ex_elec_tech

When I found a better driver, I thought that maybe you had been right about the buggy firmware. Seems I had installed the generic HP Lightscribe Drive HJ24 update sp26468.exe, when there exists a better driver tailored to the Pavillion a1250n system, sp26595.exe , DVD Writer 740b Firmware Update HI24. HP advises you to look at their page for your computer model (not for the drive), for appropriate driver updates. But my hopes were dashed, when, after installing the latter driver, the burn failed Verify at 98%. Files on disk play fine. The error: W 15:16:27 Failed to read Sector 1753360 - Illegal Mode For This Track, for several sectors until I cancelled out of the error. Since my burns play fine, I will continue with these disks until I use them up. Then I will try the Verbatim DVD+R 16x as you advise. I do not think my problems with this drive are critical enough now to warrant the drastic step of LG firmware. This caveat I read gives me pause: ))) This will be considered a last resource because once you have flashed to LG 4166B your drive will not be recognized as a HP drive, but as a LG 4166B unit. ))) This mean your bundled software may stop working and it will think that you replaced your unit. Also you cannot go back to HP firmware anymore. ))) This is not necessary a bad thing, it just something to keep in mind. :shock: If I find no resolution to the Verify Failure issue yet the disks play fine, I will just turn Verify off.

A window popping open when you insert a blank disk is exactly the behavior that happens when you have the native CD capability activated, and you have the AutoPlay for a blank disc set at Open Writable CD Folder.

A-ha-- Thanks for illuminating me on that.

Why would you want to go to the trouble of editing the registry, when the drive Properties/Autoplay has toggles for the drive response to media? Is there some advantage?

I got my HP computer a year ago, and burning was fine with Sonic and my HP DVD+-RW drive, using Memorex CD-RW for data disks. Then my harddrive got full recently and I started to make backup data DVDs, using DVD+Rs. With very intermittent results. So I: 1) updated my drive firmware 2) updated my Sonic program 3) emptied the msconfig StartUp, trimmed Services, and stopped most background processes 4) removed all the preferences to monitor your system that are available in RealPlayer, iTunes, and other AV progs (and finally got RealPlayer-- a known and frequent cause of poor computer performance-- to stop sneaking back onto my msconfig StartUp list!) 5) started burning only after a boot when the computer is quiescent and memory is clear. 6) turned off AutoPlay of anything in the write drive (E: Properties/AutoPlay) 7) changed from Fuji to Verbatim disks 8) starting using only the ISO method, rather than burn-on-the-fly 9) and tried several other burn programs. Currently the program that is working the best is ImgBurn, and I'm very impressed with the comprehensiveness of the program. The disk information and the log are especially informative (no other program tells me that the SPTI is initialized and BurnProof is enabled). I understand that the ISO creation is a recent addition, but it makes this the only program I need for making data backup disks. I am hoping that I have at last found a good burn program that works with my system. However, despite every Verbatim I have used with this program being burned perfectly to completion, there are intermittent Verify errors. But the files on the disks open and play just fine. I am attaching my log file, which I have edited with USER NOTES after each erroring session. ImgBurn.log I have read through the Support Forum, but usually problems like this have been attributed to bad media. I am using Verbatim DVD+R 8x, their 'Digital Movie' disk with the reel artwork, as it was the best I could find on short notice. It is MCC-003-00, which comes highly recommended in your forum and elsewhere. I hope you can enlighten me as to the probable nature of these Verify errors. Thank you!

It's very odd that the Avatar can't be uploaded as easily as the Personal Photo. This is first forum I've visited that doesn't have that capability.

Many dvd gurus recommend turning off autoplay to avoid calls/interruptions to the drive during burning programs. I did it also because, as the post said, I want the drive to do nothing until I run a program. The way to do it is to go to your write drive directory (like E:), right click to get Properties, then there is a tab AutoPlay. Select each type of media and how you want the computer to react to it, and press Apply after selecting each one. It might also be a good idea to turn off the XP native CD recording capability (if it's on), which is also there in the drive Properties/Recording.