Sigma

All antivirus products should be blocking this stuff. Everyone knows that devs only make money from this through user carelessness. If the options to install bundled software were unchecked by default, virtually nobody would actually choose to install that stuff, but money is being made because people often don't pay close attention to each step of the installer. The makers of Open Candy know this. Lightning UK knows this. That's why you should find an alternate program to ImgBurn and boycott it until it's no longer being used as a malware distribution tool.

I have the same drive with the same firmware and the device buffer only goes up to 96% for me too. Burns are very good quality though, so I've never worried about it. It was the same on 2.5.7.0 for me as well.

Hmmm, I've never used iTunes. It definitely wasn't there in 2.5.7.0 though because I used 2.5.7.0 to remove a filter driver called pfc.sys, leaving no others remaining. According to the file's properties, it's been on my system since February 25th. It's no big deal anyway. I was just wondering why it suddenly showed up in ImgBurn. Thanks for the reply.

Technically that is true, but then this kind of thing does relies on people being click-happy, because who would actually choose to change their search provider and home page unless they were unaware what those terms even meant? If that wasn't the case, the options would be unchecked by default, not checked, and then I don't think anyone would have a problem with it.

When I was using 2.5.7.0 and I want to Tools - Filter Driver Load Order... there were no filter drivers listed there. I upgraded to 2.5.8.0, but now when I look at the filter drivers, this one is showing up: - Looking at the date of the SYS file, it's been on my machine since February, which I think might coincide with me doing a clean install of Windows 8 Pro. Is this file part of a stock Windows 8 install? Is it just a case of 2.5.7.0 not picking it up, even though it was there? The only burning software I've got installed aside from ImgBurn is Ashampoo Burning Studio 12, but I installed that months ago and it hasn't been updated in ages. In fact, I haven't installed any new software at all on this machine in quite a long time, aside from updating existing software. It doesn't seem to be causing any issues. I'm just wondering where that file came from and why it wasn't detected by 2.5.7.0 even though the file has been on my machine since February.

I found what the problem was a few weeks ago, so I thought I'd come back and post it in case anyone else has the same issues with one of these high end ASUS mATX boards. When I started this thread, I had a Maximus IV Gene-Z/Gen3 board. After convincing myself that that must be the cause of my woes, I got a Maximus V Gene board instead, but I had the same problems with that too. It turns out that in both cases, I hadn't installed a necessary driver. Device Manager didn't show any issues, so I assumed that all of the drivers for all of my hardware were installed already, particularly as I occasionally got a good burn. But the SATA ports on these boards are controlled by 2 different controllers - an Intel one and an ASMedia one. Both boards only have 2 Intel ports and I had an SSD and a HDD plugged into those. I had my optical drive plugged into one of the ASMedia ports, but I had not installed the ASMedia drivers. As soon as I installed the ASMedia drivers a new entry appeared in Device Manager under IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers and in ImgBurn's family tree and I have not had a single issue since.

I built a new PC last year. It's built around an ASUS Maximus IV Gene-Z/Gen3 motherboard. It has 6 SATA ports, 2 red and 4 black. My SSD and hard drive are hooked up to the red ports and work just fine. I was using Windows 7 and am now using Windows 8. I just cannot get a consistently good burn with dual layer media with ImgBurn. Burns fail with a variety of errors in the log. Here's the latest failed attempt: - I always use Verbatim MKM-003-00 discs. I have tried different spindles of discs. I have tried 4 different burners: - iHAS 124B iHAS 224B Sony Optiarc AD-5280S-PLUS (2 of them with the latest firmware) I have tried all 4 unused SATA ports. I have tried different SATA cables. The BIOS is up to date. All of the drivers, including the chipset drivers, are up to date. There are no filter drivers or other software causing issues. I have tried different burn speeds. When I was using the iHAS drives I tried different combinations of drive settings. I have tried alternative burning software such as CloneCD. Nothing works. I am getting to the end of my tether with this, as I just cannot see what the problem is. If the SATA controller on my MOBO was faulty, surely that wouldn't just affect burning discs? Wouldn't it affect other SATA devices as well, including my SSD/HDD? Is getting an external enclosure and connecting a burner via USB worth a try? Thanks for any help you can give.

