Problem with Iomagic +/- 8x burner

[Jayboman]

I'm tired of making coasters! : (

Lately while backing up using +r's from Verbatim the burner will stop at about 25% and just sit there with its light on. This is a relatively new burner, and I've made um...15-20 back up disks without a problem.

A twist on the problem...I put in dvd+rws, (Imation) and there is no problem. (maybe a burn speed issue? The RWs burn at about 2.1, and the Rs around 4. I haven't seen in Shrink or Nero where to get the burn speed lower.)

I've used DVDShrink (latest version) almost exclusively to backup, and TMPGenc Author to make compilatons. I haven't had the problem with TMPG, but then, OTOH, I haven't used it in a while. (when it got stuck burning in DVDShrink, I have gone with Nero Burning ROM to then burn the info.)

Hardware: P4 2.1, XP Pro, 768megs of RAM- I've made no changes to the hardware setup since installing the drive.

What do you thnk is the problem? Do you think I've just got some bad disks from Verbatim? Thanks for any help you can offer.

[DarkManX4lf]

some drives dont like vertain media, especially with dvd burner, check for a firmware upgrade from your manufacturer, sometimes with a firmware upgrade more compatible media is enabled.

[Jayboman]

Thanks for the advice. It didn't go well, but that's certainly not your fault.

I think I hosed my drive.

I found several others in in Iomagic's forum that had much the same problem I did. Among other things they suggested the same thing you did. So I went to the actual manufacturer's site (BTC) and I downloaded LiveUpdate which was supposed to update the firmware for me.

It downloaded the newest and started to erase the old version. Then I got an error message saying that it couldn't erase it. I let it sit for a few minutes and nothing was going on. (You ever have that feeling?) No more HD activity or anything.

So after about 5 minutes I had to bring up Task Manager and end the program. (I couldn't get it to end any other way.)

So - can you guess what's happened? My drive is no longer recognized, and I can't get it recognized by my system. System Restore is of no use, so I must have done something terrible to the firmware. Yikes!

Oh, well...

[flaninacupboard]

That's sad to hear. have you been in touch with their technical support people, after all their update program hosed your drive.....

[Jayboman]

I've sent them a note about it; I haven't wanted to call since they're in Taiwan. I could try I/OMagic, but they'd probably direct me back to BTC's site.