CD Burning Problem

[Luke_of_Mass]

hey folks,

Lately i've had a recurring problem with the cd-r's my burner has been writing. at first I thought it wasnt very often (maybe 1 in 15 discs) and i thought perhaps it was some cheap no-name discs i got on freecycle, but since then (5 months or so) it has gotten more frequent (like 9 out of 10...).

the drive isnt very old (purchased OEM in 2010)

I've tried different blank media, different burning software, cleaning the laser and re-installing it. not sure what else to try... could my drive be burning out or something? it doesnt have any problem with dvds, but does occasionally give false error messages telling me the dual-layers werent successfully burned when they actually play just fine.

any advice would be appreciated

thanks

Luke

[mooncusser]

you can buy a new drive for about $20
if the current one doesn't work with imgburn, I'd just replace it
you've already tried alternate media and software

[paddington]

Can you be more specific?

I gather you are not having too much trouble with DVDs, but CDRs are problematic?

What, specifically, is the problem you encounter when burning CDRs?

[Audioarchivist]

Yes, drives "burn out" - I had one fail recently...
I've read that they DO have a limited number of discs they can write effectively. Not an "exact" number, but after a few thousand, you can be sure they're not burning the same as they were when the drive was brand spankin' new, right? I mean, its a mechanical device, with all sorts of moving parts. Somethings bound to go wrong in there somewhere.
It's a cheap enough replacement. Hell, I got a recycled one for free that didn't get much use in its first owner's tower until I got my own newer one.
Sorry about your bad luck in getting a lemon drive. Better luck next time!

[Luke_of_Mass]

my CDs burn strangely, they burn in such a way that the players i use them in don't quite recognize that there's more than one track - ie the cd plays into the second, third, and fourth tracks, but the players all still say 'track 1'.

but if you want to skip to a specific track instead of waiting for it to play through, you can, but regardless of where you are on the cd, when you hit skip- it does skip tracks, but it must start at track 1 and cycle foreward :wtf:

[co9ol]

I don't know about anyone else out there, but I find the "Super drives" that come in macs suck. I always get errors and failed disks (or no error but it's messed up in some way). I've had 2 macs in my life time, and after the first I got a 20 dollar samsung drive and never looked back.

[paddington]

my CDs burn strangely, they burn in such a way that the players i use them in don't quite recognize that there's more than one track - ie the cd plays into the second, third, and fourth tracks, but the players all still say 'track 1'.

but if you want to skip to a specific track instead of waiting for it to play through, you can, but regardless of where you are on the cd, when you hit skip- it does skip tracks, but it must start at track 1 and cycle foreward :wtf:

Have you verified in more than that one player?

That's very odd. Ether the player you're testing on is screwed up or the burner isn't properly burning the index track around the hub.

[Luke_of_Mass]

yep different players, even a couple people i traded with complained about it...

[mooncusser]

$14.99 + free shipping
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106289

spend more if you want to burn blu-rays

[paddington]

yep different players, even a couple people i traded with complained about it...

Weak laser

Replace the unit.

[Unidecker]

o.n.e.s by prassi tech still owns for cd/dvd burning
imgburn for dvd/bluray