Both drives turned up today and both have 1.Z8 pre-flashed.

I'll ask this here as it doesn't seem worth starting another thread for..... I'm waiting on a couple of these drives to arrive from the US. Is 1.Z8 the firmware that's pre-installed on them and if not, where can I download a firmware update? I can't find firmware downloads for this drive anywhere. Thanks.

It's already fairly easy to use, but it would be good if it was built into ImgBurn with a checkbox to enable/disable it, so that if it was enabled, you could overburn DVD+R DL discs without having to take any other action.

I retried the burn that I attempted in post 10 and this time it worked, but I'm still getting a success rate of about 1 in 4 or 1 in 5, which means a lot of binned discs. I haven't used Disc Juggler for years and it's never been installed on this machine. The only other burning software I have is Ashampoo Burning Studio 10, although I've had that installed for months and it hasn't been updated in that time, so I don't think it's that that's causing the issue, even if it's what placed the pfc.sys file on my machine. I'll try your other suggestions next time I need to burn a dual layer disc. Thanks for your help so far.

I don't think your drive is fake. I think that Asus just didn't add it to their product range on their website until after it was commercially available. Unless you're having burning issues, I don't think you have anything to worry about as you have a decent drive with the latest firmware installed.

As you've only had 1 successful burn, it could just be a coincidence regarding the update, but you could try uninstalling the update/rolling it back to see if that has any effect. Unless you can get good burns consistently over and over again (or with just the occasional failure here and there), I wouldn't attribute the issue to any 1 particular cause just yet.

Have you tried another spindle of discs? Have you successfully burned games to Verbatim MKM-001 discs before with that drive? Have you looked to see if there's a firmware update for your burner? I had a quick look via Google, but I couldn't see one, but one may be available. It's also possible that the drive is on the way out. You could try a lens cleaning disc though. Also, that's a slimline burner isn't it? They're not the best.

[ All burned/pressed discs will have errors on them. The important thing is that the error rate is low enough so that it doesn't affect the disc's ability to be read. If the error rate is too high, the drive may struggle to read the disc, with a 360 game you may get a "dirty disc" error, or a disc may not be able to be read at all. Doing a scan with something such as KProbe will show you the error rates on your burned disc. This is useful for a couple of reasons: - 1. If a disc won't read, you can scan it to see if high error rates are the cause. If not, you can rule out a bad burn. 2. You can do burns with different settings and at different speeds and scan them to see which gives the best results. That's exactly what Lightning UK did with XGD3 Xbox 360 games in this thread: - http://forum.imgburn.com/index.php?showtopic=18871&st=0&p=136519entry136519 So he tries various combinations of settings and burn speeds, then scans the discs with DVDInfoPro and KProbe to check the quality of the burn. For example, this is not a good burn: - The PIF rate ideally shouldn't go above 4, yet you can see that around the 50% mark (where the layer break is), it shoots up to above 70. That game almost certainly would not work in your 360 and if you were trying to install it, you would probably get a dirty disc error just before the 50% mark. And here is an example of a decent burn: - PI doesn't go above 25. PIF doesn't go above 2. That's a solid result. There, I've saved you a bit of Googling time.

Some media performs better when burned at faster speeds. A lot of people assume that slowest = best in all cases, but it really depends on the combination of burner, firmware on the burner, and the media you're using. If slowest really was best, than 1X wouldn't be locked out in the write strategy and it almost always is. With early burners, there was no buffer underrun protection, PCs had a much weaker spec than they have now, and the drives, media and burning software were not as advanced, so often if you didn't burn as slow as possible the burn would fail. The "always burn as slow as possible" thing comes from that era, even though it is no longer relevant advice.

I can't say if your drive is genuine or not, but I would say that 1.0 is probably the only firmware available for that drive at the moment. What makes you suspect that your drive may not be genuine?

