Major CD-RW complications!

[Dr. Wapazoid]

Hello. This problem is driving me through the roof!! I recently bought a Richoh MP7040A CD-RW 4x4x20 IDE. When I first started backing up my programs with WinOnCD, I would get an average of 1 successfull burn per four blanks (no matter what brand!) Right now I've got it set as my Secondary Slave. All drive settings are set to default. I've got a WD 18GB 7200rpm drive, P2 350 & 256 megs of RAM. Now, over the last couple of days, the drive wasted 15 blanks, half at 2 speed, and the other at 4 speed. I've heard of overburn and jitter problems...but this SUCKS! Is there something wrong with my drive, or am I truly missing something?? $350 is too much to waste on a burner that can't even reach the 50% mark while recording! Help! I'm getting pretty frustrated with this. There must be a stable solution. Thanks

[philipg]

disable your apm and screen savers.

[AuraEdge]

Heres a tip...Unless you have an SCSI CD-r, DONT DO ANYTHING ELSE when u burn
try to kill alll active programs and set it to burn and go do somthing for 15-20 minutes while it burns at 4x. I use TDK and get the occasional Buffer underrun (like..one every 4 if even that much). The key is to make your comp do nothing else at all..
I dont know if youve already tried that but these buffer underruns really tax your patiences...Ever get a underrun at 99%? It was a data cd so that means 1 file dont work..but which one? arg..so confusing...yeah..anyways try my tip

[Dr. Wapazoid]

Thanks for the responses. I've already diabled my screen savers, but what is an APM? LOL...yeah, actually I did get an underrun at 99%! It made my left eye twitch.

[Mntsnow]

Doc.
I have been burning for a while now and I have found The way you need to setup the CDR Burner is to have it on the Secondary MASTER position
The source cd-rom drive as the Primary slave.

I have a AMD k6-2 350 o/c'd to 448 at 2.4v. I have a BTC 2x2x8 IDE burner. and have NEVER had a problem burning cd's after I got my system setup properly...I also have a 2nd harddrive in my system and it is set as secondary slave. I am running DMA active on all drives!

One of the biggest problems is people leave things like Virus scanning progs and screen savers running when trying to burn...THATS A NO NO !! also you need to go into your power managment and make sure the drives dont power down after so long. ( I have mine set to power down AFTER 5 HOURS) you will end up with lots of coasters if you dont!

The brand of burner you have will work just fine...just take a deep breath and double check your setup and then HAPPY burning
GL
Mntsnow

ps. I now also have a Plextor 8x20 scsi burner and it is awsome!...About 9 mins for a full cd burn!....and Have YET to make a coaster with it