pioner104 and coasters problem help!!

[disastermaster]

I have just purchased a Pioneer 104 dvd/rw and up to now I`ve created three coasters. I have got the latest firmware for the drive and I have disabled DMA ( which made no difference for dvd writing), I`m using Nero 5.5.8.0 and all that i am doing is creating a data cd. The discs are `Datasafe Classic `white label and I`m running win98se. The burning starts ok then at about 2min 45sec Nero throws up a communication error and aborts. I have managed to create an audio cd with this drive ( the first audio cd failed untill I disabled DMA)
I`ve got 60gb primary master 80gb primary slave Liteon cd/rw secondary master and the pioneer secondary slave. The liteon works perfectly at 32X so I cant see it being a bottleneck between primary and secondary, or could it?
I`m running an athlon 1400 and have 256mb ram .I`ve also shut down all background progs when attempting the dvd write.
Any ideas????

TIA Disastermaster.

[bskousen]

The communications error you are getting is a problem with NERO, not the burner. I had the same problem with Nero. You need to update Nero and the problem should go away.

[elmolicious]

It's nothing to do with Nero

Richard Fraiser from Pioneer UK has made statements to the following

Pioneer Japan have released a new firmware 1.32 which dissables writing to certain media brands and also cuts certain 2x discs down to 1x, also it does fix a problem with the new 4 times disc's & overheating

However he is miffed at all the phone calls & e-mails & letters which have gone unanswered as to why they have dissabled writing to cheap media (even pioneers own early disc's won't work)

The only reply he got was that a new firmware will/should be available within 1 month to fix the problem.


The reason Nero throws the error up is because once the Lead-In is finished & Track writing begins this is where the firmware kicks in & examines the dye content on your disc & if it ain't in the firmware list then you will get a coaster.

No real solution has been released yet,,,,

Downgrading the firmware is possible Richard says,,,, but when i told him i'de already tried the so called Re-Flash with the new v1.32 (r1.16b) it still said the firmware was already v1.32 & would not Re-Flash, i also tried the boot into true dos technique and plugged my DVD RW into the 2nd IDE on the motherboard & tried the downgrade method (still no joy), he does say there are other ways to do it, but he couldn't tell me for warrenty reasons...

Traxdata 2x now write at 1x (but they will cut OK)

As for other cheap disc's (u know the ones), you will just have to wait & hope for the new firmware release to fix this,,,

If the new firmware still doesn't let you cut with the cheap disc's then try for an exchange at the suppliers

P.S. Feel free to post this on other boards

Laterz

Elmo

[Toogy]

Hmm... I just got a DVR-104 two weeks ago and updated the firmware right away and I bought the cheapest DVD-R's I could find. They don't have a brand, they are purple and just say DVD-R on them in a spindle.
Anyways I have yet to get a coaster and I have burnt at least 15 disks so far.
So I don't know about the previous post. I couldn't have bought cheaper media if I tried.

[bskousen]

Contrary to what one person said, your version of Nero DOES cause the communications error. If you update Nero, the error will go away. This is a known problem and is posted on Nero's web site. I was getting this error with about one out of every three audio CDs until I updated my Nero software. The problem has never occurred again and no firmware updates were involved.

Bruce Skousen

[elmolicious]

If you read the original post the error comes from making a data dvd, NOT an audio cd. Cutting standard cdr audio cd's works ok, but writing dvd data is stopping once 2:45 is reached, that's when the writing begins after the lead in.

So as i said earlier, Nero is NOT the problem, the dvd media is the problem

use Traxdata & you won't get anymore coasters

[pvanosta]

Hi,
How can I tell which version firmware I have?

Thanks

[elmolicious]

Hi,
How can I tell which version firmware I have?

Thanks :D

http://www.pioneeraus.com.au/multimedia/software/dvrup/chkrw.exe

[pvanosta]

Thank you.
Next time, I'll look at the manufacturer's site, before asking silly questions

[crjackson]

I was getting the very same communications error using ANY writing software. I fixed the problem by going into the BIOS and disabling UltraDMA on the controller the 104 was connected to.

In Winxp, this automatically placed the drive into Multi-Word DMA2 and the error went away. This includes ALL versions of NERO. However I find that for DVD writing, I like RecordNowMax! better than any.

I also flashed the firmware to 1.32 recently and burn the cheapest DVD-R's I can find. I've not made a single coaster in 250+ burns since fixing the UltraDMA problem. Pioneer is aware of the issue, and should have posted it in a FAQ. I talked to Pioneer Tech-Support and they confirm it IS the drive that caused the problem.

I'm not arguing that NERO had no issues, they prolly did, but I've installed 6 of those drives on various PC's now, and in each case, Disabling UltraDMA fixed any issues.

I get my DVD-R media here http://www.allmediaoutlet.com/P-DVDR-4.7-GENPR100free.html

[lynnsabcs]

CRJackson:

Hate to be so dumb, but would you give details for how to do the Disabling of UltraDMA in the BIOS? Do you go thru the systems settings? I think I'm having the same problem.

thanks

LynnsABCs

[crjackson]

Since I don't know anything about your particular system/bios I can only generalize.

Upon booting, go into SETUP. With an Award Bios, this usually means to press the delete key before the system starts loading the boot sector from the hard drive (i.e. as soon as you turn on the system and get activity on the screen, press the delete key to enter setup).

Once in setup, you will have to skim through the different menus and settings pages. You system likely has all the drives setup to auto-detect all settings. Find out if your DVD-R is on the PRimary or Secondayr controller channel. Find out if it's master or slave on that channel.

Then go to the appropriate setting line and disable UltraDMA for only that one drive. Also try to keep that drive on it's own cable as master. Putting it on a cable with other devices often causes problems.

Save the configuration and reboot into windows. Go into the device manager and confirm that the controller channel for the DVD-R is now set to MultiWord-DMA2.

That should do it. At least it does for me...

[lynnsabcs]

crjackson:

Thanks for the help on Setup. I found my info on the Compaq support line to use F10 to start the setup. I only had 6 or 7 options to change, but one of them was disabled so I enabled and now I can burn a movie smaller than 4.7 directly using the ISO read/write on DVD Decoder.

My low-priced white Pringo DVD-RW discs are not completly erasing (the ones I used earlier trying to get the burning process to work) using either Nero or the new burning software that came with my Pioneer 104 in the hardwire configuration. It's B Gold or something like that. Is there a trick on erasing/reformating these RW discs?

thanks

LynnsABCs

[crjackson]

I use RecordNow! to erase. It gives options for quick erase or Full Erase/Format. Using the second option I've never had a problem. I do seem to recall Nero not always getting the job done. Which app. are you using?