cd / dvd burning doooozy..

hey guys,

was wondering if you could help me here...

I have a system w/ winxp pro SP2, 2gb 2.0NS DDR, 1TB hdisk, FX53 cpu and a NEC dvd dual layer writer...

ok now thats out the way ..

I don't know how many coasters I've made I bought a NEC 3500A drive a few months ago... it worked fine up until a week ago.. In windows XP whither I use Nero or Alcohol 120% the drive locks up about 16% with a cd and 30 odd % with dvds.

I admit, I hacked the firmware on the 3500A to perform 'un-supported' functions... after doing that the drive performed far better and my cds were great... then it suddenly stopped working ... So I thought I'd bite the bullet (lesson learnt not to use unofficial firmware releases) and bought another drive (exact same model) and put that in.... I really thought I'd £%£$^'ed up the drive myself so I hadnt given windows too much of a thought... With the new drive I tried to write cds etc and got the same results... the lightbulb (eventually) came on in my head and I tried the *OLD NEC* in another computer.... it works fine

So I ran msconfig... went to a diagnostic startup with few if any services/startup programs loading on boot... the drive still crashes..

I checked the IDE connections to see if they were loose -- no luck there..
I tried disconnecting the dvd drives and reconnecting them after a reboot (the hard disks are all SATA drives) to let windows redetect the drives -- no cookie..

I've unmounted all virtual drives ... uninstalled - re-installed both Nero and alcohol 120% -- newp

I began to think I might have had a power regulation issue... althought the +12 rail on the power supply (enermax) seems to be fine... so that cant be it.

As you will know, the drive speeds up while writing a disc, it would appear that upon doing this action is when its likely to crash (by listening to the drive) the drive spins up as if having difficutly accessing the disc, then Nero/alchohol crashes.. the light on the drive stays on, the process using task manager cant be killed... windows becomes unstable (and wont do a reboot from menu)

If it werent for the fact I know the original drive is working fine... I'd say it would have to be that... alas I now have a brand new drive (stock firmware) doing the same thing, and one downstairs burning like a charm...

The doozy though is this:
I beta mandrake linux, I upgraded from 10.2 AMD64 beta to 10.2 AMD64 beta 2. By doing this I goosed x windows (nvidia driver incompatibility between different kernels) and gave up on it for a while. Tonight though I decided to try something new... I put a fresh install of MDK beta 2 on the system.. went into KDE, fired up Nero linux and a few other burning apps and proceded to churn out working burnt cds like sweeties... in either application the drive spun up around 16%... then wrote the rest of the disc without a problem.

Now I dont know about you guys, but the only option I have left is to put a fresh install of windows on my system and unlike linux where I dont have to kill my home directory... in windows its going to be a real mess without having to reconfig an otherwise working windows install. (Administrator.000 IanHarvie.000 etc etc)

Any help would be greatly appreciated... and if you've had similar situations please let me know cheers,

P.S its late/early here lol, excuse the typing

Ian.

 

Have you tried sfc /scannow from a run line? Given the symptoms and especially the fact that things work fine from a Linux OS, I'd strongly suspect a problem with the windows system files and if so, sfc should fix things for you.

 

Hi Newt! thanks muchly for that... I think I've only used this program once in my life before... I had a few problems with it finding my source disc though (drive letter changes since installation)

Anybody who cant get rid of the "please insert XP sp2 disc" dialog should try this ickle guide http://www.updatexp.com/scannow-sfc.html

I'll get back once its completed...

Its a shame the command switch options arent more powerful..

sfc c:\i386 S:\ /scannow

 

Newt,

thanks for the suggestion... alas it completed with no known errors (woah, isnt that a good thing? heh)

any other thoughts? :-|

 

Hmmmm. Was hoping the 'fix' was that simple.

Are you seeing any event log entries that might offer clues?

Are you getting any dump files generated when things go sour? Any Dr. Watson or other .dmp files that might offer more details?

 

Hi Newt,

no obvious errors or events ...

I just tried to coaster a disc, to see whither I could force nero or alcohol to somehow close with an error...

the image file burnt fine....

first disc burnt 100% with this new drive in windows...

Thanks for all your help Newt I dont know how that happened... but until it crashes again I'll put it down to a modern marvel of the world

Ian.