CD-R diagnostic utility

  • Thread starter Thread starter harsha godavari
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harsha godavari

Last week I tried to burn an *.iso image (Mandrake 9.1) and ended up
with four coasters. The burner was a plextor PX R412C and the software
was Nero (trial version).

When I try to read these disks, either the drive keeps churning away or
I get "drive not ready" error or the system hangs. CDMage & CDCheck
cannot give me any information about these disks.

Is there a utility that can diagnose the problem and suggest possible
remedies? I realise that cds are cheap these days but I still would like
to know what is and where the problem lies.

BTW any recommendations for a good & free cd-burn software?

Thanks for your help

Regards
Harsha Godavari
 
harsha said:
Last week I tried to burn an *.iso image (Mandrake 9.1) and ended up
with four coasters. The burner was a plextor PX R412C and the software
was Nero (trial version).
Click to expand...

Do you get any error messages during the burning process?
 
DC said:
Do you get any error messages during the burning process?
Click to expand...

No. No error message when burning at 1x. its supposed to be able to burn at 4x.
but that was aborted with "buffer under run " error (the system was only running
explorer and systray, everything else was shut down by End-It-All).

Then at 2x "power calibration"error, so as a last resort I tried 1x and it
seemed to work... but produced the coasters.

hg.
 
No. No error message when burning at 1x. its supposed to be able to
burn at 4x. but that was aborted with "buffer under run " error (the
system was only running explorer and systray, everything else was shut
down by End-It-All).

Then at 2x "power calibration"error, so as a last resort I tried 1x and
it seemed to work... but produced the coasters.
Click to expand...

Oh boy.

Have you considered buying a new drive? They are well under $100 nowadays,
with burn speeds of 52x or better.

I suspect that you could solve all you CD burning problems (without knowing
your PC specs, of course -- there could be other issues at play).

In short: your model is a dinosaur and probably well worn(out). Upgrade.
 
On 27 Jul 2003 20:46:44 GMT

DC> In short: your model is a dinosaur and probably well worn(out). Upgrade.

The question, however, was about diagnostic software, and I, too,
would like to know if anyone has any recommendations at all.
 
Chuck said:
On 27 Jul 2003 20:46:44 GMT

DC> In short: your model is a dinosaur and probably well worn(out).
Upgrade.

The question, however, was about diagnostic software, and I, too,
would like to know if anyone has any recommendations at all.
Click to expand...

Hey, so would I. It would be a good tool to have around.

However, as to my recommendation to upgrade (which I believe to be valid)
is not a freeware one, I clearly marked that post OT.

I am well aware of what the question was. I am also aware that a power
calibration error in NERO is a sign that (a) he has a bad batch of media or
(b) that the burner is farkled. Given the obvious age of his hardware, I
vote for the latter.
 
Have you considered buying a new drive? They are well under $100 nowadays,
with burn speeds of 52x or better.

I suspect that you could solve all you CD burning problems (without knowing
your PC specs, of course -- there could be other issues at play).
Click to expand...

Yeah, like a slow CPU and limited RAM.
In short: your model is a dinosaur and probably well worn(out). Upgrade.
Click to expand...
It could be the computer. An IDE-based CD drive with ample cache
memory and buffer underrun protection would seem to be the best bet.
Another option is a SCSI drive, as that is less CPU intensive.
However, the current trend appears to be towards IDE drives.
 
DC said:
Hey, so would I. It would be a good tool to have around.

However, as to my recommendation to upgrade (which I believe to be valid)
is not a freeware one, I clearly marked that post OT.

I am well aware of what the question was. I am also aware that a power
calibration error in NERO is a sign that (a) he has a bad batch of media or
(b) that the burner is farkled. Given the obvious age of his hardware, I
vote for the latter.
Click to expand...

DC:
There is nothing wrong with the media. My HP 801 burns them at 4x and
the Liteon burns them at 24x... fast enough for my needs. I too came to the
conclusion that I burnt my fingers in buying that burner.

However I am interested in a diagnostic tool. It would be a handy tool to have
around.

Regards
Harsha Godavari
 
harsha said:
There is nothing wrong with the media. My HP 801 burns them at 4x and
the Liteon burns them at 24x... fast enough for my needs
Click to expand...

I should have worded that differently: some media work well in some burners
and not in others.

I had this happen to me. I bought a brand new PC with built-in CD-RW and
purchased a spool of el cheapo CD-Rs that I saw my friends use all the time.
All I could make were coasters.

I brought the CDs to a friend's house and he could burn to them, no problem.
So, I tried another brand and have been burning merrily ever since.

So, maybe the media and your dinoburner don't get along. One way to check
would be to try a different brand of media in it.

I'll keep my eyes peeled for a diag freeware, though. I assume you have
tried NERO's tools? There are two listed here:

http://www.webattack.com/freeware/system/fwcdrtools.shtml

You may already have them installed.
 
Yeah, like a slow CPU and limited RAM.

It could be the computer. An IDE-based CD drive with ample cache
memory and buffer underrun protection would seem to be the best bet.
Another option is a SCSI drive, as that is less CPU intensive.
However, the current trend appears to be towards IDE drives.
Click to expand...

shell:
Just to satisfy your curiosity the cpu is AMD K-6_III/350 wih 64mb RAM
and a MaxtorHD (ATA33), running WIN98SE with all processes unloaded by EndItAll.
The computer was doing nothing else but serving the burner. However the burner
is not the question.

I was enquiring about diagnostic software not a diagnosis of the burner.

