lost faith in CD-RW's

[SithLord075]

Is it just me, or are IDE CD-RW's completely unreliable? This last **** out will be drive #2 within a two year span. My first drive was a Ricoh 4x4x20 (went to Hell after seven months). Buffer-underruns no matter what was attempted (IDE config., defrag, scandisk, drivers, lens cleaners, firmware..etc.) And now my Imation 4x4x20 suddenly cut out...buffer underruns every single time (last week it worked perfectly). Has anyone else experienced these kinds of problems with Ricoh and Imation IDE drives? Well, since I'm on the subject...can someone please recommend an absolute solid choice for a CD-RW? Would SCSI be the best solution? What about USB CD-RW's? Considering the last two failed drives, budget is not my primary concern. I just want something that works...
http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/frown.gif


[This message has been edited by SithLord075 (edited 11-11-2000).]

[This message has been edited by SithLord075 (edited 11-11-2000).]

[Richard_Cranium72]

Rumor has it that a min of 128 RAM

OR you need to kill all running apps.

ctl+alt+del and end task on all cept the Scanreg and Systray

NO antivirus or ZoneAlarm or AIM or whatever you got in 'msconfig' is all extra..

Someone correct me, but isn't buffer-underruns linked to too much stuff running..
Windoze don't multi-task too well with a cd burner.

I've never made a coaster, haven't made too many cd-r's either, but nontheless With this 192mb Ram and killing all open apps,,,
I haven't seen a coaster yet,
YET!

DrVette

[Ed_S]

Doc's right (again http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif)

More memory does help, but technique seems the most important factor.

I haven't had a buffer underrun since I learned how to do a burn properly, and my burner's an ancient 6X/2X CDR (not RW)

Turn off all running apps. Everything, including screensavers & antivirus. And I mean EVERYTHING!!
Set your copy software up to use something OTHER than C:\ for it's swapfile usage.
Once you start the burn, walk away. Literally. Leave it to do it's job, it does NOT need you just now!
Another thing is media quality. I've had MUCH better luck with name branded discs than with "generics". Not neccesarily in error prevention, but they definately make a more reliable finished CD!

BTW, since you asked for a recommendation, mine's a Sony, and it's done well for 3 or 4 yrs now. http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/biggrin.gif

Ed

[shadow]

I run my Plextor 8/4/32 with a PII350/64MB RAM and never a coaster...ok, 1....see below.
I have added another 64MB recently which wasnt for the burner since I had no problems in that area.

When I burn I dont do anything else but my PC-Cillin and ZA do stay on. I think it's got more to do with the hardware...Plextor is the king, no denying that. And I love their software...that and Adpatec is all I use and never have a problem. I burn a lot of MP3's to audio, which the Plextor software does at 8x. It converts on the fly while burning at 8x....and never misses a beat. I've made plenty of cd to cd copies of apps and audios at 8x but did make one coaster that way...a shortcoming of the cdrom I have I suspect. So now I play it safe and burn images instead.

Get yourself a Plextor and be a happy burner.

[NDC]

Bad burns are also due to the media that you're using, have you tried using a different brand of CDR or CDRW?

Personally, I use to have severe bad luck with Memorex CDRW's on my Plextor 8/4/32 with 768mb RAM, so memory wasn't the issue for me.......


Just try using a different brand of CDR or CDRW media and see how that goes.

[Jeff7]

That's weird; I have never once gotten a buffer underrun. Even if the system locks up dead, the CD finishes writing. I have 256MB RAM, however, I can still use the computer like usual while the CD is burning. It runs a tinch slower at times, but the CD always writes fine. Only problems I ever had were with some Pacific Digital CD-Rs - they just did not work at all.

[plucky duck]

Shouda gone with a Plextor. Quality #1. Performance #1. Price #1 http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/frown.gif

Oh well, can't complain too much.
Its actually not that expensive if you just look hard enough http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif

Plucky

[Brangwen]

I use a Memorex CD-RW 4224 (2x4x24) with NTI software. I have had poor luck burning CDRs, but no problem with CDRWs. I think the software sux, frankly. I've used Adaptec which is vastly superior, but sometimes has trouble with either a component or a program that I added to my system. I honestly think many of my problems are related to my lack of knowledge on "how to" properly burn a CDR. When I first attempted to burn audio CDs, I called Memorex tech support (term loosely used!) and the techie gave me a dissertation briefly summarized as "PCs were never designed to do this."

Brangwen http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/wink.gif

[jad1097]

Hmm I am burning a Linux cd right now with my 4x4x32 Acer burner in W2K, with only 96MB of ram at that. No buffer underruns here since I trashed ezcd creator.


Anyhow SCSI is the best way to go, at least that is what I have read. You may want to look at the new Plextor (http://www.plextor.com/english/index.html) CDRW's with the "burnproof" technology. There is also a review of the Plextor burner on here. (http://sysopt.earthweb.com/reviews/plexwriter/index.html)

[shady]

P-L-E-X-T-O-R

Burns PSX games better than anybody

[JayMan]

Ok well, i have a crappy, i mean crappy system and i don't seem to have many problems. I have a ricoh MP7060A (IDE cdrw 4x 6x 24x), Pentium 133Mhz (yes 133, its not a typo), 64MB ram, 2gig HD etc... I use TDK 74min cd-r's and Mr Data 80min cd-r's, ricoh and traxdata cd-rw's. Make sure you shut down all programs running in background, i use a program called "end it all" which will automatically shut down all programs unless they are "protected" (which you can configure programs to protect). The only time i get buffer underrun is sometimes when i burn at 6x (but what do you expect with my crappy system). SCSI is a faster, more reliable platform, SCSI should be independant from your CPU, where as IDE generally will use your CPU. Using DMA on your HD and burner should help lift the CPU usage and may give better results when burning. But at the moment me is very tired/exhausted and thats all i can really suggest at this stage.

