kanenas Posted January 8, 2008 Posted January 8, 2008 Hello. Would anybody know how to verify and correct the CD writing driver chain? This is not a case of a bad CD brand or drives with old firmware. The system is XP SP2 with two CD/DVD writers on the IDE bus: 1. LG DVDRAM GSA-H42L with firmware SL01 2. Pioneer DVR-108 with firmware 1.18 Everything had been running fine for a long time. A couple of weeks ago, after a hard crash of the system (misbehaving Creative Sound card driver) I reinstalled XP on top of itself keeping my programs and their registry information intact. After that, I upgraded the system again with the latest patches. The system checks clean and everything seems to work just fine, except the CD writing. I can burn a CD or DVD (Verbatim) without errors but the moment the verification starts, I get an error. The failed CD plays back fine though, either in the computer or the standalone DVD player. It happens with Audio CDs, Data CDs or ISOs. I removed all the writing software I had (Nero, Prassi ONES, CdrWin, ImgBurn) as well as some stuff from Ulead, Creative and whatever else I thought was using its own drivers. I reinstalled ImgBurn 2.3.2 and the problem was still there. With ForceASPI I tried with no ASPI layer, tried with 4.60 (1021), tried with the 4.71.2 I used to have. I even tried SPTD 1.55. No change. Using SPTI, ASPI or ASAPI for I/O causes the same problem. I did an SFC /Scannow, removed the Lower and Upper filters from the registry, removed both CD drives and the IDE controllers but still nothing. I wasted a dozen CDs but CDs from the same batch work fine in my laptop so it can't be that. Is it a specific driver that gets activated only during the verification? Why don't the errors appear during the write operations? Completely different commands? The filter driver chain looks as clean as I can get it. I'm attaching an image of it as well as an image of the error message and ImgBurn's log. Hopefully somebody can figure this out. Thanks in advance for any pointers. ImgBurn.log
dontasciime Posted January 8, 2008 Posted January 8, 2008 change the ide cable. run memtest + at boot to test for memory errors disable anydvd/anyhdvd if you have it running. Re-install a clean copy of XP (not upgrade but format drive) Maybe change the PSU if you try everything else
LIGHTNING UK! Posted January 8, 2008 Posted January 8, 2008 Put it back on SPTI too. You don't want / need to be using ASPI. The error gives you a clue as to where the error lies... CRC ERROR (ULTRA-DMA/32) So basically you have DMA issues - and the FAQ deals with those. Changing the cable, removing other drives from the channel and testing one a at time is all part of the fault finding process.
kanenas Posted January 8, 2008 Author Posted January 8, 2008 Thank you for the comments. I have run all kinds of diagnostics including memory. I don't have AnyDVD or any similar interceptors installed. The PSU is a big Seasonic. I doubt it can support CD writing but not reading. Clean XP and formatting drives are out of the question for obvious reasons. I'll try a new cable later. It's too coincidental for it to go out of whack just after the XP refresh. Shouldn't it also cause a write error at least now and then? I'm not sure how to check for a DMA conflicts other than removing devices from the controller. Considering they've been working together for a long time, a conflict there, seems unlikely but you never know. Is there some utility for checking DMA conflicts instead of unplugging devices? IRQ might cause a conflict also, but again, why now? The IDE controller shares IRQ 18 with the network card and one of the USB controllers. I'll see if I can reallocate them.
dontasciime Posted January 8, 2008 Posted January 8, 2008 Is there some utility for checking DMA conflicts instead of unplugging devices? check out the FAQ it will tell you the procedure to fix it. http://forum.imgburn.com/index.php?showtopic=59 Don't forget about the IDE cable though
kanenas Posted January 9, 2008 Author Posted January 9, 2008 Problem resolved. After all, it was none of the above. It was a BIOS setting on the IDE controller. In order to get the BIOS to go through the Post when a 500GB LaCie external USB disk was connected, I had set the controller to Enhanced mode (eg. 'Native Disk') for both S-ATA and P-ATA. I didn't happen to burn any CDs during these days and then the system had its major crash, so it skipped my mind. I set it back to S-ATA only and the burn problem went away. Now of course, I can't boot with the LaCie connected (plus two other bigger disks). I have to remember unplugging/replugging their cables anytime I boot (which thankfully, is very infrequent). Much appreciated for your help.
kanenas Posted January 9, 2008 Author Posted January 9, 2008 Not possible. Options are (1) P-ATA, (2) S-ATA and (3) P-ATA + S-ATA.
LIGHTNING UK! Posted January 9, 2008 Posted January 9, 2008 That sure does sound like an odd bios option. Almost as if you're disabling / enabling the controller.
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