Problem I can't figure out

[ampex]

Ok, I have a problem trying to burn dvds now that only started recently. I'll try to disclose as much information as possible so that somebody may have an idea, because I'm out.

I had a NEC 2510A dual layer burner for a couple months, working just fine using RecordNow Max 4.50. Then one day the software stopped seeing the drive entirely. So I installed Nero and it saw the drive but wouldn't burn to it. Thinking the drive went bad, I returned it and got a new one. However, the same problem still occurs.

I've tried 4 or 5 programs in total and none work. Well, thats not entirely true. I installed RecordNow Deluxe 7.1, and it worked for 2 burns, although it slowed my machine down to a point where using it during the burn was way too frustrating. Strangely enough, when I ran Task Manager in Win2K, the CPU usage at the bottom was high ~60-80%, but when I sorted the running programs by cpu usage, none of them was using anywhere near that much cpu power. So it would say 60% on the bottom and the tasks would add up to ~10%. I've never seen that before. Nor have I used a burn program that slowed the machine down that much. I recently tried CloneDVD and Nero with pretty much the same results. Nothing worked.

I tried the same program that worked a couple times again this morning, and its back to it's old ways. It starts the burn and hangs a couple minutes into it, no error or popup. It just sits there with the progress bar not moving. So this is the same problem on 2 different burners, so I have to imagine it's not the burner itself.

I'm using both Ritek and Taiyo Yuden 8x media, so it shouldn't be a media issue either. Especially considering that they both used to work just fine when RecordNow Max 4.50 listed the drive in its drive list.

I tried moving the burner to the primary IDE channel (originally it was on the secondary channel), leaving just 1 of my hard drives the burner itself as the only IDE devices connected. Same problem.

The thought of a faulty motherboard crossed my mind, but both of my hard drives work without issue, and they're both connected to the IDE channels so that doesn't seem to make sense either. Same with the IDE cables.

This doesn't seem like it should be this difficult to get working, but I'm out of ideas. Can anybody think of anything I haven't tried, or has anybody experienced anything like this before?

Thanks for any help.

[Capmaster]

Moving to Computer Forum ...

[crazythunder]

weak power supply? dma off? uuummmm, laser lens cleaner? tried uninstalling drive from device manager? tried repairing xp, if xp is used? ooops, i see you're using 2k. still, tried repair? update chipset? flash firmware on drive? just some of the things i'd check before reverting to a ghost image.

[ampex]

Ok, a little update.

First a couple things I forgot to mention. I recently replaced my power supply, because my original one died. I replaced it with an Antec 300W power supply with a 3 year warranty, so I figure that should be good enough. Maybe it isn't.. Also, the drive that died was a NEC 2510A, but since it's not made anymore, it was replaced with a NEC 3520A. So it's probably not a firmware issue.

Lastly, I tried an -RW disc just for the hell of it, and it worked fine. It's just the -R discs that don't work. I still have all of my other optical drives disconnected for the time being, so the power supply shouldn't be overworked.

Any more ideas?

[bazooka]

You still need the latest firmware for the drive.

Newer firmware updates come out all the time.

You need at least a 350-400 watt power supply.

[ampex]

I have the latest version of the firmware.

[ampex]

Okay.. I exchanged the 300W power supply for a 350W power supply. The only things I have it powering are 2 hard drives and the dvd burner. I still get the same error. The burn stops a couple minutes in and I get the error "sense: 06 asc: 29 ascq: 00 (command 2a)". I'm lost at this point. This is humiliating. Does anybody have any new ideas? As always, thanks for any help.

[rkr1958]

1) Flash your writer to the latest firmware
2) Update your Motherboad / Chipset to the latest Bios
3) Swap out your IDE cable ... could be a bad cable (not likely but possible ... worth a try)
4) Does you writer have any problem reading DVDs? For example what sort of rip speeds do you get?
5) Maybe your on-board IDE controller that your drive is connected to is going bad. Get a PCI IDE controller card and try your writer in that.

[ampex]

Well I've tried everything you guys could think of, which is more than I thought of, and I still have the same problem. New PCI IDE Controller, new cable, new drive, different media..

It's very strange. Even in RecordNow Max, the drive doesn't show up in the data view, but shows up when I run the Wizard. So I can burn with RecordNow Max, but only data and only at the highest speed. Very strange.

[Scottie]

did you try disabling CD Recording with XP I seen a simular thing happen and after disableing XP Recorder it worked ?

Other then that I reformat and start a new Install of everything.

[ampex]

I'm running Win2K, not XP.