dbminter

Well, ZoneAlarm seems to have forgotten a lot of things I told it to remember and has started asking again. So, ImgBurn was asked again. The "driver" is listed as WINDRVDIR\pci.sys

I'm just going by memory, but ZoneAlarm, I think, said some .SYS file was trying to load as a driver. And I think it's file name did start with an l.

ImgBurn loads a driver on startup, according to ZoneAlarm. What is the name of that driver, I forget? And what does it do?

And there are apparently just reasons where drives randomly disappear from the system. I've got one where if there's a sudden power fluctuation, like if the heater or air conditioner comes on, my system goes through an entire rescan of all USB connected devices. But ONLY if my Brother printer is attached. It doesn't do that if the USB cable from my printer is disconnected. I also had one where AnyDVD didn't like the drive being connected. After a little bit or reading, it would "lose" the fact that the drive was there, even though Windows/ImgBurn still detected it. However, I'd first try replacing the USB data cable. Start with the easiest to diagnose probabilities first. Then, I'd try a different USB port, preferably not in the same location, e.g. if it's in the back, try any in the front, etc.

That makes more sense than an image file being 9 KB. Plus, if there was a 9 KB image file, there wouldn't be any i00, i01, etc. files because those are the image files.

Also, I don't understand the 9kb image size part. I don't see how any disc could be just 9 KB in contents.

I typoed Device bugger! Anyway, I was wondering the purpose of the Device buffer (I DID IT AGAIN!). Was it added to address the problem of buffer (ACK!) underrun errors? 15 plus years ago when I first got into optical burning with CD-R, the majority of the problems were burns crapping out due to buffer underrun errors. I don't think I've encountered such an error in over a decade.

Also, you may want to avoid using the CMC MAG media. CMC MAG DVD and CD media causes most of the problems we see on this board.

Pioneer's can be iffy things. Take this story. I've had 3 of the same burners: one to replace my LG, one to serve as my read source, and a 3rd one to replace my first one because Eject didn't always work on the first time. Well, the eject issue started up with my 3rd Pioneer after like 7 months, so there's some kind of design flaw there. Then, after only 9 months, my 3rd burner started crapping out randomly during writes to BD-R. I had to swap it out and replace it with my 1st burner, which is almost 2 years old, but still burns. Just doesn't eject on the first time each time. Then there's the 1.34 firmware. It's borked on Ritek 8x DVD+RW media. Burns complete but all Verifies fail. Regressing the firmware back to 1.33, and it's all smooth sailing. So, what can you do? Pioneer is really the only option I've ever found that works "well." So, you have to take its flaws with its benefits. I may try the ASUS again with the express intent of being able to to return it, in case I just got a bad sample drive.

Besides, wouldn't ImgBurn not work at all for such a thing? ImgBurn should only write to optical media, not USB sticks.

Ah, but did you try 5 different BRANDS of DVD+R DL or just 5 discs from one stack of the same brand of DVD+R DL? If it's the latter, then you've most likely proven my point. If it was the latter, then you just used more than 5 CMC DVD+R DL. That tells me either your drive doesn't like that particular CMC DID of disc or it says your drive needs replacing, depending on its age. If the known good Verbatim DataLife Plus MKM's also fail, your problem is deeper than just the manufacturer of the discs you're using.

Unfortunately, you can't. They're a national conglomerate that makes its money off of people's ignorance. They lure other companies in by producing junk media they can charge higher prices for. All you can do is avoid CMC when you know you can. For instance, don't buy media in a brick and mortar store. Even Verbatim's store material, the Life series, is CMC. You have to get your media online, where reviewers can tell you the disc ID/DID/manufacturer ID/MID. Check the reviews to make sure you're not getting CMC media. For instance, in the United States, I get my Verbatim DataLife Plus DVD+R DL from Amazon.com. Your source country may vary.

ImgBurn's author will have to go over what exactly the error means. I've given all the advice I know. Generally, with burn problems on DVD+R DL that are CMC, the problem goes away when you stop using CMC. It's not always the case, but it's the most common solution.

Most likely culprit are the cheap CMC Magnetics DVD+R DL's used. CMC causes most of the problems we see on this board and nearly all the dual layer media. Try using Verbatim DataLife Plus (NOT Life you find in stores. Only the DataLife Plus you find online.) DVD+R DL and see if the problem goes away. If it doesn't, then the issue is deeper than that. Also, please post the log. Screen shots help but they don't provide all the information of the log.

But, did you drag and drop a movie file to the RW disc in Windows/File Explorer? Or did you create an ISO and burn the ISO to the RW with Windows internal burning engine? If you dragged and dropped it, Windows automatically formatted it as a giant floppy. If the ISO was burned, then it is seen as not being empty because contents were burned to it. So, either way, the disc contains contents and that's why ImgBurn says it's not empty. Because it has that movie burned to it, in one way or another. In this case, as long as you don't mind the contents on the RW being erased when you choose to start a Write operation in ImgBurn, you can just tell ImgBurn it's all right to erase the disc before burning. So, yeah, you can ignore it if you don't mind losing the current contents on the RW disc. And you'll be prompted by ImgBurn if it's okay to erase the contents on the disc before the image write begins.

