Author Topic: Question about burning CD's (Read 185 times)

David Houck · « **on:** December 13, 2005, 06:49:01 PM »

I've burned a goodly number of CD's on my computer using the software that came with the CD drive, Nero Express. Fairly often, a CD gets trashed in the process. Is this more likely to be the software, the hardware, or the disks? It's happened on both tries this evening; and I thought maybe I could use some advice. I did let the software test for the maximum speed, it chose 16x; but that didn't help. There are 10 songs on this CD, and it's crashing around the 9th song. The software reports that the burn process failed. When I put the disk in my CD player, it plays the first 8 or so fine, then it reaches the crash point. I'm burning wav files; the files themselves appear to be fine.

dadabass2001 · « **Reply #1 on:** December 13, 2005, 07:03:02 PM »

Hi Dave,
Depending on the age of your computer / CD burner you might be experiencing a data overrun (too fast for the burner to keep up) or perhaps a dirty or aged laser. First check - set your burn speed slower (i.e. 8X) and see if your failure rate is reduced. Other possible remedies might include defragmenting the drive where your songfiles are stored or increasing the size of your buffer memory. Also you might try a CD head cleaner.
Mike

David Houck · « **Reply #2 on:** December 13, 2005, 07:21:22 PM »

I just trashed number 3 of 3 tries. It gets all the way to the end and completes the burn, showing 100% complete, then shows the failure message. Ok; I've increased the buffer to the maximum recommended 80MB. I'll try one at 8x. If that fails, I'll try a defrag. Thanks, Mike.

David Houck · « **Reply #3 on:** December 13, 2005, 07:46:58 PM »

Success at 8x!

I got two sets of Phil's Albany show with Scofield made. Thanks again Mike!!

Probably need to go ahead and do that defrag tomorrow anyway.

(Message edited by davehouck on December 13, 2005)

tom_z · « **Reply #4 on:** December 13, 2005, 10:21:49 PM »

Great Dave! How does it sound? Is it the Rob Clarke recording?

Tom

flaxattack · « **Reply #5 on:** December 14, 2005, 05:08:10 AM »

you might also want to do a uninstall reinstall
i have been using nero for years and have never had this problem
also make sure you are not running anything behind it,
bero is great for editing and equalizing shows too... love it
heres a little hint- on audience shows- increase the stereo separation to around 60-80% makes it sound a lot better

David Houck · « **Reply #6 on:** December 14, 2005, 06:31:32 AM »

Tom; yes, it's the Rob Clarke. And I think it sounds very good, both the recording and the show! I highly recommend it. Of course it's less than soundboard quality; but given that, it's very good. And the show itself is pretty special.

Jeff; I'm starting to think that it isn't the software. My guess is that the defrag is going to help. I did close all other open windows; however the TSR stuff in the tray was all still running. And thanks for the tip about the editing and equalizing; I had never even noticed that stuff before!

flaxattack · « **Reply #7 on:** December 14, 2005, 02:19:34 PM »

IH SOULD ADD THAT I use nero express

Bradley Young · « **Reply #8 on:** December 14, 2005, 06:17:05 PM »

Dave,

Make sure that you have DMA turned on- this allows the computer to send data from the hard drive to the CD drive without touching the CPU. This is especially important on older (slower) machines. There are tutorials on the web about turning on DMA.

Defragging is a good idea. R&Ring the recording software may work, becuase it might turn the DMA on for the drive.

With regard to cheap discs and cheap burners:

I burn literally hundreds of discs per year, and I only buy the cheapest possible discs ($10-12 per 100), and I burn them on the cheapest DVD-RW drive I've seen ($50 at Fry's). I only rarely have problems, and these are usually won't play on a specific CD player, i.e. the disc works fine elsewhere.

If you've been having this problem for some time, and you've verified that DMA has been turned on, it might be time for a new burner. My suggestion is to get the cheapest one you can find on line (I'm guessing that newegg.com or outpost.com should have sub-$50 DVD-RW). YMMV, HAND, IANAL.

Brad

PS- I'm not running a bootleg ring; I wrote custom software for our church that records, databases (who, what, when), burns, and prints labels for preaching. Pretty cool.

David Houck · « **Reply #9 on:** December 14, 2005, 09:06:03 PM »

Brad; on the secondary channel, the transfer mode was set to PIO only; I've now changed it to DMA If Available. And thanks for the tip about discs and burners!