Audio CD burning issue

[allbouthepot]

I've run into a little problem thats annoying me in a big way. I'm not quite a newbie, although no expert either. Here goes...
Im using two differetn Optorite DVD writers. One fo them being model DD0405. For months I was burning cds at maximum speed of 48 with 100% sucess rate. All of a sudden CDs started skipping on me. I tested a couple of times 32 burning speed. It was a little better, but still not perfect like before. Whats strange to me is that I burn DVDs with no problem. Also I'm using NERO 7 for cd burning which is the same program I was using previously. I also keep background programs to a minimum while burn is in progress. If anyone has any ideas let me know...thanks a lot


I learned to author DVDs on my own, and it took me a while to realize I had to restart the computer each burn to reset the buffer. I never did that with cds, but is it possible thats what is necessary? Is there any way to reset the buffer without restarting the comp?
Answering any or all questions is much appreciated

[Richard_G]

Do you get the same problem on both writers? A DVD writer has 2 lasers, one for DVD and one for CD. While it's usually the DVD laser that dies first, if you do a lot of CDs, yours may be on it's way out.

[allbouthepot]

I do burn a lot of cds on one but not the other. I havent found any pattern of which drive has a better sucess rate, is there any way to test aside from trial and error?

[Richard_G]

I don't know. I assume Nero CD-DVD speed can test CDs as well as DVDs but I've never tried. Alternatively, have you tried a laser cleaning disc?

[allbouthepot]

No, I have not tried a laser cleaning disc. My primary drive has burnt about 200 dvds and about 100 cds without ever cleaning. I'll try that, thanks.
Do you have any input on the buffer issue, or is it common practice to restart after every burn?

[Richard_G]

My pc is often left on for a week at a time without a restart. At a time that I am producing copies of footage for my customers, I can be burning maybe 10 discs per evening. I just keep feeding the burner with discs and taking them out when they are done, no restart between burns.

Equally, I don't close any background tasks and often use the computer for other things while burning. Occasionally I get a client that wants his video on VHS. To do this I output from TV out to a VCR while playing the video back in PowerDVD. While this is happening, I'll usually be burning discs as well.

Maybe it's the software you are using that doesn't clean up after itself properly.

[whitejremiah]

however much i hate to say this, dvd and cd burners are generally NOT built for stability (though ive lucked out with my two drives ive got right now....both have burned at least a few hundred discs each and still going strong) this being said, it's also not exactly advisable to burn music cd's at that high of speeds......another question is did you change brands of discs? There are a lot of differant things that could cause this.....I had a first generation TDK dvd burner that died out within like a year after purchase or so...so yes, they can definately die out, rather quickly at that.....i'd say it may be time to invest into a better burner.......check out lite on, plextor, or any other "higher end" burner....unfortunately optowrite is basically a budget drive, it does what it was intended for...at least for a while, unfortunately the drives are made pretty cheaply so they are prone to problems, same goes with benq (i know im gonna get ripped apart for saying it, but its the truth....) and i'd personally advise against sony as well.........im not sure what the heck they do to their drives, but i know like four people that had sony drives in their computers when they bought them, and they died out not very long after that.......(that and the fact that sony is just an evil, evil company.........google sony and rootkit for more info on that......)

EDIT: i didnt really mention this specifically so i will now....music cd's shouldnt be done at anything over 24x...particularly if your sourcing them from mp3's....if something bottlenecks in the computer, you could end up with a cool burn error...that and there's not really any data correction in audio cd's, so i would drop the burn speed down to 24x at MAX.......gives the computer enough time to buffer everything properly.