Verbatim lightscribe 16x DVD+R: 3 straight bad burns

[Rani]

Greetings fellows

 

I'm new here and trying to get a feel for the DVD writing intricacies and learning curve I'll be on from now.

 

I've used Imgburn for maybe about a year with:

- Pentium III

- Verbatim inkjet printable 16x DVD+R

- BenQ 1640 DVD writer.

- Win XP Pro

Never had any issues (can't remember any coasters.. maybe 2-3 out of 100 burns ?)

 

My new computer:

- Pentium core 2 duo

- Same printable discs

- Verbatim lightscribe 16x DVD+R

- DRW 1814-BLT ASUS, 18x SATA

- 3 HD configured in RAID 5 with burner slave of these (not that I know much about this).

- Win XP pro

 

ISSUES:

 

1) Have done like 6 burns with the same, printable, media and got 1 coaster with "power calibration error". Dismissed it as a one-off thing.

 

2) But then have tried 3 lightscribe verbatim discs and got 3 coasters. Have had "power calibration errors" on two discs where the burn gets past 90% but then gives write errors.

Third disc apparently fine, but then not even read by OS! (neither as data nor blank disc) and ISObuster takes ages to read it and say it's stuffed.

 

 

WHAT I'VE DONE:

• Recently updated the firmware of the drive and tried again, this time setting max speed in Imgburn to 16x just to test that. Got the third coaster this time.
  
• Then I tried a 4th disc, this time I burned the image with Nero. The burn seemed to take less time than the other ones and all good. Drive is readable in DVD player. I've seen the post of Imgburn vs DvDdectypter and how software really doesn't determine the burn, rather the burner, the firmware and the type of discs.
  So what did Nero do (or not do) that it burned apparently fine? I also read something about incremental copy vs. DAO?
  
• The drive has had the region code set to region 4 (Australia).
  

DESIRABLE & COMMENTS:

 

I would like to know how to be able to troubleshoot these things without having to ask probably questions that have been asked a zillion times before and to know more or less what's happening.

Given the limited knowledge that I have about this, I wonder:

• Drive seems to be non-DMA enabled (according to Nero info tool) but then weird stuff because it's connected to the SATA controller and i can't see a way of enabling it in device manager. Also, it is not enabled by default. You would think that WinXP Pro would know what it's doing? (or am I too naive?)
  
• No ASPI layer. Nero seems to have its own? Does it matter?
  
• Brand new drive in the market, only just 1 firmware update so far.
  
• This ASUS DVD burner is supposed to work very well with the Verbatim lightscribe media according to the reviews (so, what the hell??)
  
• There are so many different parameters and options you can apparently tweak in Imgburn. Would be great to know what they're all about.
  

Oh!, just some days ago I popped in one of the dodgy discs, executed nero info tool and the screen went blue, got a memory dump and machine was reset. Yikes!!!

 

Any leads or guides to aiding me in finding out about these issues will be appreciated.

 

Regards,

 

Rani

[LIGHTNING UK!]

There's not much you can do if the drive is reporting power calibration errors, it means the drive's firmware doesn't like the media you're using.

 

As there are no updates for it (or only 1 which you've already done), you can:

 

1. Buy some different discs. Find out which Verbatim dye you're using at the moment and try to find some others. If you're using +R, try -R. Try some taiyo yudens too - but forget about the lightscribe thing unless you really want to use that cr..?!

 

2. Hook the benq up in the new computer and use that instead.

[dontasciime]

maybe the writer does not like raid being enabled on your board

[Rani]

Yes, I thought about maybe some issue with the RAID configuration. I've also thought about having both burners in the computer and see.

I don't know if i could just put my current drive in a separate channel as master of that channel (does this make sense with SATA and having RAID?)

 

I definitely like the lightscribe feature. In the beggining (2-3 years ago?) I saw it just a marketing gimmick, but now, with labelling times under 15 min for good quality grayscale images (in my opinion) it suits me quite well for what I want... but hey, please give me your full opinion on lightscribe. I want to know.

 

Any ideas why the burn went fine with Nero? Or was it maybe a one-off luck?. Have to do more with it to really test.

 

Imgburn seems like such a professional product, I would find it hard to believe that the software is causing this due to some bug or other reason, but then again, as you have stated, quality of burns really have nothing to do with software itself. Futhermore, the power calibration should then be independent of what you used to burn. The worsening fact is that these verbatim discs +R are supposed to be the ideal ones for this type of burner. I guess that a faulty drive cannot be ruled out either.... and maybe a dodgy batch of discs as well?

 

 

If I find out what's going on I'll follow up on this thread.

[Rani]

After several months and some testing it may appear like the issue was due to embarrasing reasons: excessive speed

 

The burner can burn at 18x, yet the lightscribe media says 16x.

Only recently did I change the speed setting to 16x max and I've done 3-4 burns with no probs.

 

Still, I think there may be an issue with the RAID configuration, since the burning takes longer that with my BenQ 1640 in my other computer.

 

Anyway, some info here for all to look at. If there is more in the future I will post.

 

Cheers

[volvofl10]

had you of posted a log file, we would have picked up on the 'MAX" speed setting and advised to slow it down , however, glad you got it sorted and working Ok again.