I have a Maddog CDRW that I bought a few months ago from office max and have been using it with no problems up till recently. I`m using the latest version of NERO with win XP. and when i burn I get a message saying fixation could not be performed and when it doesn`t say that and says it was burned succesfully the CD is still blank. Has anyone else had problems with this or have any clue what`s wrong? any advice would be helpfull, thanks
Have you tried updating your firmware? If you have bought new media lately it could be you need to update your firmware.
Ok, "out of the loop" (although it's a silly nic if you ask me), There are some things we should check as they have a direct influence over how our drive behaves - 1. Let's check for up-to-date Firmware for your burner. "OK, so what is this "Firmware" garbage?" Fair question. Firmware is a "tutor" who's job it is to eliminate any "bugs" found in your drive and to "introduce" your burner to all the different kinds of media to your burner is likely to run into and to tell your burner a little bit about it. What type of media it is and at what speed to burn it. As new media is introduced OR, as the Mfgrs of your burner find new ways to use it, new firmware updates OR "Flash upgrades" come out to "school" your burner, keeping it up-to-date. It's good to keep your burner up-to-date as it "tweaks" your burner and keeps it operating at peak performance. Of major Importance - When dealing firmware, you must match your burner's exact model with the proper Firmware. Trying to "Flash" your burner with something "Close" won't do it. It must be the exact firmware for your drive. ("Flashing" is what the installation is referred to when you put the firmware into your drive.) Trying to "Flash" your drive with some other drive's firmware can ruin your drive. At the bottom of the page look for "What's my firmware? - Try this little tool I found," Download this tool and check out your Firmware's health (up-to-date wise). You can probably get a current upgrade there also - http://flashman.rpc-1.com/ Firmware page - http://forum.rpc1.org/dl_all.php Always check your burner's Mfgr's "Support" section to see if some newer Firmware is there - Firmware, You can't burn without it - Now we need to see if we have a working ASPI Layer. "Yea right, and ASPI stands for Another Stupid Piece of Insanity, right ?" No, not quite, it stands for "Advanced SCSI Programming Interface". "Well that tells me nothing, what's it do ?" That's a much easier question to answer. It is kind of a "translator" allowing your software to talk your hardware in a manner that your hardware will understand. Let's imagine an Earthman trying to talk to a rock. Now, think of a sledgehammer as being the interface. With the interface in play, the Earthman can tell the rock to disperse into gravel no matter what planet the rock is from, OK ? Good, let's see if we have a sledgehammer - 2. Check for your ASPI Layer. If one isn't present, we'll need to get one and reinstall it, then reboot our PC to allow it to "settle in". ASPI Checker - http://www.adaptec.com/worldwide/su...oduct/EZ-SCSI_5.0&filekey=aspichk.exe&sess=no Force 1.8 ASPI Layer - http://forceaspi18.w.interia.pl/ Lastly, when did you last defrag your Hard Drive (HD) ? If you have to stop and think about the last time you did it, then it's way, way overdue. Here we go, (Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk Defragmenter. When it opens, choose your HD, analyses it to see where we stand then if you need it (you probably will) choose Defragment.). After you finish doing it now you might want to think about having "Scheduled Tasks" in your Control Panel do it for you on a daily basis. A fragmented HD not only drastically slows down your system but it can cause all number of things to happen inside your PC, a messed up burn being one of them. Once we've done that, our DVD burner should operate at peak efficiency ) Cheers, Pete Now let's see if everything will work together the way we want it to, OK ? Give it a test run and let us know how you make out -
ok, another ? (thanks for being pateint everyone)....my burner acording to the Box is a Maddog Dominator 52X CD-RW, it says JustLink on the front, and my computer recognizes it as ARTEC WRR-52Z (it is a cheap one from office max so it could be boxed by one company but made by another). I found the ARTEC drive on that website but not the Maddog. So now I`m really confused, what firm ware do I use?
This is not unushual most ROM's are only manufactured from a couple of comanies. The best thing to do is look at the sticker on the drive it self to be sure just because Windows says its one thing dosent mean this is true either. Your best bet is to find out exactly what drive you have and then install the latest drivers, and firmware from the manufacturers website.
ok, first of all I got my burner working, second of all I feel like a idiot...After working on this thing for what seems like forever day and night..I took another failed burn CD out and I noticed all the dirt on the tray..so I decided to clean it with my laser lens cleaner and amazingly my burner works now. Just a reminder to us all to all to always start with the simplest and go to complex, thanks all for the advice though i learned alot about how my burner works!
