Hi, I searched on "Nero" and looked thru the first several pages, back to mid-2000s and didn't see a thread that addressed this problem. Until a week or 2 ago I used Nero v.6 on my old PC: Athlon XP, Abit mobo, Windows 2000 SP4, Plextor 716A DVDRW/CDRW. I had bought the basic v.6 from the Nero site and later upgraded to Ultra Edition 6.6. And it always worked perfectly, burning various formats on both DVDR and CDR. Now I've upgraded to Athlon 64 x2, 4GB RAM, etc., with the same Plextor drive, and Windows XP SP2. Yesterday I reinstalled Nero 6 - and now all my discs are coasters. Here's more detail, and what I've done or found out: * The CDs and DVDs are from the same spindle I was using on the old PC, and there were hardly any bad ones then. * When burning with either Burning ROM or Vision Express, Nero gives the success message at the end, and even with verification turned on it claims the burn was good. But the discs don't work in any device: - A standard DVD player ejects one of these DVDs as soon as it tries to read it. - Audio CDs made with Burning ROM on the new PC will play, but have a lot of noise and distortion. * The tracks that the CDs are made from are fine when played from the hard drive with Winamp or other player, and the files that go into the DVDs are perfect when played with VLC. * The standalone DVD and CD players are fine with other discs, including those made with the same Nero and same drive on the old PC, as well as commercially pressed ones. * The Plextor drive reads CDs and DVDs just fine as usual, and it always burned perfectly before the new installation. * I remembered something about "ASPI layer" and did a search and found a how-to recommmending Adaptec ASPI. So I ran the "check" utility and it said there was no ASPI installed. So I installed the Adaptec ASPI, and it said that it succeeded, and the checker now shows it is installed. But the results remain the same - coasters. I really would like to get this working - any ideas appreciated!
Burn the files using Imgburn instead of Nero - this takes Nero out of the equation. If the problem persists, at least you know it's not Nero. http://www.afterdawn.com/software/cdr_software/cdr_tools/imgburn.cfm
Thanks for the link to imgburn. I like Nero and want to continue using it if possible, but this did help identify the problem. I tried making a DVD in Nero Vision Express, but this time "burning" it to a HD directory rather than to a DVDR. This then was recognized as a DVD by VLC and played correctly in VLC. Then using the DVD directory as a source and following the instructions on the "how to make a DVD with imgburn", linked on the page that your post links to, I burned it to a DVDR. The log filled up with errors. The above verifies that the problem is probably in the burner or system software and not in Nero. I don't have another burner handy but next i'm going to try the Nero ASPI.
I would consider looking at the media next - unless you are using a known, reliable name like 'Verbatim' or 'Taiyo Yuden'.
These DVDRs are Maxell which generally has been reliable in my experience, but I got only 1 or 2 good burns from this spindle before all this happened, so they could be mostly bad. On the other hand the CDRs were TY and 90/100 had been good on the old PC, then the rest failed on this PC. I was going to get more blanks yesterday but it was late and it's several days to get good ones online or long drive to get so-so ones locally. Meanwhile I was going to try using the Nero ASPI, but it turned out it was already in use. The directions said to put the dll in the Nero directory instead of in system32, so I went to do that, and found an identical one was already there. So my next idea was to upgrade firmware. It was 1.03, so I decided on the last pre-Vista version which is 1.09. Ran the utility and it failed with message: "Firmware update is failed. Firmware Transfer data error. (Code 04-40-f6)" Does this mean the drive is borked and needs replacing? Today I'm going to get the best media they have at Fry's for now, and a new burner, and order some TY online. Then I'll first see if the media helps, and then swap the drive and see what happens. I wonder whether this might have anything to do with the optical being on PATA (primary master) while the HDDs are on SATA? But the board has the 80 pin connector for this purpose, and people do this all the time with no problems.
What were the burning errors with Imgburn. There is a support forum here for Imgburn - it may help to pin the problem. http://forum.imgburn.com/
After the initial part where it's identifying the drive and getting it ready: Code: I 02:45:56 Verifying Session 1 of 1... (1 Track, LBA: 0 - 1655183) I 02:45:56 Verifying Track 1 of 1... (MODE1/2048, LBA: 0 - 1655183) W 02:46:11 Miscompare at LBA: 16, Offset: 0 W 02:46:11 Device: 0x00 W 02:46:11 Image File: 0x01 W 02:46:11 Total Errors in Sector: 312 I 02:46:11 Verifying Sectors... W 02:46:20 Miscompare at LBA: 17, Offset: 0 W 02:46:20 Device: 0x00 W 02:46:20 Image File: 0xFF W 02:46:20 Total Errors in Sector: 14 I 02:46:20 Verifying Sectors... W 02:46:22 Miscompare at LBA: 18, Offset: 1 W 02:46:22 Device: 0x00 W 02:46:22 Image File: 0x42 W 02:46:22 Total Errors in Sector: 12 I 02:46:22 Verifying Sectors... W 02:46:23 Miscompare at LBA: 19, Offset: 1 W 02:46:23 Device: 0x00 W 02:46:23 Image File: 0x4E W 02:46:23 Total Errors in Sector: 12 That's the first part; it goes on with the miscompares for a long section until I canceled it. Thanks. I searched for 'imgburn' and 'miscompare' and didn't find anything relevant.
Is Nero closing the disc properly? I had a problem earlier this year with AnyDVD enabled, programs were having trouble closing the discs. If you have ImgBurn put one of those "bad" discs in your drive and then from top menu select tools> drive>close>disc and then see if disc will play in stand alone.
Problem solved! I got some CDs and a new burner (Emprex brand, really an Optiarc according to the utility). And now burns are perfect with either Nero or Imgburn, and either the DVDRs or CDRs. So apparently, a drive can lose its writing ability while the reading still works. Thanks to everyone.
