help shutdown my coaster factory

[shorton]

Greetings:

I have HP 200j 2.4x v1.6f and a TDK 440N w1.06 (USB/Firewire). I use them with a Intel P4 on Intel 865MB, 2G RAM, XP Pro, (2) 200G HD's. It's not even breathing hard when burning, no sign of buffer problems.

With each drive, I am burning DVD's with GearDVD SE. I have Gear's latest drivers installed, and their tech support sent me some updated .cfg files awhile back. I also tried Nero 6x with the HP, same result. Verify errors..

My DVD's "say" they are burning OK, but if I verify them, I get one or 2 verify errors. I've used an off-brand (Liquid Video), Verbatim, and now Memorex +R's. I have better results with the name brands but still get plenty of failures.

I stopped doing verifys and ran md5 checksums on the vob files after burning comparing them to the originals on the HD. For the discs that get the errors (at least %50 failure on name brand, 95% generic), sure enough there are differences in the md5 sums on particular files.

However what puzzles me is I can play those VOB's on my PC. They play at least as far as I can tell on my DVD player. But I don't have a good feeling about the errors.

Anyone have any suggestions on what to do to stop the errors?

Thanks for the help,
Scott

[BJ_M]

get a different burner and different media .... or live with it ...

[grossjamesh]

I would think that if the problem is on both DVD burners then look for a coomon factor.
Are you a smoker? Are you in a dusty enviroment?

I think you've had a gradual degradation in laser output.

Try a laser cleaning kit.

Using a digital multimeter check the drive input voltage when burning a DVD. Compare with the manufacturer's specifications for input voltage.

[shorton]

Clean enviro. No dust, no smoke. TDK is external powered (USB/Firewire) so voltage isn't common. Both hooked up to APC 2000, clean power. New PC, too all diag tests OK.

Thanks,
Scott

[grossjamesh]

Well, now proceed into the land of the metaphysical.

There maybe a piece of sw running in the background. Use ad-aware or spybot to flush out the system.

Scan the system for a virus. Even if you run an AV program.

Make sure that you are not playing or doing any processor intensive activities during a burn.

Try turning OFF the AV sw during a burn.

Got to www.blackviper.com and follow the optimization guides.

[BJ_M]

wait -- just noticed you are using external firewire on at least one of the drives (both?) .. I've seen this on some firewire externals , try changing a fire wire port card t aads card and make sure your external case is using the oxford 911 chip set , also update your oxford to the latest firmware ..

[shorton]

Card is ADS Pyro, suppose that's what you meant? As for oxford chipset in TDK box, dunno. Maybe I'll just stuff that puppy on my IDE bus and test instead. But if you have a pointer to the chipset I'll chek it.