Three audio CD-R burns skip at exactly the same place when burnt with Nero, original files are perfect

Hi, I burnt a CD on one of my new Taiyo Yudens (and yes there are official) at 4x. Unsurprisingly it skipped in my car CD player, which was frustrating, but not a major problem as it was half-expected. So I was playing it back here on my PC and it skipped in the same place. I have never noticed one of my burnt audio CDs skip on my PC before. So I check the original file on my PC - flawless. Bad burn I thought. So I try burning at the max (48x - which is what the CD-Rs are rated at), at this point I was beginning to believe that faster was better... But my second burn skipped in exactly the same place on my PC. This really got me! And just for good measure, a burn at 16x skipped at the same place as well. As I say, the original source file is perfect.

There are no marks or scratches on any of the CD-Rs, the data on the discs itself is erroneous. I really can't get my head round this. Does anyone have a clue how this can happen? Thanks

 

A good rule of thumb when you are burning media is to use half the speed the media is rated for !

Now for your "" strange "" skipping always at the same spot ! Am sure you do not have a screensaver or any other applications running in the background while you doing the burning !! When those popup or activate, usually may have glitches also created in the burning ! This would point to your burning software ; did you try a different application to burn with ?

 

Hi, thanks for your reply. I forgot to include some vital info such as specs, burner and software...
P4 3.6
2x250GB HD
2GB RAM
Pioneer DVR-110
(XP SP2)

I am using Nero 7, screen saver is turned off, and I always close other apps while burning, although Norton Anti-Virus Auto Protect is on, maybe this could be a problem? I haven't used a different app to Nero to burn anything for years! Maybe it's time to change, although I haven't noticed any other problems with CDs burnt with Nero....

 

Just to check if your burning software is'nt the problem .. maybe you could download a FREE trial of some other software -- It may be worth the try !

 

Hi everybody - some interesting developments. Burning with Winamp and Windows Media Player still causes the track to skip, as does burning with another drive! Any suggestions?

 

Just a crazy notion or Idea. First I would try another piece of music or audio, see if that skips after running the same amount of time as the current one. It could be that you may have defective CD's (only in that location).

How about the same piece to burn on a diff CD?

 

Hi Rjessa, thanks for your reply. Unfortunately, I still get the problem if I use a different brand of CD-R. As regards different audio tracks:
The first CD which I encountered this problem with skipped at the same place on the first track every time as you know (and on the second track for that matter - I do not want to listen to the whole CD but I would bet that there are more errors!)
A different audio CD backup (still using WAV files) skips on the first track, but in TWO places, and they are at both different track times than the first CD. And a third audio CD (MP3s this time) skips as well, but in yet another different place in the track.
So the errors are at different places in different audio tracks.

As I have said:
The source files are perfect (they burn fine on a friends PC - using the same media and software)
Using different software does not solve the problem
Or using different media
Or using a different drive (same PC)
OR using a different IDE cable (just thought I would check)


So maybe it's either a Windows problem, faulty RAM, or a motherboard problem....

 

Wow, that is really annoying. Wish I could come up with a miracle solution for you. Please let us know what happens. We learn something everyday.

 

OK - even more annoying: I have just done a full format and reinstallation of Windows, and the problem is still there. I have also posted this problem on another forum, and on there, the discussion moved on to the the fact that my Primary IDE Channel was using the "Multi-Word DMA Mode 2" transfer mode, instead of UDMA. This appears to be the cause of the problem, and is still the same after a reinstallation of Windows. ARGH!!!! Any ideas? I have had no other problems at all which would indicate to a motherboard issue - I hope it isn't!
Thanks

 

Sorry to sound so abrupt, but you guys are chasing your tails here. Do some tests on the media and the drive, not the content.

Open the Nero CD-DVD speed tool and use BenchMark and Disk Quality to scan your media for burning errors and manufacturing errors.

If that's all clear, use a different burning program.
If the problem persists try a different playback device, different media or burner in that order.

The process of elimination will fix this issue without "magical" tweaks.

>> A good rule of thumb when you are burning media is to use half the speed the media is rated for !

With my burner this is not the case. Disks are rated at speeds and so are burners. Burning high speed dsics at lower speeds will often give you a worse quality burn.

Burn a few discs at different speeds (especially DVDs) and test with Nero CD-DVD tool to see the difference.

