Is my Pioneer DVD A05 dying....????

[kenmo]

My Pioneer A05 has been working flawlessly for over 2 years. It probably has well over 200 burns. However lately it has been creating DVDs that will not play properly in both my DVD stand alone players (Pioneer DVD333 and Norcent DP300). The problem seems to be towards the outer edges of the DVD were the movie will freeze or start to break up.

When I attempt to read the DVD in one of my 2 my computers (using DVD Shrink) I will get a data cyclic error 50% of the time. Sonic player will report an invalid DVD volume.

When I burn the DVD-Rs with Nero ver 6 I am told the burn was successfull with no errors. I've tried different media Kodak, Benq, Pine and Maxell, all of which worked fine a few weeks ago. I'm burning at 4x.

This media works fine in my other burner (LG +R 16x / -R 4x)...

In the past the few errors I had with my A05 were not the fault of the burner....

Any thoughts ?

Thanks

[kenmo]

Another thing, I did uninstall and re-install Nero as well, but the problem persists. The only other burning software installed in Alcohol120....

I also reflashed by Pioneer to the latest firmware from Pioneer. Ver 1.33 I believe (at work - going from memory)....

[Bodyslide]

What type of media are you using?

[kenmo]

What type of media are you using?

I've tried different media Kodak, Benq, Pine and Maxell, all of which worked fine a few weeks ago. I'm burning at 4x.

[JimJohnD]

When was the last time you vacumed/compressed air'd your system. I know I have to clean mine out about every 6 months or so (my computer is on 24/7). If you are going on 2 years you may have a dust buildup in the drive (Vacume from the front of drive, compressed air from the back. Most computer cooling fans draw out the back which means that any opening on the front of the machine is going to draw air in and dust with it (floppy drive, CD/DVD drive). While this may not fix your current problem it shouldn't hurt anything either. I know when mine needs cleaned out when it heats up quicker. Check the heatsink on your processor, after 2 years I'll bet it's packed with dust.

Just an idea. A clean and cool computer is a happy computer.

[macleod]

"It probably has well over 200 burns."

I have the A05 and I considered the 200 burns to be a "break in" period.

When was the last time you:
1. Defragged the drive(s)
2. cleaned the lens
3. slowed down the burn speed
4. User different media
5. changed some system settings

[neomaine]

2. cleaned the lens

...is my vote. My A05 is going on 18 months and WAY over 200 burns. I zip through the house and get the game cosoles, DVD players and DVD drives about every 3-4 months.

Though, I'd have to give a nod to:

4. Use different media.

The 'especially at outer edges/end of movie' gives it away.

[kenmo]

2. cleaned the lens

...is my vote. My A05 is going on 18 months and WAY over 200 burns. I zip through the house and get the game cosoles, DVD players and DVD drives about every 3-4 months.

Though, I'd have to give a nod to:

4. Use different media.

The 'especially at outer edges/end of movie' gives it away.

Thanks all for the replies.

Last defragged last week. My data drive (the one I use for capturing video and burning from) is re-formated once a week as there is nothing on the drive but temp data that is burned to DVD.

How do you clean the drive ? Can you use just a regular DVD cleaner disc like I would use on my TV's DVD player ?

Again thanks....

Kenmo

PS: Very few of my discs are burned to the outer edges as I've read about the Memorex DVD-R problem here. They are usually 200 megs short of a full disc.

[neomaine]

Yup....same one.

[handyguy]

I thought that the final writing was done on the inside ring, not the outside?

95% of the time its the media. Also, did you make sure to never put in a dirty disk?

[kenmo]

I believe DVD/CD burners write inner to outer.

Anyone ?

[neomaine]

100% sure. Inner to outer for both CD/DVD.

Nintendo GC is the only one that I (think? I) know is READ from out to in.

[kenmo]

I ran a disc cleaner a few times and it now seems fine.

Thanks to all who replied.