play about 15 minutes.

[darkhunter]

Does the smear look like someone wrote wavy lines on it with a small marker? I have burned about 200 with my a04 and just had one that would only play about 15 minutes.

Yeah I would say so, the line is a darker purple. Like the unburned part of a disc.

I think I fixed (hopefully) the problem though I opened the unit up and cleaned it out there was some dust in there. It's working ok now after the cleaning and a firmware update.

[Joe328]

Had the same problem. Are you doing disc to disc? I think that was my problem. However I also flashed my drive with the 2forall firmware at the same time. The problem diappeared. Try flashing the firmware first if that doesn't work than I think its the buffers. Try using disc image and even defraging your drive.

Joe328

[pharries]

What is the best firmware upgrade for this drive? Where is it available?

[davehearne]

The firmware is available from the Pioneer website, you can download it from there. One small problem though, if you have a HP or Compaq pc, the firmward Pioneer supply wont work !!! you need to go to the HP web site and download it from there...that works fine !!!

[txpharoah]

www.firmware-flash.com
Flash your OEM burner to true Pioneer firmware

May be discs, may be a bad burner. My 103 died. So it happens. It only does 1x now and even then, results vary. All 105 burns usually perfect.

You tried other discs. Same error. I'd say burner now. Try FW upgrade. If that won't work, sorry, but your drive is hosed.