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  1. Member
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    Hi, apologies if this has been asked before - I am new to this forum.

    I have been using Nero 9 (Image
    [Attachment 64575 - Click to enlarge]
    ) to burn audio CDs and I've had no problems in the past. I bought a new load of CDRs and now I get endless error messages each time I try to burn to one of the these CDs (I've had to bin most of them). Typical message is 'read error from sector x to x'. I have attached a screensnap of what I get.

    I would appreciate any help and advice.

    All the best

    George
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  2. Member turk690's Avatar
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    There are any number of reasons why it failed.
    Starting with the blank CD-R media, if the last batch didn't fail, then the new one you bought is obviously subpar, or at least is not the type the existing drive can maneuver around with. I can see your drive is USB. I refrain from using USB optical drives if and when I can because of the largely unpredictable nature of the interface, and the varying power requirements of the drive that may tax the maximum power available from the bus (0.5A on a USBv2 and 1A on USBv3.x). Here is what I do to commit to a red book CDDA:
    • exclusively use SATA optical drive
    • prepare the *.bin and *.cue files separately in another app like audacity or audition; don't leave everything to the automation and whims of an all-purpose app
    • use a reliable burning app like Image Burn
    • ensure a full reboot before burning and only the burning app is up and running and nothing else
    • disable all power-save options and make sure everything is on all the time
    • no USB drives or peripherals are plugged in (except keyboard and mouse)
    • completely offline during the duration of burning; no LAN, no wi-fi, no internet
    The last time I used nero was probably 15 years ago, when it still wasn't a massively bloated all-purpose app that it has become now. I have no idea what aspects of it could possibly be interfering in the burning process. Image Burn was last updated in 2013, but it's still IMHO the best burning tool around.
    Of course it pays to update the computer beforehand: BIOS, windows updates, device drivers. Because windows updates (if windows is what you have) is occasionally known to introduce bugs, it's also entirely possible it thwacked your USB controller by reverting to an older or less stable driver. To this end, on any windows computer I get my hands on, I enable "do not include drivers in windows updates" via an admin gpedit.msc, before performing windows updates.
    It's obvious that, if all you have is a newer laughtaff with no built-in optical drive, it is difficult or impossible to fish out any SATA lead to connect to such an external optical drive. You may be forced to really just use USB. All such optical drives nowadays are, in my experience fragile pieces of equipment, and the "endless error messages" you are currently getting may just be a symptom of a dying drive. Time to get a new one then, and ensure it's USBv3.x, and plugged into an appropriate USBv3.x port. All the points above still apply, USB optical drive notwithstanding.
    For the nth time, with the possible exception of certain Intel processors, I don't have/ever owned anything whose name starts with "i".
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    Usual advice is to burn at half the rated speed. ie. if the media is 16x, burn at 8x.

    If the errors continue, the media is bad, or your burner is dying
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    Thanks for that and for the detailed response. Not being computer savvy, I was confused by a few of your suggestions. Firstly, the CD was inserted into a CD drive on my laptop and not a USB (unless I am misunderstanding you). I have no idea what *.bin and *.cue files are and how to work with them. However, I will try some of your other suggestions. I will need to buy more CD Rs as I've used mine all up wastefully with these error messages. Perhaps new media will do the trick.

    Thanks again

    G
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    Hi davexnet

    I tried that - infact I tried burning at different speeds but it didn't make any difference. You may be right about the media though.

    Thanks

    G
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  6. Member DB83's Avatar
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    For the sake of clarity, what media brand - name, speed eg 32x - were you using ?
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    Hi

    I bought a pack of Ritek 901OEDRPSN001 50 x Traxdata Full Face Inkjet Printable White CD-R 52x Blank Discs 700MB CDR from Amazon. I originally burned at 32 but as the problem persisted I reduce down to 16 then 10 - but it didn't make any difference.

    George
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    The Amazon reviews for these CDRs are terrible.

    G
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  9. Member DB83's Avatar
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    Well the reviews for the Ritek/Traxdata were not exactly convincing.

    At the end of the day it is your money. Like anything else these days, products that had a good reputation are now outsourced to diff manuf. with varying results.


