CD burner troubles lately... any computer nerds?

[Number Of The Priest]

Okay, I am terrible at troubleshooting computer hardware problems and my current CD burner troubles are no exception. I have discovered recently that my burner drive suddenly stopped being able to read CD-Rs and CD-RWs properly with 100% efficacy. Let's go through some examples involving data discs and music discs.

I have a CD-RW that I like to burn MP3 backing tracks (data) on so I can practice soloing when I pop that disc into my MP3 boombox in my basement studio. Earlier this evening, I wanted to add more backing tracks to the disc. I pop the disc into my burner drive and it cannot be read. [img]/images/graemlins/scratchhead.gif[/img] I'm puzzled, so I take out the disc and load it into the DVD drive on the same computer, and it reads fine. There is only 372MB space used so far, so it's nowhere near being fully used up. I don't know what the problem is. [img]/images/graemlins/scratchhead.gif[/img]

On another occasion a few weeks ago, I tried to burn a music CD using a CD-R and it messed up at some point while it was writing. I thought it was odd, so I tried it again. Now the disc is corrupted or something, because the CD can no longer be read by either of my drives. [img]/images/graemlins/scratchhead.gif[/img] I popped in another CD-R and burned the music CD at the slowest writing speed (4x) and the disc turned out fine. Why won't the damn burner write properly at maximum (12x) speed? [img]/images/graemlins/mad.gif[/img] Now it seems like I've wasted that first CD-R and there's NOTHING that seems to be written on it!!! [img]/images/graemlins/scratchhead.gif[/img]

A few months ago, I wanted to make a data CD containing as many MP3s as possible using a CD-RW I wanted to reuse. So, I performed a full-erase on all the contents on that disc. I dragged MP3 files onto the CD-RW until it was full, and then started to write the data. It gets to what looks like 100% and then totally screws up, forcing me to do another full-erase and start again. It is a tremendous waste of time and I haven't touched that project since. I'd like to get it remedied now because I want to back up some important data, but without my burner drive working 100% like it should, I'm weary of wasting more time and discs.

Is it a software problem? (I'm using Nero and Easy CD Creator.) Is it a hardware (CD burner drive) problem? If you need more info, I can try to provide it if you ask, but don't expect me to know my hardware because that's not my game.

Thanks! [img]/images/graemlins/toast.gif[/img]

[LouSiffer]

Re: CD burner troubles lately... any computer nerds?

I had a similar problem a while back. It was a hardware issue. I tried reloading the software ,but, it had no change. Replaced the burner and it worked fine. As cheap as burners are now, you won't be out much.-Lou

[Number Of The Priest]

Re: CD burner troubles lately... any computer nerd

Given I'm a cheap bastard who hates wasting, of all things, DISPOSABLE CD-Rs and CD-RWs, [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] I'd hate to spend the money, although my burner drive IS getting old. It's been in my bedroom computer for three years and in my previous family computer for at least two years before I got my own system. [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] Even my video card is an old 32MB Nvidia TNT2. [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

I also had a bad experience installing hardware a couple years ago. My guitar teacher is also a computer wizard and he told me how I could change sound cards since I had a nice M-Audio Audiophile 2496 waiting to go in my machine. It seemed easy, but I couldn't figure out how to replace the old card with the new one. I guess I must have opened the computer case wrong because when I put it back and plugged the computer back in, it wouldn't friggin' turn on!!! [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] Had to get a new computer!!!!!!!! [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] I must have fried it or something and I still don't understand how I did it to this day. So I get other people to install hardware for me now. [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

I've got a new 128MB video card waiting to go into my system, so when I get my guitar teacher to do the swap, I'll get him to swap the CD burner drive too.

Did I mention I HATE hardware? [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] I can't tell PCI RAM from SD RAM from this and that. I can't even take Atommy up on his RAM offer because I don't know what type I need. [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

Damn, so looks like I'm getting a new burner drive. That blows. I can't even back up my porno onto CDs and delete it from my hard drive before I give my computer over to my guitar teacher to do the hardware swaps. [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] Gonna be awkward and embarrassing... [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[Newc]

Re: CD burner troubles lately... any computer nerds?

A CD-RW usually won't read on anything but a computer unless you Close/Finalize the CD-RW, essentially turning it into a CD-R, which means it cannot be written to later.

When burning MP3 discs, it should be as an Audio disc, not a Data disc. A Data disc will store it like it is on the PC, so you can read them in other computers, but can't play them in audio players (though I must say I have no hands-on experience with a standalone device that can play MP3 discs as well as CDs, so I don't know if those have to have the disc in Audio format or if they can do Data format).

As for the disc that was only half-baked, I get tons of those in every bundle. I've got a 100 CD-R box and about 1/3rd of the way down the stack they started doing that, so I started using from the middle and it's just fine.

[Number Of The Priest]

Re: CD burner troubles lately... any computer nerd

There's multi-session CD-RWs. I've never had a problem with my CD-RWs that had multiple unfinalized sessions on it until now. Before, I could just keep adding my backing tracks to my backing track disc whenever I found new songs I wanted to learn.

I only burn MP3s as data onto CR-RWs for storage or creating a HUGE archive of songs, which is VERY useful for my MP3/CD player.

[Newc]

Re: CD burner troubles lately... any computer nerd

Yeah I know about the multisession stuff, but what I'm saying is that the disc was probably finalized, which is why it's not letting you write more to it.

The thing about CDRWs is they're difficult to manufacture consistently - if they screw one up during the process, 99% of the time it can still be used as a CD-R, which is why CD-Rs are so cheap and CDRWs are so expensive [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[dinkyjacksonman]

Re: CD burner troubles lately... any computer nerd

Buy a new PC.
[img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

Seriously, sometimes you restart the PC and it goes back to normal.