Now, don't quote me on this, but when you erase discs in Windows, Windows writes a desktop.ini or some kind of .ini file to the root directory. Or a System Volume folder. Especially if it erased it as a giant floppy. That's probably the reason why ImgBurn says it's not empty. Because Windows erased it. And if Windows did "format" the disc as a giant floppy, ImgBurn will see it's "not empty." It's been formatted and thus "written" to to enable using the disc as a giant floppy. You should be able to drag and drop files in Windows/File Explorer to the disc and write to it. Or if you're going to write an image to the disc with ImgBurn, it will ask you if you want to erase the disc or not. If you're sure you don't need anything on the disc, just tell ImgBurn to go ahead with the write.

MDS files are normally generated by ImgBurn as part of the image creation process. If it's a DVD-5, you can open either the ISO or the MDS. I'd only worry if it's a DVD-9, then you should probably load the MDS. However, if you're unsure, just load the MDS. For DVD-5, either one should work fine.

Did you perform a Verify after the burn and did it complete without erroring out? Have you tried playing this disc on your PC if you have software that supports Blu-Ray playback? Testing at the point where it fails on your player to see if it fails on PC, too? If it plays on PC, PC's are more forgiving than standalone players. If your PC plays it, then, it's an issue with the standalone player. It either doesn't like CMC BD-R DL or it doesn't like BD-R DL to begin with. I've heard some stories where dual layer BD media doesn't play on some players at all. I know the PS3 has no problems with Verbatim's made BD-RE DL.

Well, it is made by CMC Magnetics, the worst manufacturer of optical discs out there. I've not had any experience with their BD-R because I always return CMC junk. Their DVD and CD are notoriously known for causing all kinds of problems. Most of the problems on this board are caused by CMC media. However, I can't magically say your issue will go away if you switch to something like say Verbatim. It could be your player doesn't like that type of disc or it doesn't like dual layer BD-R to begin with. Oh, dear, CMC is now making BD-R DL. I was hoping it was a good sign that Verbatim wasn't using CMC for BD-RE DL because they weren't making them due to the fact that there may not be enough return on investment. e.g. they can't make them cheap enough. This could mean that CMC will start making BD-RE DL and Verbatim will switch to them like they have for all their BD-RE. Verbatim BD-RE DL used to be safe from CMC, with Verbatim itself making them or farming them out to TDK, which is pretty good.

Yeah, I'd first suspect the CMC discs, too, for dual layer discs. Just because you used a disc with some other company name on it doesn't mean they made it. Or that it's even an entirely different disc. Those that worked before may not have a MID/DID of CMC. They could have been MKM or some other higher quality disc. If they were Verbatim DataLifePlus DVD+R DL's, they were MKM's and of higher quality than CMC junk. However, Verbatim also releases junk CMC DVD+R DL as part of their Life series. (NOT DataLifePlus.) So, you never really can tell, and they can always change. Optodisc used to make their own DVD-R then switched to junk CMC's. I switched from Optodisc and never looked back. You only get 1 chance to make an impression with me.

Did you check the C:\Program Files (x86) folder and make sure there isn't an ImgBurn folder there with the files installed there? Maybe it did install but didn't install "correctly," with no Start Menu items or program associations.

These USB drives you are using, are they all slim models?

Both drives have made noises while trying to eject. They just don't eject. Since it has happened on more than 1 drive, it's something inherent in the design of the drives. However, it only happens like 1 time in 10. I've never had it fail to eject when ImgBurn issues the eject command after a write before a Verify, so I don't know how ImgBurn would react. Would it think the drive had ejected, or does ImgBurn have a way of knowing if the drive was actually ejected? Does it just wait until the disc can be read and "assume" the disc was ejected, reinserted, and then made available? I just know it's done this when I've issued an Eject command from within ImgBurn manually and when I've pressed the Eject button physically on the drive.

I've had 3 Pioneer BDR-2209 drives and 2 of them have the same basic fundamental design flaw. After a certain amount of time, the eject function doesn't always work. An Eject command is issued to the drive or you press the eject button and the drive light lights up. BUT the tray doesn't eject! Pressing the Eject button again or issuing a 2nd Eject command causes the drive to eject. This happened to my first BDR-2209 after about a year and a half. It started with my 2nd BDR-2209 before even a year had passed. Because this has happened to 2 different BDR-2209's and one before it was even a year old, it cannot be escaped: this is a fundamental design flaw in the BDR-2209.

The only difference between the two is one is inkjet printable and the other isn't. Even though the branded DVD-R's don't say DataLifePlus, they're the same media. They have the same Manufacturer ID. I only put both links because I use both discs. The branded ones for short term off storage and the printable ones for things in longer term storage that might get a label on them someday. So, you'll want to see either DataLifePlus or AZO. I don't know if DataLifePlus uses AZO but those AZO discs are the same high quality discs as the DataLifePlus ones. So, I'm guess AZO is present on DataLifePlus, too. Technically, Verbatim doesn't produce the MKM's. MKM means Mitsubishi made them. However, Mitsubishi is pretty much the best dye manufacturer out there now with the folding of Taiyo Yuden. The two discs I linked to use MCC in their MID. MCC means Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation, so Mitsubishi made those DVD-R's, too. Verbatim just farms out to Mitsubishi for their DVD. Unfortunately, they also farm out to CMC for their cheaper DVD, CD, and their BD-RE. Their BD-RE DL though is made by Verbatim itself or in some cases TDK makes them. My guess is CMC doesn't make dual layer BD-RE because of the lesser profit margin from their cheap ass point of view. Let me put it this way. I've been using these MCC media for about 10 years now and I've never had a disc fail on me that wasn't the fault of the burner needing replacing. I've never had one of these discs die on me years later when I tried reading them again.