    You live in London. There was a time that you could walk up the Tott. Crt. Rd and there would be store after store selling all manner of blank media. I guess these days that is not the case.
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    I'm surprised no not mentioned this. Use ImgBurn. Used and recommended by most of the longtime members here. Tried and true. Make sure you're download from the link as newer versions contain adware.
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  11. Member DB83's Avatar
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    ^^ Mentioned in Reply #2 (slight mis-spelling)
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    Ahhh...I see it!
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  13. Member turk690's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by GeorgeCB View Post
    Thanks for that and for the detailed response. Not being computer savvy, I was confused by a few of your suggestions. Firstly, the CD was inserted into a CD drive on my laptop and not a USB (unless I am misunderstanding you). I have no idea what *.bin and *.cue files are and how to work with them. However, I will try some of your other suggestions. I will need to buy more CD Rs as I've used mine all up wastefully with these error messages. Perhaps new media will do the trick.

    Thanks again

    G
    It's good that the CD drive is built-in, because that means it's local SATA and there are no USB issues. If in the end that drive is faulty (as they can become, when regularly used for burning as opposed to merely reading), it's easily and cheaply replaceable.
    CD audio is not CD-ROM and image files of the usual *.iso can't be created and be portable. The closest that can be done in that regard is via the *.bin file (which is essentially the audio data) and the *.cue file (essentially the track list). The *.bin and *.cue files are the outputs of a (professional) audio CD authoring app, to be submitted to a burning app. If you are using an all-in-one like wretched nero, all of that detail may be invisible to you and all you have to do is toss input (audio) files of a wide variety of sampling rates and lengths into it. When problems come up like the one you are experiencing, it's hard to pinpoint where in the chain it is coming from. For example, it can be easy to fixate on bad media, and while it could be a contributor to the issue, there may be others under the interaction between the all-in-one and the hardware capability or limitations.
    A specific example would be, submitting non-44.1KHz non-WAV files to the app. The app has to resample and decode them to the form suitable for CDDA and put them in a temp location. It then has to internally prepare the *.bin and *.cue from that then fire up the burning app, which in turn interfaces with the drive and see how big its buffer is. Respectable apps, whether professional stand-alone or all-in-ones, will have configuration settings in which user can designate where this temp location can be. A significant limitation with laughtaffs is they only have one drive, which is where this temp location necessarily has to be. I emphasized in my first reply above that all other apps that have nothing to do with the burning has to be closed or disabled while burning is going on. Also, no internet connection w-fi, BT, or any other USB devices connected. This is all because in a single-drive computer, we are not certain which processes suddenly interrupt the data flow from any of the buffers and/or temp location to the CD drive in the midst of burning, and the result is consistent buffer underruns. You could be using the very best blank CD, DVD, and blu-ray media in the world, and buffer underruns will still happen unless their causes are analyzed and addressed.
    Ideally, in any optical burning situation, any data being fed to the drive while burning should come from a location local to the computer where the drive is, which is not on the system or boot drive. This means a separate SATA drive. USB does not count. While it's easy to put another SATA drive in a desktop that has SATA ports galore, older laughtaffs generally do not have them. Current laughtaffs after about 2016 now have at least two SATA ports within, or one SATA and one m.2 or two m.2, which makes them viable for the purposes of optical burning or NLE, unlike in the days of single-SATA ports.
    For the nth time, with the possible exception of certain Intel processors, I don't have/ever owned anything whose name starts with "i".
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  14. Member turk690's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by GeorgeCB View Post
    Hi

    I bought a pack of Ritek 901OEDRPSN001 50 x Traxdata Full Face Inkjet Printable White CD-R 52x Blank Discs 700MB CDR from Amazon. I originally burned at 32 but as the problem persisted I reduce down to 16 then 10 - but it didn't make any difference.

    George
    I have used the same exact media in the past. While they are not the best, they will still turn into playable CDDA or readable CD-ROMs if, for one, burned by a drive in the prime of its life, i.e. new. You may need to consider replacing your existing internal CD drive, in addition to all other points I have outlined in my other replies to this thread.
    For the nth time, with the possible exception of certain Intel processors, I don't have/ever owned anything whose name starts with "i".
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    I can't face replacing the CD drive itself, so I'll have a go at trying different CDRs first and report back.

    Thanks

    G
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    Just a belated update. I bought a new load of printable CDRs (Verbatim) and so far no problems whatsoever. So it was clearly the rubbish CDRs that I bought before and these have now been binned. Just to be on the safe side I have taken some of the advice from turk690 and burned at a lower speed with hybernation turned off and no other programs running - maybe a bit over cautious, but what the hell.

    Thanks to everyone who offered advice.

    G
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