More strange CD-R problems.

[Swish]

My buds Dell is a 2000 model, although it was recently upgraded with more RAM and a faster processor, and he told me that all his recent burns were skipping on the first track, regardless of which player he used on playback (car, house, burner). I figiured he needed a new burner so I picked one up and installed it for him, which most of you know is a proverbial piece of cake . We proceeded to burn a couple cds at 40X speed (I burn mine at 52X and have no problems), and all seemed fine until the very end when we got an error message. We tried 3 times, lowering the burn speed each time, but the result was the same.

Anyway, it gets even stranger. I really had to skedalle, so I got in my car and popped one in to see what would happen and, oddly enough, it played perfectly! I then tried advancing to the second track, but got nothing! I tried skipping thru the rest of the tracks but with no sound whatsoever. WTF is going on? I ejected it, popped it back in and let it play thru the first track, and guess what? Yep, the second track was magically there, as was the 3rd, the 4th, th 5th and so on. The other CD-R was exactly the same, the first a Sony, the second an I-Mation. So what gives? I can't figure this one out, but maybe some of our resident PC/burner gurus can shed some much-needed light on this?

Swish

[Davey]

So what gives? I can't figure this one out, but maybe some of our resident PC/burner gurus can shed some much-needed light on this?

Swish
You're getting errors in the TOC most likely. Often you can't hear the audio errors because if they aren't correctable, they get interpolated through on CD players, but the Table of Contents is a different story since the errors can't be interpolated if not correctable. You need more buffering or need to use a burn-proof program or burn slower or check what processes are running and all the usual stuff. Burning at 40x or 50x is crazy!

[Swish]

:D
You're getting errors in the TOC most likely. Often you can't hear the audio errors because if they aren't correctable, they get interpolated through on CD players, but the Table of Contents is a different story since the errors can't be interpolated if not correctable. You need more buffering or need to use a burn-proof program or burn slower or check what processes are running and all the usual stuff. Burning at 40x or 50x is crazy!

He is using Nero Express first of all, but I'm wondering what a "burn-proof" program would be???. Your theory sounds logical regardless. I'm not sure what processes he has running in the background, so maybe I'll check that next time. His computer skills are, well, they're not really skills. Let's just say he's pretty bad overall, so he'll need my help either way.

I actually do burn at 52X on my PC and rarely, if ever, have a problem. Crazy? You know I am, but it works for me. I'll tell him to try going really low, perhaps all the way down to 4X and see if if works. Then gradually increase to until he gets to an error.

Thanks for the feedback!

Swish Baby

[Davey]

He is using Nero Express first of all, but I'm wondering what a "burn-proof" program would be???. Your theory sounds logical regardless. I'm not sure what processes he has running in the background, so maybe I'll check that next time. His computer skills are, well, they're not really skills. Let's just say he's pretty bad overall, so he'll need my help either way.
I should've said burn-proof drive, because that's where the buffering is. The burning software should tell you what drive features are detected, but I think most of them have burn-proof protection nowadays. Burn-proof drives have an additional buffer built into the drive to prevent data copying errors. In effect, they stop and start the writing operation to keep from running out of data when writing faster than the computer can supply it due to whatever. Or something like that :)

I only use Roxio or EAC so don't know much about Nero. You could download EAC and go through the configuration wizard which will test the drive and get it set up right if you think there might be a problem with the way Nero is interacting with it. EAC doesn't have all the bells and whistles but works pretty cleanly in most cases, at least with many of the newer drives. I generally only write at 8x max, but sometimes I let it go at full speed, but mine can only write at 24x max and usually doesn't get that high.

[Dave_G]

Ya'll should burn at 2x or 4x, take yer time, it's music.

Dave