Time to buy a new drive?

[slongers]

Hey,

 

I've been having major problems trying to burn DL discs with ImgBurn. I either get the dreaded 'Power Calibration Error' or it bombs out halfway, if I'm very lucky it will occasionally burn sucessfully. I've tried burning from my desktop, from a caddy attached to my desktop and then attached to my laptop but to no avail.

 

I'm convinced it's the burner (Lite-On) because it spins very loudly and clicks like it's struggling, single layer discs are absolutely fine though

 

Rather than waste more money on Verbatims which will inevitably fail, I think it's time for a new burner. I've seen people recommending Pioneer's, are these the best to go for?

 

Cheers

[urvieh]

Rather than waste more money on Verbatims which will inevitably fail, I think it's time for a new burner. I've seen people recommending Pioneer's, are these the best to go for?

 

 

Well, I've got one in my other machine, and it's been burning like hell However, the 112 do not support bitsetting with the official firmware. A modified one is said to be out there on the net, and it also enables labelflash or something, but honestly, I don't trust too much in firmware rewritten by people who don't have a decent job other than rewriting firmware

[blutach]

Rather than waste more money on Verbatims which will inevitably fail

Why will they inevitably fail? What inevitably fails is cheap garbage media, which you seem hooked on.

 

Go get a Verb and try.

 

Regards

[slongers]

Rather than waste more money on Verbatims which will inevitably fail

Why will they inevitably fail? What inevitably fails is cheap garbage media, which you seem hooked on.

 

Go get a Verb and try.

 

Regards

 

I think you totally misread my post

 

The Verbatims would inevitably fail because of the drive, not because of the actual media itself.

 

Where did I say that I buy 'cheap garbage media'? I buy nothing but Verbatim, whether it be single layer, dual layer or cds.

 

Anyway, that's all irrelevant now. I binned the drive and replaced it another model which is burning without any problems at all

[dontasciime]

I don't trust too much in firmware rewritten by people who don't have a decent job other than rewriting firmware

 

Rather odd comment saying as most of the unofficial is written by guys who should be given jobs by the company who's drive is receiving the better firmware.

 

Pioneer employees are a bit dense, thats probably a bit unfair as they will be doing as they are told. Top dog at Pioneer should be saying make our drives write every format with all the bells and whistles like being able to as standard set the book type where applicable.

[chewy]

I use only hacked firmware if it's available or needed? That's one of the reasons I avoid pioneer, their crossover firmware is a little too complicated, too many steps. I did that with my older benq 1620 oem to enable quality scanning, crossflashed a pioneer is still a poor scanner. If I had one I would probably leave it alone and just use it for dual layer burns.

[dontasciime]

Would you buy a drive though that had all the features of a hacked firmware ?

When really the hacked features should be standard.

[chewy]

Oh I agree Pioneer seems to have the inside track on dual layer burning, and the fact that they don't support bitsetting dvd+r sl is probably why I don't reccomend their drives very often. The fact that their japanese Buffalo brand does kind of puts me off, since they are writting 2 firmwares for identical drives. Pure and utter stupidity. If Samsung can get their act together with quality control and dual layer burning then maybe the competetion will make pioneer a little more aware of their drive's weaknesses.

[Shamus_McFartfinger]

Hey,

 

I've been having major problems trying to burn DL discs with ImgBurn. I either get the dreaded 'Power Calibration Error' or it bombs out halfway, if I'm very lucky it will occasionally burn sucessfully. I've tried burning from my desktop, from a caddy attached to my desktop and then attached to my laptop but to no avail.

 

I'm convinced it's the burner (Lite-On) because it spins very loudly and clicks like it's struggling, single layer discs are absolutely fine though

 

Rather than waste more money on Verbatims which will inevitably fail, I think it's time for a new burner. I've seen people recommending Pioneer's, are these the best to go for?

 

Cheers

 

Logfile please. Help Menu > Logs.

 

 

Also, be wary if buying a Pioneer 112. Mine refuses to burn CDs - even with the latest firmware update.

[chewy]

http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/pna/v3/p...4923529,00.html

 

well they know about the problem and are replacing drives

 

Under certain environmental and heavy use conditions, the above drives may become unable to read or write to CDs.

[Shamus_McFartfinger]

Interesting link. A couple of things from their blog: Heavy use? Straight out of the box mine was unusable for CDs. As for "environmental conditions", this sounds like another way to say "we f*cked up". It would also seem that unless you live in the USA or Canada, you're shit out of luck. Just typical. I've been a fan of Pioneer drives for years but this time they can use my 112D as a 5 1/4" suppository. I won't be buying another one. That's right, shoppers. They can belt it up their crack.

[LOCOENG]

I'm with the rest and use the hacked firmware when available....always seems to do a better job than the stock stuff they slap together in the lab while trying to just churn out new drives.

[KristiXS]

Shamus, if you flash the 112d to Buffalo firmware, i read that it sometimes fixes the cd reading problems as well as allowing bitsetting. there was a thread about that on cdr forums. may try googling and flashing to that. it worked for my 112d, killing 2 birds with the one stone =) good luck