CD-RW drive problems

Kid Icarus

My CD-RW is, well, crap. Any CD's I try to burn end up as coasters. I've tried different software and always get the same result; I can't play the CD's in anything.

I have it on the 2nd IDE as master, my DVD-ROM is slave. The cable comes from the motherboard into the DVD-ROM and then to the CD-RW. It's definitely an ATAPI CD drive (comes up when booting). It also seems to have trouble reading discs.

Should I just dump it and buy a new one (they're pretty cheap now anyway). Maybe I'll just go get myself a DVD writer.....

Anyway, any advice/help would be appreciated.

hostyle

What software have you tried?

Try burning at slower speeds ans see if that helps.

Then again if its having trouble reading discs, it could be on the way out ...

Kid Icarus

What software have you tried?
Easy CD-Creator (v6 I think), NERO, and a couple of others with varying degrees of success. Easy CD-Creator will burn a good CD in 5, NERO might get 2 out of every 5. Neither can erase a CD-RW properly.

Try burning at slower speeds ans see if that helps.
Well it's only 2x (re)writing. I've tried 1x, but that's no help.

Then again if its having trouble reading discs, it could be on the way out ...
Yeah, it is kind of old (hence the maximum of 2x RW). But I haven't used it much, I almost always use the DVD drive.

Inspector Gadget

If it's that old, it's probably not equipped with Burn-proof or similar techonology. Are you getting buffer underrun errors when the discs get junked (Nero will use this specific phrase)? If so, consider the following options:

1) If you're doing other stuff while you're burning discs and you get coasters, then try leaving the computer alone when it's burning the discs. Disable any CPU-hungry screensavers while you're at it.

2) If this helps, or even if it doesn't, check if you've got DMA enabled for the drive. Go to the device manager, find the secondary IDE controller, right click, select "Properties", and root around in the dialog that gives you. See if the primary master is set to some DMA (ultra or otherwise) mode; if it says PIO then change it to DMA (if possible).

If DMA wasn't enabled for the drive, and things start working again, try using the computer again while it's burning. It may respond better.

Hope this helps,
Gadget

Stephen

are you using crappy cheap media?
though the fact that it has trouble reading discs too suggests that its knackered.

Kobie

I'd say if it's new bring it back, if it's old dump it & buy a DVD burner. It's not worth spending the time & blank discs on a crappy drive (trust me).

K.

Kid Icarus

Nothing worked. I dumped it. Gonna buy a DVD burner next week.