Regards
Harsha Godavari
 
DC said:
I should have worded that differently: some media work well in some burners
and not in others.

I had this happen to me. I bought a brand new PC with built-in CD-RW and
purchased a spool of el cheapo CD-Rs that I saw my friends use all the time.
All I could make were coasters.

I brought the CDs to a friend's house and he could burn to them, no problem.
So, I tried another brand and have been burning merrily ever since.

So, maybe the media and your dinoburner don't get along. One way to check
would be to try a different brand of media in it.

I'll keep my eyes peeled for a diag freeware, though. I assume you have
tried NERO's tools? There are two listed here:

http://www.webattack.com/freeware/system/fwcdrtools.shtml

You may already have them installed.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the idea DC. I have some Fuji disks around and I will try those. I
didnot pay too much attention to the brand since these generic disks seem to
work fine in two other burners (Liteon running Nero and HP801 running Roxio) at
diffrent speeds.

If that proves to be the case, I will still have to discard that drive. I don't
want the drive to limit what I buy :-)

Regards
Harsha Godavari
 
harsha said:
DC said:
harsha said:
There is nothing wrong with the media. My HP 801 burns them at 4x and
the Liteon burns them at 24x... fast enough for my needs
Click to expand...

I should have worded that differently: some media work well in some
burners and not in others.
[snip]
So, maybe the media and your dinoburner don't get along. One way to
check would be to try a different brand of media in it.

I'll keep my eyes peeled for a diag freeware, though. I assume you
have tried NERO's tools? There are two listed here:

http://www.webattack.com/freeware/system/fwcdrtools.shtml
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Thanks for the idea DC. I have some Fuji disks around and I will try
those. I didnot pay too much attention to the brand since these generic
disks seem to work fine in two other burners (Liteon running Nero and
HP801 running Roxio) at diffrent speeds.

If that proves to be the case, I will still have to discard that drive.
I don't want the drive to limit what I buy :-)
Click to expand...

Okay, well, I hope to have been of some help.

Good luck. }:O)
 
Last week I tried to burn an *.iso image (Mandrake 9.1) and ended up
with four coasters. The burner was a plextor PX R412C and the software
was Nero (trial version).
Click to expand...
When I try to read these disks, either the drive keeps churning away or
I get "drive not ready" error or the system hangs. CDMage & CDCheck
cannot give me any information about these disks.
Click to expand...
Is there a utility that can diagnose the problem and suggest possible
remedies? I realise that cds are cheap these days but I still would like
to know what is and where the problem lies.
Click to expand...

< snip >

Burner problems appear to be pretty common from what I read. They
are often solved by using a different brand of disk. I suggest you buy
or get hold of, a few different brands. I suspect that then your
problems may well vanish.

AFAIK software cannot diagnose unwritten disks prior to their use. To
ascertain their worth. You might also consider repeating your question
in one of the CD newsgroups.


Regards, John.

--
****************************************************
,-._|\ (A.C.F FAQ) http://clients.net2000.com.au/~johnf/faq.html
/ Oz \ John Fitzsimons - Melbourne, Australia.
\_,--.x/ http://www.aspects.org.au/index.htm
v http://clients.net2000.com.au/~johnf/
 
John said:
< snip >

Burner problems appear to be pretty common from what I read. They
are often solved by using a different brand of disk. I suggest you buy
or get hold of, a few different brands. I suspect that then your
problems may well vanish.

AFAIK software cannot diagnose unwritten disks prior to their use. To
ascertain their worth. You might also consider repeating your question
in one of the CD newsgroups.

Regards, John.
Click to expand...

John:
Thanks for the suggestion. i will try out a couple of other brands
and see how they work out. I suspect though, that the drive is "exhausted". I
understand that the laser units deteriorate over time(and usage). Sine this
was a used one, I have no idea as to how much it was used.

Thats is why I would like to find some tool that can look at the cd and
access whatever info is on there etc.

Regards
Harsha Godavari
 
DC said:
Have you considered buying a new drive? They are well under $100
nowadays, with burn speeds of 52x or better.

I suspect that you could solve all you CD burning problems (without
knowing your PC specs, of course -- there could be other issues at
play).

In short: your model is a dinosaur and probably well worn(out).
Upgrade.
Click to expand...

I'd suggest there are other possible reasons for crappy burning speeds.
I have 48x burner and Nero will only burn at 4x to the cheapie brand of
CD I sometimes use (even though they claim *Up To* 48x on the CD). I can
burn at higher speeds for better brands like TDK Gold. I think there are
lots of factors that come into play here.
 
bambam said:
Did you check the MD5 checksums? Software for this, (postcardware)
http://www.md5summer.org/
Did you burn the iso as an image?
http://www.linuxiso.org/viewdoc.php/neroburning.html


I really like "CDCheck", if it can't even see the disk, something is
horribly wrong. ISOBuster might also be worth a look-
http://www.smart-projects.net/isobuster/
But I really think DC has already asked the right questions and figured
out your problem.


Not really a single piece of software, more a method for "isolating
errors" (note: not all freeware)-
http://www.mrichter.com/cdr/primer/isolate.htm


I like these two-

CDR Tools Front End
http://demosten.com/cdrfe/

EasyISO 1.3
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=2499


YW :)
Click to expand...

Thanks YW. I did try CDR Tools and easy iso but I forget what the results
were :-( Richters site seems to have lot of info. I will go through
it.Thanks.

Regards
Harsha Godavari
 
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