How do you know when your DVD writer is dying?

[dqtus]

Hi,

I have a NEC ND-3520A that I've been using to burn for the last few years. I usually go through quite a lot of DVDs so it has certainly taken its share of work. Anyways, lately I have noticed that it's taking super long to burn a regular DVD-r on 12x (like 35 min) and it's like lagging my comp. Not sure if this is partly due to the hot weather but my Pioneer can burn the 8x in like 16min and is fine. Is there any way to test the health of the DVD burner?

Also another side note, my Pioneer burner is set to region 2 so if I burn a DVD with it does that make the DVD a region 2 as well? Thanks!

[FulciLives]

Any DVD you burn will be region free, period.

As for the DVD burner going bad ... I had a Pioneer DVR-108 model go bad on my recently. It would often fail the OPC (Optimal Power Calibration) test in both ImgBurn and K3B (a Linux based burning program). Even if I turned off OPC it would sometimes fail to burn or if it did it would then fail the verification process.

Usually though when a DVD burner is burning really slow it tends to indicate that it is going into PIO mode instead of DMA mode (or is that the other way around?) so you want to check what mode you are in and also when such problems arise it could be a bad internal IDE cable.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[budz]

when it takes much longer to burn a dvd disc it usually means the drive is in PIO mode as FulciLives mentioned. use this link on how to set to dma mode:

http://www.cdrlabs.com/forums/how-enable-dma-windows-with-pictures-t7625.html

or your laser in your dvd burner could be dying so it's time to buy a new dvd burner.

what are you burning? are you backing up a dvd movie? if you are and you're using dvd shrink to compress then burning with IMGBURN the disc will be region free.

[dqtus]

ah ok could be that. it was fine before so im not sure why the modes would change. ok so Im looking at that link to check for dma enabled and my config has 2 DVD burners hooked up on the same IDE. I apparently have 2 secondary IDE channels but I believe Im only using one. Although Im assuming my burners are the secondary IDE channels since I have 2 SATA hard drives plugged in so are those the primary IDE channel or are they in a different category? In any case, the first secondary IDE channel are both set to DMA if available and the current transfer mode was like ultra DMA and bottom was not available. I wasn't sure if this was correct so I uninstalled the IDE and had windows redetect and now the top is PIO and the bottom is still not available. Maybe this is the wrong IDE channel for the burners?

[budz]

use nero infotool and post the configuration of your hard drives and dvd burner. that will tell you whether or not you have the drives set up correctly. if you're getting the PIO mode that could be why your dvd burner is burning at such a slowwwwwww speed.

[dqtus]

Here is what infotool gave me. I don't think I saw PIO anywhere so I should be fine right?

Nero InfoTool 5.2.3.0

Drive Information
------------------
Drive : PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-107D
Type : DVD±R/RW Recorder
Firmware Version : 1.18
Buffer Size : 2000 KB
Date : 04-07-01
Serial Number : DCDL265694WL
Vendor Specific : 04/07/01 PIONEER
Drive Letter : E:\
Location : 0:0
Mechanism : Tray
Read Speed : 40 X
Write Speed : 24 X

Read CD Text : Yes
Return C2 Pointers : Yes
Read CD-R : Yes
Read CD-RW : Yes
Read DVD-ROM : Yes
Read DVD-RAM : Yes
Read DVD-R : Yes
Read DVD-RW : Yes
Read DVD-R DL : No
Read DVD+R : Yes
Read DVD+RW : Yes
Read DVD+R DL : No
Read BD-ROM : No
Read BD-R : No
Read BD-RE : No
Read HD DVD-RAM : No
Read HD DVD-R : No
Read HD DVD-RW : No
Read HD DVD-R DL : No
Read HD DVD-RW DL : No
Read HD-BURN : No
Read Digital Audio : Yes
Read CD+G : No
Read VideoCD : Yes

Write CD-R : Yes
Write CD-RW : Yes
Write DVD-R : Yes
Write DVD-RW : Yes
Write DVD-R DL : No
Write DVD+R : Yes
Write DVD+RW : Yes
Write DVD+R DL : No
Write DVD-RAM : No
Write BD-R : No
Write BD-RE : No
Write HD DVD-R : No
Write HD DVD-RW : No
Write HD DVD-R DL : No
Write HD DVD-RW DL : No
Write HD-BURN-R : No
Write HD-BURN-RW : No
Buffer Underrun Protection : Yes
Mount Rainier : No
SolidBurn : No
Labelflash : No
LightScribe : No
Modes : Packet, TAO, DAO, SAO, RAW SAO, RAW DAO, RAW SAO 16, RAW SAO 96, RAW DAO 16, RAW DAO 96

Region Protection Control : RPC II
Region : 2
Changes User : 3
Changes Vendor : 4

CSS : Yes
CPRM : Yes
AACS : No
VCPS : No


Drive Information
------------------
Drive : _NEC DVD_RW ND-3520AW
Type : DVD±R/RW DL Recorder
Firmware Version : 3.04
Buffer Size : 2 MB
Date : ?
Serial Number : 53E8M87S111
Vendor Specific : 05040500
Drive Letter : F:\
Location : 0:1
Mechanism : Tray
Read Speed : 16.0 , 12.0 , 8.0 , 5.0 , 1.0 X
Write Speed : 12.0 , 8.0 , 6.0 , 4.0 , 2.0 X

