Can burn DVD+RW but not DVD+R

[AH]

All my DVD+R burns so far, have errors on the disc after the burn. In Nero, data verification after burn fails. DVDInfoPro shows read errors (50-100), sometimes at the beginning, sometimes in the middle. Playback on DVD burner (with PowerDVD) succeeds until it gets to the affected area, then it freezes or stops. Ditto on stand-alone DVD player Pioneer 533K.

My system: Pentium 4 2.6 Ghz, Neo2 865PE motherboard, GeIL 1GB RAM, Maxtor (Promise) IDE controller, Maxtor 160 GB disk, Sony DRU510A burner, Yamaha CRW4416S CD burner. OS: Windows XP Pro SP1. XP built-in recording disabled for Sony DRU510A, but enabled on Yamaha CRW4416S.

Configuration details: Maxtor disk connected to Maxtor IDE controller as master, and no slave is connected. Also nothing connected to second channel of this controller. Sony DRU510A connected to Primary IDE channel of motherboard built-in IDE controller as master (Sony DRU510A doesn't work well on Maxtor/Promise IDE controller), and no slave is connected. Also nothing connected to second channel of this controller. Primary IDE channel of motherboard IDE controller set to use DMA, Sony DRU510A uses Ultra DMA Mode 2.

Sony DRU510A updated to latest firmware 1.0f from Sony site.

Media: DVD+RW: Sony (media code RICOHJPNW01); DVD+R: Memorex 4x printable and non-printable (media code RICOHJPNR01).

Tried burning with: Nero 5.5.10.54 (direct and via image), Alcohol 120% (image), DVD-lab (direct), all with default settings. All with the same results: DVD+RW burns fine and plays fine, DVD+R unreadable.

Any ideas, anyone? Any suggestions will be gratefully accepted.

AH

[lenti_75]

as it sounds, it's the burner. A lot of people have problems with Sony.....usually when it's around 1 year old.....
did you tried different DVD+R media ? even if it is Ricoh, try something else, and if the problem persist.....it's time for another burner.....and try to avoid Sony...
at least this is my opinion

[AH]

Thanks for your reply, lenti_75.

Meanwhile, I tried burning the same media on a Plextor 708A, and it also doesn't burn them well at 4x. At 1x and 2.4x it worked fine on the Plextor, so then I went back to my Sony DRU510, and it turns out that it also burns them just fine at 2.4x (data verification succeeds, and no errors at all in DVDInfoPro).

So even though this is RICOHJPN media, I can only burn it at 2.4x max.

I haven't got any other media to try with yet.

AH

[johnclark]

I have the same dilemma with my Plextor 708A. 4X burns at 1X. I called up plextor and was told that only their recommended media will burn properly. Verbatim is a media that works exceptionally well, which is on their very short list of compatable medai.) The 4X will in de facto burn at 8X, which is awesome.

[AH]

Thanks johnclark. Sony support is equally (un)helpful; just sent me their media compatibility list... The Ricoh DVD+R 4x media made by Ricoh (media code RICOHJPN01) are on that list, but the Memorex DVD+R 4x made by Ricoh (same media code) are not. Go figure!

However, I found that there may be other factors which may have contributed to my problems:
1. Quite a lot of people have reported problems with the latest Sony DRU510A firmware 1.0f (which is what I had upgraded mine to). Some people recommended downgrading to 1.0d, which is one thing I did (the Sony site doesn't keep the older firmwares online, but you can find them here).
2. Others have reported that using a good 40pin 80wire IDE cable (like the ones used for Ultra ATA/133 drives) instead of the cheap ribbon cable delivered with the drive, improves reliability, so I replaced my IDE cable as well.
3. Finally, I found that my BIOS has an option called "32 bit transfer mode" for the onboard IDE controller, so I turned that on.

So far, my results seem better. I hesitate to report that all is well until I burn a lot more, so I'll post back here when I know more.

AH