KarlJ

Well, upgrading the firmware seemed to do the trick. I was able to burn to the subpar TDK's. I will keep my eye out for Verbatim's and the TY's, though. Thanks everyone for your help. Karl

Gee, they seemed likable enough. Serves me right for trying to skimp and get a good deal on leftover discs from a CompUsa that was closing. Regarding driver upgrades. I went to the Dell site and the latest driver they show there for my Inspiron 1150 laptop is 203E dated 12-22-06. I have upgraded to that, but am wondering about the 424 driver and if I would be doing anything detrimental to my drive if I tried flashing to that one. Any thoughts? Karl Its A Dell Dude ,they like to put their little fingers in everything that goes into their computers and I believe you have to get your firmware from them but I'm not 100% trying to flash with the wrong firmware brings up a window warning you that its the wrong one for the drive ,Dell even messes with Power DVD or did and when you look at the version #s they are slightly different to originals or were last I looked So I'm gathering regarding Dell. I found this little tidbit on the NEC web site while looking for firmware. "The NEC firmware upgrade below should not to be used with OEM drives from HP, Dell, etc, or any other OEM manufacturer." So I do thank you all for your help. I will try to locate some Taiyo Yuden or Verbatim discs for future burning. Are the TY's only available through on-line suppliers or can they be found elsewhere? Karl

Gee, they seemed likable enough. Serves me right for trying to skimp and get a good deal on leftover discs from a CompUsa that was closing. Regarding driver upgrades. I went to the Dell site and the latest driver they show there for my Inspiron 1150 laptop is 203E dated 12-22-06. I have upgraded to that, but am wondering about the 424 driver and if I would be doing anything detrimental to my drive if I tried flashing to that one. Any thoughts? Karl

Thanks Polopony. I will get the firmware upgrade. Here is the latest error dialog box and log. I/O Error! Device [0:0:0]_NEC+-RW ND6500A 202C (D:) (ATA) Scsc Status: 0x02 Interpretation: Check condition CDB: 28 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 00 Interpretation: Read (10) - Sector :0 Sense area: 70 00 05 00 00 00 00 0A 00 00 00 00 64 00 00 00 00 00 Interpretation: Illegal mode for this track Log: I 21:17:58 ImgBurn Version 2.1.0.0 started! I 21:17:58 Microsoft Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600 : Service Pack 2) I 21:17:58 Initialising SPTI... I 21:17:58 Searching for SCSI / ATAPI devices... I 21:17:59 Found 1 DVD?RW! I 21:27:27 Operation Started! I 21:27:27 Source File: F:\Shrunk movies\TOMORROW_NEVER_DIES.ISO I 21:27:27 Source File Sectors: 2,285,841 (MODE1/2048) I 21:27:27 Source File Size: 4,681,402,368 bytes I 21:27:27 Source File Volume Identifier: TOMORROW_NEVER_DIES I 21:27:27 Source File Implementation Identifier: DVD Shrink I 21:27:27 Source File File System(s): ISO9660, UDF (1.02) I 21:27:27 Destination Device: [0:0:0] _NEC DVD+-RW ND-6500A 202C (D:) (ATA) I 21:27:27 Destination Media Type: DVD+R (Disc ID: TDK-003-00) (Speeds: 2.4x, 4x, 6x, 8x) I 21:27:27 Destination Media Sectors: 2,295,104 I 21:27:27 Write Mode: DVD I 21:27:27 Write Type: DAO I 21:27:27 Write Speed: 4x I 21:27:27 Link Size: Auto I 21:27:27 Test Mode: No I 21:27:27 BURN-Proof: Enabled W 21:27:37 DeviceIoControl(FSCTL_LOCK_VOLUME) Failed! - Reason: Access is denied. W 21:27:37 DeviceIoControl(FSCTL_DISMOUNT_VOLUME) Failed! - Reason: Access is denied. I 21:27:38 Filling Buffer... I 21:27:39 Writing LeadIn... I 21:27:53 Writing Image... I 22:16:33 Synchronising Cache... I 22:16:35 Closing Track... I 22:16:49 Finalising Disc... I 22:17:18 Image MD5: cc51665174fac5a66f7e46ce7acd358f I 22:17:22 Operation Successfully Completed! - Duration: 00:49:51 I 22:17:22 Average Write Rate: 1,565 KB/s (1.1x) - Maximum Write Rate: 2,412 KB/s (1.7x) I 22:17:22 Cycling Tray before Verify... W 22:17:29 Waiting for device to become ready... I 22:17:53 Device Ready! I 22:17:53 Operation Started! I 22:17:53 Source Device: [0:0:0] _NEC DVD+-RW ND-6500A 202C (D:) (ATA) I 22:17:53 Source Media Type: DVD+R (Book Type: DVD+R) (Disc ID: TDK-003-00) (Speeds: 2.4x, 4x, 6x, 8x) I 22:17:53 Image File: F:\Shrunk movies\TOMORROW_NEVER_DIES.ISO I 22:17:53 Image File Sectors: 2,285,841 (MODE1/2048) I 22:17:53 Image File Size: 4,681,402,368 bytes I 22:17:53 Image File Volume Identifier: TOMORROW_NEVER_DIES I 22:17:53 Image File Implementation Identifier: DVD Shrink I 22:17:53 Image File File System(s): ISO9660, UDF (1.02) I 22:17:53 Verifying Sectors... W 22:18:38 Failed to read Sector 0 - Illegal Mode For This Track W 22:18:44 Failed to read Sector 1 - Illegal Mode For This Track W 22:18:46 Failed to read Sector 2 - Illegal Mode For This Track W 22:18:48 Failed to read Sector 3 - Illegal Mode For This Track W 22:18:52 Failed to read Sector 4 - Illegal Mode For This Track E 22:18:58 Failed to read Sector 5 - Illegal Mode For This Track E 22:18:58 Failed to Verify Sectors! E 22:18:58 Operation Failed! - Duration: 00:01:05 I 22:18:58 Average Verify Rate: 0 KB/s (0.0x) - Maximum Verify Rate: 0 KB/s (0.0x)