Read CD Text : Yes
Return C2 Pointers : Yes
Read CD-R : Yes
Read CD-RW : Yes
Read DVD-ROM : Yes
Read DVD-RAM : No
Read DVD-R : Yes
Read DVD-RW : Yes
Read DVD-R DL : Yes
Read DVD+R : Yes
Read DVD+RW : Yes
Read DVD+R DL : Yes
Read BD-ROM : No
Read BD-R : No
Read BD-RE : No
Read HD DVD-RAM : No
Read HD DVD-R : No
Read HD DVD-RW : No
Read HD DVD-R DL : No
Read HD DVD-RW DL : No
Read HD-BURN : No
Read Digital Audio : Yes
Read CD+G : Yes
Read VideoCD : Yes

Write CD-R : Yes
Write CD-RW : Yes
Write DVD-R : Yes
Write DVD-RW : Yes
Write DVD-R DL : Yes
Write DVD+R : Yes
Write DVD+RW : Yes
Write DVD+R DL : Yes
Write DVD-RAM : No
Write BD-R : No
Write BD-RE : No
Write HD DVD-R : No
Write HD DVD-RW : No
Write HD DVD-R DL : No
Write HD DVD-RW DL : No
Write HD-BURN-R : No
Write HD-BURN-RW : No
Buffer Underrun Protection : Yes
Mount Rainier : No
SolidBurn : No
Labelflash : No
LightScribe : No
Modes : Packet, TAO, DAO, SAO, RAW SAO, RAW DAO, RAW SAO 16, RAW SAO 96, RAW DAO 16, RAW DAO 96

Region Protection Control : RPC II
Region : 1
Changes User : 4
Changes Vendor : 4

CSS : Yes
CPRM : Yes
AACS : No
VCPS : No


Drive Information
------------------
Drive : Generic DVD-ROM
Type : DVD-ROM Drive
Firmware Version : 1.0
Buffer Size : 512 KB
Date : ?
Serial Number : n/a
Vendor Specific :
Drive Letter : G:\
Location : 4:0
Mechanism : Tray
Read Speed : 32 , 8 X
Write Speed : n/a

Read CD Text : Yes
Return C2 Pointers : Yes
Read CD-R : Yes
Read CD-RW : Yes
Read DVD-ROM : Yes
Read DVD-RAM : Yes
Read DVD-R : Yes
Read DVD-RW : Yes
Read DVD-R DL : No
Read DVD+R : Yes
Read DVD+RW : Yes
Read DVD+R DL : No
Read BD-ROM : No
Read BD-R : No
Read BD-RE : No
Read HD DVD-RAM : No
Read HD DVD-R : No
Read HD DVD-RW : No
Read HD DVD-R DL : No
Read HD DVD-RW DL : No
Read HD-BURN : No
Read Digital Audio : Yes
Read CD+G : Yes
Read VideoCD : Yes

Write CD-R : No
Write CD-RW : No
Write DVD-R : No
Write DVD-RW : No
Write DVD-R DL : No
Write DVD+R : No
Write DVD+RW : No
Write DVD+R DL : No
Write DVD-RAM : No
Write BD-R : No
Write BD-RE : No
Write HD DVD-R : No
Write HD DVD-RW : No
Write HD DVD-R DL : No
Write HD DVD-RW DL : No
Write HD-BURN-R : No
Write HD-BURN-RW : No
Buffer Underrun Protection : No
Mount Rainier : No
SolidBurn : No
Labelflash : No
LightScribe : No
Modes : n/a

Region Protection Control : RPC II
Region : None
Changes User : 5
Changes Vendor : 4

CSS : Yes
CPRM : Yes
AACS : No
VCPS : No

[budz]

you posted the wrong info from nero infotool. go to the configuration tab and you'll see the primary & secondary ide channels. you will see if your dvd burners are in PIO or UDMA MODE. this is what it's suppose to look like:

[dqtus]

Hmmm doesnt look like mine shows this info. This is what I get but I just did a burn and it went fine so I guess somehow it fixed itself

untitled.bmp

[budz]

Hmmm doesnt look like mine shows this info. This is what I get but I just did a burn and it went fine so I guess somehow it fixed itself

untitled.bmp

it's because you're using version 5 of nero which is a old version. if you're using crappy media that can also be a reason why you had long burn times. use good quality dvd media like VERBATIM & TAIYO YUDEN.

[dqtus]

yea mine are all taiyo yuden premiums. Which version of nero is good now? I had used 5 before and switched to 6 once and got all sorts of bad burns and hated it so i switched back to 5.5 since if it aint broken dont fix it right. So what is a stable version of nero then?

[budz]

yea mine are all taiyo yuden premiums. Which version of nero is good now? I had used 5 before and switched to 6 once and got all sorts of bad burns and hated it so i switched back to 5.5 since if it aint broken dont fix it right. So what is a stable version of nero then?

I wouldn't even use NERO if someone paid me. NERO is crappy to use for dvd burning.
Use IMGBURN to burn your TAIYO YUDEN discs.

[FulciLives]

ImgBurn rocks and Taiyo Yuden rocks

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[Bagheera]

With ImgBurn and good media, it is damn near impossible to create a coaster.