Are you sure that there is one? The download section for that drive on Asus's own site is empty, and Google searches just show mentions of 1.0, the firmware the drive shipped with.

Please just stop. I've already told you that I've tried various settings including having OPC on and burning at 4X, and I've told you that the settings I am using were recommended by LIGHTNING UK! - You know, the guy that actually wrote ImgBurn, so I think he knows what he's talking about!

Yep. Here's how to do it, but do this at your own risk as when flashing firmware there is always a small risk of bricking the drive, especially if you don't follow the proper steps: - 1. Back up the firmware and EEPROM first. 2. Download the firmware updater for the drive you're cross-flashing to here, so for example, if you're cross-flashing a 224 to a 624 then you want the firmware for the 624: - http://codeguys.rpc1.org/firmwares.html 3. Run the firmware updater you downloaded, making absolutely sure that if you have more than 1 drive, you select the correct drive before updating the firmware, then update the firmware. 4. Run EEPROM Utility and click on the CrossFlash tab and press the Convert Drive button. 5. Turn your PC off and back on again. The PC will then detect the drive as the new version and you can flash it with Burner Max. Bear in mind that if, for example, you have converted your drive to a 624, you must use the Burner Max firmware for a 624 as that's now what your drive is.

The drives starting with an odd number are all the same. The drives starting with an even number are all the same. The drives starting with an odd number are not the same as the drives starting with an even number. Yep. It will be safe to use. Nope. 124, 324, 524 = All support LabelTag & SmartErase, but the 124 and 324 have features locked out in the firmware. 224, 424, 624 = All support LightScribe, LabelTag & Smarterase, but the 224 and 424 have features locked out in the firmware.

That's not the problem. As I said above: - I appreciate that you're trying to help, but it seems like you've read a guide on another site and are just telling people to do what it says in that guide no matter what, which isn't really "knowledge", it's just regurgitating information, even when it may not apply.

Nope. It has to be a B revision of one of the 6 drive listed so that you can write the Burner Max firmware to it. Pretty much all the drives being sold at major retailers now are C revisions which will not work. That's why the prices for the B models on eBay have shot right up! There are non-iHAS drives that can be cross-flashed (Google for a list), so it doesn't have to be one of those 6 drives listed above, plus you can also cross-flash a 122B to a any of the models listed above that begin with an odd number, but all of these drives are not readily available at big retailers because all of the ones manufactured in the last few months are C revision drives that are no good. The 624 is the most fully featured of the iHAS drives, but you can cross-flash a 224 or 424 to a 624 to unlock the extra features so it isn't worth paying extra for a 624. Likewise, you can cross-flash a 124 or 324 to a 524 to unlock the extra features. To be honest though, I think the extra features are a waste of time. LightScribe has to be used with special discs that are more expensive (and you're better off with Verbatim discs anyway). LabelFlash kinda "tattoos" an image on the top of the disc, except the bigger the image, the less data you can fit on the disc. You might as well just get plain white top discs and either write or print on them. SmartErase destroys the data on a disc if you have sensitive data that you want to get rid of, so again, pretty useless for the vast majority of users. If you just want to burn discs, just get whichever Burner Max-compatible burner you can get your hands on for the best price.

I'm still having issues. I started burning a disc and went to get a cup of coffee and when I came back, I noticed that the light on my burner wasn't flashing. In ImgBurn, the progress bar was stuck at 15% and the write rate was at 0, but there were no errors in the log at that point. I waited a little while and cancelled the burn, and it took ages for ImgBurn to cancel and then an I/O error appeared in the log. Here's the full log: - Family tree info after installing the update you linked me to: - Any ideas? Oh yeah, the only thing I haven't tried is changing the SATA cable, but regular CDs and DVDs burn fine and CDs rip fine, so if the SATA cable was dodgy, would it not affect those tasks too? I'm really at a loss with this, especially as everything worked just fine for so long.

Cool, thanks. I've installed it, so I'll see how I get on. If burns continue to fail, I will come back and post a full log.