LIGHTNING UK!

What OS are you running? Does it complete the scan if you don't have the external drive plugged in? Microsoft have a tool for repairing common optical drive related problems. Just google 'Microsoft cd fixit' and you'll find it. Give that a try and come back to us if it doesn't fix it. You must have a driver or something installed on your system that's messing things up.

DVD will be a forgotten technology by the time this thread reaches a conclusion. Db, you're a very patient guy to continue to entertain this chap. I can only assume gamemaniaco is winding us up, because *nobody* spends this long debating media and going round in circles asking the same questions over and over again. They grew tired of his antics over at the videohelp forum quite quickly. http://forum.videohelp.com/threads/361664-Questions-Dyes-types-in-DVD-Media

When ImgBurn cycles the tray between the write and verify operations, it's so the drive has to reinitialise the disc (work out what it is and find out everything about it that it needs to know). The problem you're facing is that the drive is unable to do that as it can't read the disc - eventually giving up and returning that 'reference position not found' error. At that point, no software can do anything with the disc. That's why I don't understand how you've been able to verify it. There must come a point in time where the drive no longer returns that 'reference...' error and the software is allowed access to the disc. You could try enabling the 'perform opc before write' to see if the drive then does a better job of burning.

So it's either the discs you're using or the system as a whole. Try booting into safe mode and see if you have the same issue.

This is purely a hardware combo issue - drive / firmware / discs. Your drive is producing a disc it then can't even initialise, so there's no chance in the software being able to verify it. What I find interesting here is that you say you can verify it 'on its own' ? When and how are you able to do that? If you're reinserting it after a period of time, maybe it's a heat issue. Ensure the drive's firmware is up to date and try cleaning it with a cleaning disc.

Your drive just reported an error when it tried to write to the disc. I'd have said to do a full erase on it and try again. Rewritable discs do tend to fail to burn more frequently than write once media.

Hmm weird. Next time you burn one, please do capture graph data so I can take a look. It might be worth turning off 'Perform OPC Before Write' as that's off by default... and 'BD-R Verify Not Required' is usually on by default (you've turned it off). If you have discs with a different MID, give those a try.

Burn and verify a disc. When the verify process starts, one of the lines in the log will tell you what the booktype is. If you've already got a burnt disc, either go back and look at the log (via the help menu) or load the disc in Read mode and look at the 'Physical Format Information - Last Recorded'.

By definition, using OpenCandy makes a product 'adware' or 'ad supported'. The sole purpose of OpenCandy is to insert 3rd party product offerings into the usual installation wizard of anything that uses it. Outside of said installation wizard however, it does nothing at all. Advertising is nothing new. TVs use it, radios use it, magazines and newspapers use it, websites use it... it's everywhere. OpenCandy is just one of the biggest (probably THE biggest) one that handles this particular form/method of advertising.

Whilst it's technically possible with certain drives (there's a tool that can do it for LiteOn drives), I very much doubt it ever actually happened. If the manufacturer has loaded the machine with a tool that can do it for another drive, I'm sure the people of the Internet would like to get their hands on it! Obviously it's too late now to actually get to the bottom of what happened here. Just know that nothing touches the drive's region code unless it hasn't been set and it needs to be, or without first prompting you with a big 'region changing' type screen.

Can you capture a screenshot of the error? A 3rd party app on your PC might be blocking it. Only you can figure that one out I'm afraid.

The software has nothing to do with your drive's hardware region code. If it was a simple thing to reset the count then there'd be no point in having a region lock in the first place. Just set it region 2 and forget about it. You won't have to ever think about or deal with it again. Licensed software dvd players normally set the drive's region to whatever the disc's region code is if it's not set - because otherwise they can't decrypt the disc.

Don't any of the existing options work? Sometimes drives just do it automatically.

The drive shouldn't have done that. It accepted the request to change the write speed to 2x and when queried for the speed it was going to burn at, it reported 2x. So there's no reason at all for it to have messed up and burnt faster than 2x. Maybe it's a bug in the firmware on the drive? Do you have any other discs you can try? I assume it's ok with DVDs? You can update the drive's firmware to TS01 from here: http://www.firmwarehq.com/Samsung/SE-506BB/files.html

If you've got 5 changes left, the counter has never been set in the first place. New drives start with 5 and drop to 4 once it's been set. So basically, it doesn't sound like you've got anything to worry about - and no, doing a factory settings reset shouldn't and wouldn't have touched the region code.

Go and read the OpenCandy website. It's a legitimate company trying to run a legitimate business. http://www.opencandy.com/

Yes, when the drive rounds things up, it'll just pad the end with zeros. The actual data (files etc) will all be the same.

Can you post the whole log please?

Sorry, no. The booktype stuff only applies to DVD+R (plus) format discs.

There is no single answer for that, it depends on the drive and media. I don't usually go below 16x or 24x for CDs. I only ever use Taiyo Yuden ones.

I'd need to see the log (copy and paste if possible) and screenshot of the main+log windows at the point where you say it's hanging. It makes no sense to hang and be waiting for the read thread there as it would never get to the tray cycling part if there was more data to read. Also, please post the family tree info I requested.

Sorry, I don't understand where yours is hanging. Is it hanging between the write and verify or is it hanging at the end of the verify operation where you've aborted the operation? If it's hanging where you've aborted, the drive probably can't read the disc or your system has stopped processing I/O. Go into Write mode, right click the destination drive drop down and select 'family tree'. Close the prompt that comes up and copy + paste everything from the log window please. You should update the firmware on your drive too. http://www.firmwarehq.com/LG/BH10LS30/files.html

Yes, it has an option to control the write speed and it applies to anything you want to burn.

No it doesn't / can't. I have MBAM too and it just flags it (the setup program) up saying 'Non-Malware Detected' with the description 'PUP.Optional.OpenCandy' and the 'Action' defaults to 'Ignore Once'. If you open the setup program in 7zip, you'll see that the only OpenCandy stuff it contains is the 'OCSetupHlp.dll' file. That's all MBAM is detecting because that's all there is. The setup program extracts the dll to a temp folder, loads it and that inserts the pages into the wizard. Once the setup finishes, the dll is unloaded and either deletes itself or is just left dormant in your temp folder.

Opencandy doesn't install, it's a single DLL file that's loaded and runs within the context of the setup program and that should be it. It inserts a page or two as part of the installation wizard offering 3rd party software and they're what you can opt out of installing.