I've been using ImgBurn for a month or so now and it has been working great. But lately I have been unable to get a good burn. It has always started out with the following errors which I understand from the FAQ's means that another program has a handle on the CD-ROM, in this case it is PCMService.exe running Dell media software. W 17:19:49 DeviceIoControl(FSCTL_LOCK_VOLUME) Failed! - Reason: Access is denied. W 17:19:49 DeviceIoControl(FSCTL_DISMOUNT_VOLUME) Failed! - Reason: Access is denied. It has always gone and done a good burn, though, after I clicked on"Continue". Now it will go through the first part but fail on the Verify. I have been getting these messages in the log file. W 17:49:08 Potential 'WaitImmediateIO' Deferred Error - (0/2) - Power Calibration Area Error I 17:51:56 Finalising Disc... I 17:52:27 Image MD5: cc51665174fac5a66f7e46ce7acd358f I 17:52:31 Operation Successfully Completed! - Duration: 00:32:46 I 17:52:31 Average Write Rate: 2,667 KB/s (1.9x) - Maximum Write Rate: 3,345 KB/s (2.4x) I 17:52:31 Cycling Tray before Verify... W 17:52:37 Waiting for device to become ready... I 17:54:25 Device Ready! I 17:54:25 Operation Started! I 17:54:25 Source Device: [0:0:0] _NEC DVD+-RW ND-6500A 202C (D:) (ATA) I 17:54:25 Source Media Type: DVD+R (Book Type: DVD+R) (Disc ID: TDK-003-00) (Speeds: 2.4x, 4x, 6x, 8x) I 17:54:25 Image File: F:\Shrunk movies\TOMORROW_NEVER_DIES.ISO I 17:54:25 Image File Sectors: 2,285,841 (MODE1/2048) I 17:54:25 Image File Size: 4,681,402,368 bytes I 17:54:25 Image File Volume Identifier: TOMORROW_NEVER_DIES I 17:54:25 Image File Implementation Identifier: DVD Shrink I 17:54:25 Image File File System(s): ISO9660, UDF (1.02) I 17:54:25 Verifying Sectors... W 17:54:30 Failed to read Sector 0 - Illegal Mode For This Track W 17:54:31 Failed to read Sector 1 - Illegal Mode For This Track W 17:54:40 Failed to read Sector 2 - Illegal Mode For This Track E 17:54:41 Failed to read Sector 3 - Illegal Mode For This Track E 17:54:41 Failed to Verify Sectors! E 17:54:41 Operation Failed! - Duration: 00:00:16 I 17:54:41 Average Verify Rate: 0 KB/s (0.0x) - Maximum Verify Rate: 0 KB/s (0.0x) I was using Sony discs before, but am using TDK discs now. I have yet to get a TDK disc to burn. Is this a media problem? Or si something else going on here? Karl