Hi all, Apologies if this is in the wrong category (feel free to move it if necessary). My problem appears to lie with my external Freecom Classic DVD +/- RW USB Drvie; I have had this unit for over a year and never suffered any problems until this week when I changed my media back to my original type. Initially I used TDK 4.7gb 1-8x DVD+R media and had no problems with burning or playback. when this media was unavailable from my usual supplier I then switched to TDK 4.7gb 16x DVD+R media and again no burn problems but the occassional playback skipping problems. This week I ordered and received the original media and ever since have been unable to successfully burn an image, it either fails immediately with an I/O check error or fails on completion (it takes over 3 minutes to finalise the disc aswell as taking the same time to write the leadin info). I have always burned at 4x speed for accuracy and disable my network on this PC so nothing can possibly intefere with the process. Initially I thought it must be the new media (maybe a faulty batch) as I am alos unable to burn mp3 files to this media. So to prove my point I tried burning to this media on my internal NEC drive and this works fine so my theory of faulty media is out of the question and puts the blame firmly on the Freecom drive. The freecom can still play DVD's etc so just seems to be a problem with burning, could it (pardon the pun) been burnt out and need replacing or is this an unreasonable suggestion, or maybe a firmware upgrade may help? Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance Nick
Sorry forgot to mention that my usual process for DVD backups is as follows; Rip DVD using DVD Decrypter or DVD Fab Devrypter DVD Shrink to create an ISO image that fits on one 4.7gb DVD (I only burn 4.3gb to avoid problems) Finally DVD Decrypter to burn to DVD at 4x speed. This process has never changed in any shape or form. Cheers Nick
Hi nick68 A firmware update may help. What's the model # of the Freecom? TDK uses different manufacturers so the burner may not have the proper media id for the manufacturer of these TDK's. Sounds like the NEC does. If there is a firmware update may help. Let's check that 1st. Or the drive could be going to. Try different media like Verbatim or made in Japan Sony, Fuji or Maxell.
Thanks for the response. Can I ask a further question? How do I find out the correct model # of the burner and once i have that where do i find the firmware update? Cheers Nick
You're welcome nick68 To check the model # - have the drive connected. Go to my computer. Right click on the drive (any drive actually) then click on the hardware tab. The model should be listed there. You can go to Freecom's site - here's a link or try the firmware page. Keep us posted!
And if that doesnt work lift the top off of it and you will probably discover thats its a lite-on burner and not freecom , thats what happened to me.
Hi all, Thanks for the link, I've upgraded the firmware successfully so just waiting to test the drive out. I'll post again once tested. Cheers Nick
No problem nick68 Keep us posted. If you are using Decrypter or ImgBurn (sounds like you may due to the error you received) to burn push 'L' to start a log. If the burn fails you can post the log but hopefully the firmware will do the trick!
Hi, I tried burning another DVD from the upgraded drive that I know burns successfuly from the other drive and although it appears to burn correctly and completes, when you try to interrogate the DVD disc it acts as if it's blank. I could copy the log but not sure how helpful this would be as it doesn't actually fail as such. Any advice/help? Nick
So another drive can't read the disc? Is the firmware update on that drive? Another question for - does the disc play back in the Freecom drive?