 

mm, I guess you have not read all the messages in this thread.

 

>> the the fact that my Primary IDE Channel was using the "Multi-Word DMA Mode 2" transfer mode, instead of UDMA 4/5. This appears to be the cause of the problem, and is still the same after a reinstallation of Windows. ARGH!!!! Any ideas? I have had no other problems at all which would indicate to a motherboard issue - I hope it isn't!

Remove the IDE channel using Device Manager and XP will automagically reinstall it. Or force a driver reinstall for the channel. It often happens that XP will overwrite manufacturer IDE drivers with it's own.
Use HDDTach to test speeds.

>> mm, I guess you have not read all the messages in this thread.

mmm... I guess you didn't read all my post...

No-one has tested the media quality .. or the burn quality..
Here's a screenie of a test I did using Nero CD-DVD info...
It tells me a lot more than listening for skips...

http://tinyurl.com/8sv8s

 

Oichi, thanks for your reply, but FYI I HAVE tried:
different media
different software
different CD players
different source files
different burners
and I have already tried uninstalling and reinstalling my drives, and my IDE channel, AND done a full reinstallation of Windows. I have also tried uninstalling my IDE channel, replacing my old IDE cable with a brand new one, and then letting Windows re-detect it.

The problem remains. The data is being burnt WITH ERRORS onto the discs, the discs are not skipping due to laser read errors in my players, if I view the streams in Adobe Audition, there are gaps in the data. This is with every CD and with every (perfect) source file.

 

Sorry if I am behind the times folks, early morning posts are never good and I'm never that good anyway

What happens if you burn it to a DVD ?

 

@ Oichi
Lol, yeh a lot of the information is spread around several posts, no worries mate.

Anyway, I have a made a breakthrough, which may seem obvious to some of you...
Up until today I have been using a wireless USB keyboard, but for some reason, it stopped working in DOS before Windows boots quite a while ago, even though all USB options were enabled in the BIOS - I also looked for help regarding this on a few forums, and tried many things, but to no avail.
Anyway today my new PS/2 keyboard came so I could check the BIOS and IDE Master UDMA and IDE Slave UDMA were set to disabled! I have no idea why, I certainly didn't do it! So, I changed those to "Auto" (there was no "Enabled") and now my IDE channel is back to UDMA - BUT, it is UDMA 2, not 4 or 5 like with HDDs - I have only just got this far so I have yet to burn a CD.
Thanks everybody for your help

 

IDE cable ? a 40-conductor cable will work with a UDMA 3 or higher drive -- but it will drop to UDMA 2.

http://www.phildev.net/ata-modes.html

 

I must say, I don't really know much about IDE - what is the usual mode for CD/DVD drives? I have an 80-conductor cable by the way. If UDMA 2 is normal for optical drives then I would guess the problem is completely fixed. I will test a CD now
Thanks

 

IDE CD/DVD is UDMA2 maximum

 

OK thanks Oichi, that means my problem is fixed.
However, I have now run into a completely separate problem which is wildy off topic:

Before I formatted and reinstalled Windows, I encrypted some documents, and then foolishly instructed Windows to display them as normal files (not green). There was no warning/information about encryption keys or certificates from Windows. I forgot that they were encrypted and performed my full reinstallation and now, obviously I cannot decrypt them. How do you get round this - the documents are important, and I didn't realise they were encrypted because they weren't green!
Thanks

 

According to MSoft, "Only the user who encrypts a file can recover data that has been encrypted... "

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308993/EN-US/

Got any type of backup that has your old user account details or ID , it might help...
I'd try a Google search for brute force decrypters or maybe astalavista.com or a whitehat security web site might have something. Their mailing lists are good but they will maul you if you haven't searched the lists or the web. Good luck soldier !

As an idea, I use PGP and encrypt my data to myself. Once it is encrypted it is "safe" so you can store encrypted originals or backups in webmail accounts like 2gb gmail.com. It's free, easy enough (especially if your webmail client supports filters - subject line for my PGP files is chicken) and safe enough, web accessible and backed up.
I email the renamed PGP keys (with different file names) to seperate email accounts somewhere else super secret as a backup You could go H-u_s_h_mail for encrypt & decrypting via the web but I have a funny feeling someone somewhere is watching everything into and out of that site.