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Cannot burn DVDs with Nero 6

Discussion in 'DVDR' started by repiano, Sep 22, 2004.

  1. repiano

    repiano Member

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    God I've been pulling my hair out (not that there was much to start with) and wasted hours and hours and hours and hours trying simply to back up some data onto DVD using Nero 6, like I have been used to doing onto CD.

    OK the techie bits first:
    Windows XP Pro with SP1
    Nero 6.3.O God not another write failure!
    (expert feture turned on for all known drives)
    Athlon 2600
    768Meg RAM
    Large coffee pot. :)

    I was using a BTC 1008 but discovered that was s***, dumped that and bought NEC3500.

    This is what happens. Having determined what files to backup, I drag them to the left hand window, go and have a cup of coffe, and another, take the dog for a walk, have a coffee, repaint the house, have a coffee and eventually Nero shows the modest 3.5Gig of data in the left hand window. Press the burn button - determine max speed, or pick a low one, no multisession etc. and leave the thing to burn.

    I put a 'slow' disk in (DVD+R or DVD-R)find its trying to write at 2.7 (doubt if the disks can take it, Nero won't let me choose slower) and I watch the indicator move up. It eventually just puts up an alert box saying "Write at 2.7x failed." Then its the coffee/walk the dog routine (twice) waiting for Nero 'give me back' the computer. The disk is partially written and consigned to the bin as unusable. This happens several times with tweaks to the settings.

    This wastes hours upon hours not to mention ruining expensive disks. (the same thing happened with the BTC1008)

    So I open a new pack of 4X DVD-R. Nero recognises the disk as a blank DVD-R. Well until it comes to writing the disk, taht is. It ejects it complaining that it is not writable. So I open ANOTHER new packet of a different brand. Same thing.

    So I try other software - I try Burn World's DVD copier. The splash screen just hangs and doesn't run the program. Three finger salute follows and the recycle bin gets some exercise!

    So on to CopyToDVD. Goodness, I thought Nero was slow making the compilation, but it is decidedly supersonic compared to CopyToDVD. A snail could type out 4Gig of files in less time than this takes to make the compilation.

    Whilst I still have faith that it is possible to burn onto a DVD, can some kind person show me how to do it? I really don't want to go to multiple CDs - which works fine; proving I know how to operate the software.

    And save my sanity, and enable me to get to bed at a reasonable time every night and so.

    Many TIA...

    Rep

    (PS anyone want to buy lovely ornaments made of dead DVDs? Plenty in stock!!!:) )
     
  2. Adder01

    Adder01 Regular member

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    Hhmm...Couple of things...

    Does it read DVDs ok? ie. Try viewing a movie.

    If so, try using DVD Shrink and/or DVD Decrypter to copy the DVD onto your HDD and then burn it. http://www.afterdawn.com/guides/

    This burner does the CDs fine? (ie. not slow)

    Firmware version on the drive?

    Adder.
     
  3. Adder01

    Adder01 Regular member

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  4. Gnomex

    Gnomex Regular member

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    repiano ,

    First, how fast is your machine. You said you have 768 MB of RAM, plenty.?

    Second, have you ever burned anything with this new burner?

    Last, check to see if your drives firmware is up to date. Out of date firmware can cause media compatibility problems.
     
  5. flip218

    flip218 Moderator Staff Member

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    The NEC 3500 is a new drive. No new firmware, except a high risk flash firmware available at http://tdb.rpc1.org


    Have you tried updating your version of Nero? Newest version is 6.3.1.25
     
  6. Gnomex

    Gnomex Regular member

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    flip218

    Good point... the drive is very new and perhaps it could be software compatibility problems. This might be the logicle reason for the slow burn speeds.
     
  7. Buik

    Buik Regular member

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    A lot of valid questions have been asked. Forget about the protected DVD back up stuff. Movies were never mentioned. Just data. I would like to know if the drive reads movies tho. Just when you thought PNP was the cat's meow, you find out there are some hardware things that still need to be done.

    Sounds more like a bottle neck in the system. The CPU is fast enough and there is ample RAM. Maybe some programs need to be shut down or possibly un-installed.

    Is something hogging system resources? Has adaware or spybot been installed? If so, have they found anything. And have they been removed?

    Then there are the BIOS settings. Drives set to PIO or UDMA? No Drive(s) listed....

    Master/slave configuration? Cable select may not always work. The cables could also be wrong if re-cycled from older machines and used on newer hardware.

    I am of the opinion that it is a system bottle neck. Not a hardware or software glitch entirely

    TC
     
  8. repiano

    repiano Member

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    Hey you guys are magic!

    Thank you all for your participation.

    I pieced together all the advice - the links to other docs/threads were especially useful - and discovered that I didn't have the right IDA/ATAPI drivers installed! ¦~)(I thought windoze was supposed to sort that out. I did a clean install of XP Pro with the drive in place -ah, well!)

    Thanks also for the pointer on Master/Slave. I NEVER use CS, but what a plonker! I didn't check the jumper before I installed the drive. I'll do that just to make sure - but it's working, but someone said "if it ain't broke, don't fix it!!"

    I also moved up to the latest Nero and the burn went smoothly on a Verbatim -R 4X! And I copied the DVD in next to no time as well.

    MANY THANKS

    have a virtual drink on me...

    rep
     
  9. Gnomex

    Gnomex Regular member

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    Good to hear it!
     

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