DVD burner won't burn

[Svendo]

Also posted in YACF if it seems familiar!

My DVD Burner will read CDs and DVDs fine, will burn CDs but won't burn DVDs at all. OS is winXP SP3.
I've used several DVD burning programs, all get as far as starting the actual burn, but gets no further. The problem seems to be filling the drives write buffer.
So far I've checked the power requirments on two web checkers, both said about 370 and the power supply is rated 450 watts.
I've updated drivers and firmware.
I've unistalled and reinstalled the drive.
I've put the drive in a win7 PC at work and it works there.
I've checked the registry for upper and lower filters manually and with a utility.
I've installed ASPI drivers using ForceASPI.

I'm stuck, and can't find any other possible things to try despite extensive googling that don't involve spending money.

I'm considering either buying a higher better power supply or upgrading to Win7 but thought I'd pick the forums brains first.
Any suggestions greatly appreciated.

 

[ColinJ]

I found someone who fixed an identical problem by "uninstalling the IDE controller and rebooting".

 

[JohnHenry]

It sounds like you have tried most things but it might be worth trying a new cable (80 pin not 40 pin) and, if your motherboard will take it, putting the DVD drive on it's own slot, set as Master.

Also you mention that the write buffer is full - how much memory does the PC have? - reducing the write speed might help.

Best of luck.

 

[ian turner]

What model of dvd burner is it ?
What motherboard or model of PC ?

Is it connected via IDE or SATA ? (given someone has already assumed IDE and my 7 year old PC has two Sata ports)
What burner programmes have you tried ?

 

[mickle]

Has the pilot light blown out?

 

[Svendo]

Thanks for suggestions,


It is a SATA drive. I've swapped for a cable known to work, The DVD drive is an LG GH22NS50. I'll have to check the Mobo model when I get home this evening, but it's a Asrock IIRC. The PC is home built btw.

I've tried CDBurnerXP and Tinyburn mainly, but also some others. I'm reasonably sure it's a problem with windows communicating with the drive, at a reasonably deep level.

I have 4GB of Ram and 190GB of Harddrive space. I've tried burning at the lowest speed available (x3.5 I think)

I did also find the old XP version of Microsofts automatic CD/DVD drive problem fixer, which didn't think my drive was a recorder! The current version doesn't work (Missing .DLL error then runtime error, I suppose it's because XP isn't supported anymore and it's for Vista and Win7)
I could try re-installing XP, which just means backing up my data on DVD first....oh!

If that doesn't work without any other suggestions I'll try:

New power supply (~£20)

Win7 (~£60)

giving up! (or new Mobo?)

 

[ian turner]

If you do a search you'll find various folks with similar problems on a selection of OS.
Are your harddrives SATA as well ?

 

[Svendo]

If you do a search you'll find various folks with similar problems on a selection of OS.
Are your harddrives SATA as well ?

I've done extensive googling and think I've tried most of the solutions I've come across.


Hard drive is SATA too.

 

[numbnuts]

Has the pilot light blown out?

 

[beanzontoast]

Before you condemn the drive or spend any money, why not download a live cd version of a linux distro (Ubuntu 10.04 maybe) and see if it will burn a dvd using its burning software. If it will, then you might be right about looking hard at Windows for reasons. If it won't then maybe your hardware is at fault after all.

 

[beanzontoast]

Also - have you tried writing to a different brand of dvd?

 

[adam0718]

Change both the type of media you are using and try a different burning software. DVD Author Plus is free and will burn your video DVD's - http://www.deskshare.com/dvd-authoring-burning-software.aspx

 

[ian turner]

Suggestions indicate that switching from ahci to ide emulation on the sata channel fixes things but then i suspect your hard drive would fail to boot. Probably a problem with the ahci drivers for that board.

If it was a media problem then it wouldn't work on the other PC.

Plus media problems wouldn't prevent it burning just cause it to fail verification.
Let us know what motherboard model it is.

 

[Svendo]

Suggestions indicate that switching from ahci to ide emulation on the sata channel fixes things but then i suspect your hard drive would fail to boot. Probably a problem with the ahci drivers for that board.

If it was a media problem then it wouldn't work on the other PC.

Plus media problems wouldn't prevent it burning just cause it to fail verification.
Let us know what motherboard model it is.

Hi Ian,

I've tried Memorex DVD-Rs as well as Supermarket, and it was the supermarket ones that worked in the other PC.

the MB is an ASRock N61P-S,
nForce 430 Chipset
Pretty sure I insalled XP in IDE mode in the first place, as required extra work for AHCI and I wasn't going to use RAID functions. Device Manager lists "IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers" with 2 "NVIDIA nForce Serial ATA Controller"s in it.

Planning to try Chipset Driver upgrade, then repair/reinstall XP at the weekend (Bike ride allowing!)

 

[Svendo]

Before you condemn the drive or spend any money, why not download a live cd version of a linux distro (Ubuntu 10.04 maybe) and see if it will burn a dvd using its burning software. If it will, then you might be right about looking hard at Windows for reasons. If it won't then maybe your hardware is at fault after all.

I might try that, It'd confirm it's a software issue if it works. Have to wait until next months download allowance though. Thanks Beanz.