I’m having an issue with a DVD-ROM drive on a WinXP machine and/or particular brand(s) of media. And I’m trying to figure out which it is. While all copies are precious, when you’re handing them out for business reasons, do-overs are really problematic. I’m leaning toward the conclusion that it is the drive at fault and, believe it or not, that’s preferable to thinking I gave out bad CDs. I don’t even *need* that drive—even to feed its companion burner. SETUP: I have eight devices on which to play CDs: three consumer CD players, two consumer DVD players, and on computer: one DVD-ROM (Windows XP) and two burners (XP and MacBook). My computer players/burners have been cleaned but the trouble started before the cleaning. I always burn to DVD-R. I always verify. I generally let the machine/software decide how fast to burn. There do not appear to be any updated drivers for either of the drives on my WinXP machine. Whether (a) copying from a good copy or commercial original, or (b) copying from a Nero 6 image made from good source, or (c) mastering with Nero (6.6.0.14) – I get disks that will play in 7/8 players. But on the XP DVD-ROM, *rarely* it might play for a bit. But soon it will not even be recognized. The machine can’t tell there’s a disk and asks for one or Win Explorer freezes up until I manually eject the disk. But this is only true with Imation disks and only in this one drive on a machine that also has a burner. If the disk is a Staples disk, it will play anywhere. But if the Imation disk was burned by MacBook iTunes, it will play anywhere. *Windows* iTunes imported from a good first-gen copy and then burned two copies, both to Imation disks, one after the other. (I didn’t intend but I got mixed up and now I’m even more confused.) One plays everywhere, with an occasional hiccup on the DVD-ROM drive. The other is *completely* unpredictable. It may play or it may hang the machine – this is whether I try to play it with iTunes or Win Media Player on the same machine. You can actually watch the device disappear before your eyes in iTunes. But it is not an alien life form either; it *can* be read (sometimes). So for the moment, I have to stick with Staples disks or burn either brand on MacBook to get my confidence as high as it will go. I will also soon run out of hair to pull out. Any diagnosis (and I’d be grateful if you told me why you draw your conclusion)? Any additional trouble-shooting ideas? Are the bad disks really bad? Will I ever know the exact problem? Many thanks if you’ve read this far, I’ve tried to exhaust every possible kind of troubleshooting. And if there are articles I should have found, please accept my apologies in advance, Jeanne
It is not clear whether you are recording to CD-Rs or to DVD-R discs. It is unusual these days for drives to be incompatible with CD-Rs, but it can happen. Since the one variable that presents the problem is the combination of Imation discs/XP burner and the Imation discs work on another burner, then it could be an incompatibility with your Imation discs and the recording drive in the XP computer. Since the MacBook can record them with no problem, your best choice is to record all the Imation discs on that drive and switch to the discs that work for recording on either drive once the Imation discs are gone. One could spend weeks trying to figure out why a good disc does not work on a good drive, and it is not worth the effort except for lab guys who are paid to find out why.
Thanks, Joe. The issue is with CD-R. (I did have trouble with DVD-R but that was definitely one brand and the disks failed consistently across many players.) But the disks *play* on both burners. It's just playing back on the non-burning DVD-ROM drive that fails *if* the disk was burned on the XP machine and if it's an Imation disk. Still, I appreciate your reassuring me that I didn't miss some really obvious troubleshooting and, for sure, I can't spend any more time on this. It *would* be nice to know whether I'd handed out bad disks. But I do appreciate your kind encouragement to get on with my life. ;-) Many thanks, Jeanne
