Hi, Guys!

I'm in desperate need of help from one of you technicaly minded peps.

I have a 16x Dual Layer Burneverytypeofmedia DVD burner. The trouble is it won't burn more than 2/3ds of a DVD before crapping-out. And it's slow - like only burns at 0.7x. I've tried all different brands of DVDs but no matter what I do it still gives me a 'write error' after about 60%. I've ruined so many blanks discs it hurts.

I'd appreciate any tips, advice or help anyone can give me.

I'm running Windoze2ksp4 and the burner used to work just fine.

Thanks for looking!

What burning program are you using?

Have you tried a blank disk from a different company?

Is this a new drive? A newly installed drive? Has it worked correctly before?

(I use a sony 16x dru-820a, & Roxio 8.0 on Win2KPro)

I use Roxio or Nero. This is also a problem when I'm trying to burn movies created in Pinnacle Studio.  I've tried all different brands of DVDs but no matter what I do it still gives me a 'write error' after about 60%. Fairly new drive and has worked on this machine before.

In Roxio, look for in the options, and unclick anything that wants to Validate files before recording and especially anything that wants to Verfiy files after recording.

Go over your options and make sure the program is still using buffer underrun, and a good amount of ram (I use 250Mb-500Mb)

In Roxio, do not "enable compression". (if you see that anywhere in the options)

I leave Roxio with its "File System of udf102" and a "Joliet Bridge", so far so good for me with that. I've burnt data disks and dvd movies, all worked cool.

Uhm.....what else?......maybe a firmware update from the company that made the drive. If its the drive, that might shock it back into service (might be worth a shot)

Thanks, AS!

I have 1gig of ram. A couple of your suggestions make sense so I'll try them. As for the firmware update - I'll have to think about that. I don't want to risk blowing the burner hardware.

Also defrag your hard drive before buring large files.  I use to have lots of problems with Roxio - I only use Nero now...

Peggy

Lol, I used to have nothing but problems with Nero, so that's why I use Roxio. But...that was with my old drive, I'm sure Nero would love my new one.

YES, defrag. Can never hurt to do that!

Also check to see if you have plenty of space, on the drive your burning software is storing temp files.

Wel I've done all the basic stuff - got plenty of space, defragged etc, but the roxio thing doesn't really apply when I'm using pinnacle studio.......sigh.....thanks for the help anyways. :sad:

cant mreally say with dvds - still burning cds. but I had the same problem with them. turns out I was trying to burn too fast - if there is a speed option in your nero try slowing it down a bit.

While I can burn CDs without problems burning DVDs if anything takes too long. I'm getting average burn speeds of 0.5x.......................

I have Roxio7. Look in your "My Documents" folder for one called "DivX-to-DVD." You will  find a folder of every DVD you've burned still stored there. You will probably have finished folders and also partial ones where the burner crapped out at 60%. Delete these to give yourself more room. This probably won't fix your problem, but it's going to become a problem later if you don't fix it. For a feature length 4.7g DVD you want a good 10 gigs free on your hard drive.

Go to http://www.divx.com/ and download the free codec. Pay attention because you can install the codec without using the default player or loading firefox with the google toolbar if you check the right buttons. The current codec might fix this.

I use Sonic Record and haven't had any problems with DVDs, but looks like everything I could think of has been covered. It could be the drive or it could be the software.....hmmmmm, bummer.

Electrogylph: No such folder I'm afraid.

Well I found an answer of sorts. I've been using  (minus) -discs but for some reason the dvd burner only wants to burn (plus) +discs even though it's supposed to burn anything.

Anyway, thanks for all the tips, you guys! Really apprectiated.