JayMan

[SithLord075]

Sorry for not mentioning my burning methods in my first post, but that's exactly how I've been doing it up until the point when it can't even handle a 60MB burn. My virus scanner is off, as well as my firewall and screensaver...not to mention all of my device software (SB Live, Wingman Extreeme, etc.) I'm using a P3 500 w/448 megs of RAM. Strange, I just took the Imation unit over to a friends home and installed it on his P3 800...no dice. Even tried using Imation brand discs. Have also used Kodak, Sony and Maxell. I really think this drive took a dump. I think I'll look at those Plextor drives. I've heard good things about those at work as well. Thanks for the responses!

[tepo]

Media is the key: Had a HP before, could use only one of maxwells series of cd-r's.
Are now a happy owner of a Yamaha 8x4x24 and it is xtremely "media knowing". Only discs it proofs are Trust CD-R's. Nothing wrong with them, in fact I love them. Thick enough, solid in all ways and plays well also in every adio-player so far.
I'm trying different media now and then just for fun, but nothing's beaten Trust yet.
Also one notice, not sure but I think I've noticed different buffer levels with different medias ??

Tepo's $0,02

[SithLord075]

Speaking of media...what's the best media to use for archival back-ups of MP3 albums? What's the real difference between Gold and Silver brand discs, and does the speed of the actual burn affect the disc's integrity? I've read that burning archive CD's at a high speed (6x, 8x) can actually speed up the time it will take before the disc fails. Is this true?

[Ed_S]

More than you REALLY want to know about CDR media... http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/wink.gif

CD Media World (http://www.cdmediaworld.com/hardware/cdrom/cd_quality.shtml)

I've had best luck with TDK's myself. They see to be readable anywhere, even in ancient 2x drives.

Ed

[This message has been edited by Ed_S (edited 11-12-2000).]

[surrealchereal]

I have to use the min. write speed w/mine.
Mat****a CW 7186 but considering it came with my computer which is the terrible;
(PC CHIPS M599LMR mobo) it must be one of the cheapest units money can buy. Actually now that I think about it, it's one of the few things that does work.

[SithLord075]

Ah...CD Media World. Great site and tons of info. Thanks.

[skai]

I think that SCSI is the best I use panasonic 20x8 SCSI never had a problem had a panasonic 8x4 SCSI burnt over 2000 cd,s it's still going forget IDE its ****. skai

[ArnoldLLerch]

I'm running Mitsumi 4802TE CD-RW's in three different locations and have never had a problem with any one of them. RAM does matter however. I'm running 256 Megs in all three machines. When I was first starting out with the first one I only had 96 Megs of RAM in the wife's machine and it did heavy buffer underruns and made us some real pretty coasters but, when I got the RAM up, it worked fine and still does.

[NDC]

IDE its ****

Hmmmmm, well, I use an external SCSI Sony 8/4/32, External SCSI Yamaha 8/4/32, Internal Ricoh 8/4/32 and IDE Plextor 8/4/32 and IDE Plextor's performance and stability has been equally stable as all SCSI CDRW and CDR drives at work and home. This is my 2nd IDE Interface CDRW drive I have used and I'm very impressed by the performance and stability. http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif I used to use a Smart & Friendly IDE 2/2/24 a couple years back which was another very good CDRW drive. I know the name sounds really cheesy, but they are the company that used to make CDR and CDRW drives for OEM companies such as Toshiba, Yamaha, Sony, etc. Now they just go by there name "Smart & Friendly"


I won't argue about the fact that SCSI's are very stable due to the fact that they are controlled by a SCSI controller which doesn't purely depend on the CPU to do all the work like IDE interface CDR and CDRW drives do, but IDE has come along way from what consumers used to think about IDE interface CD burners. They don't heavily utilize the CPU as they once did. As for my Plextor IDE 8/4/32 CDRW drive, the average CPU utilization is about 3~6%, and peaks to 12~14% at the most.


[This message has been edited by NDC (edited 11-13-2000).]

[SithLord075]

Interesting...so what would I need to have one of these ultra-reliable SCSI burners? The SCSI controller is an extra PCI card, right? How many SCSI devices can one set up on a controller? I'm willing to bet SCSI is still relatively expensive, but some people swear by it.

[NDC]

Yes, you will have to buy a SCSI controller Adapter that plugs into your PCI slot , and if you aren't going to be using it to connect a SCSI HDD with a SCSI burner, you won't need to buy an expensive SCSI card. Expect to spend about $50 USD for a reliable low-end SCSI card. As for using it on a SCSI HDD along with your SCSI CD burner, expect to pay about $250 to $300 for an Ultra 160 SCSI Adapter. That's about how much I paid for my Adaptec 29160N SCSI Adapter to run my Ultra160 10,000RPM HDD.

As for number of devices on a single SCSI channel would be 15 devices which should be more than enough for most users. If that isn't enough, you can get SCSI cards that have two SCSI channels that will allow you to have 15 devices on each SCSI channel totalling 30 devices on the SCSI chain.

[SithLord075]

Thanks for the responses. I went over to a co-worker's home last night and witnessed his SCSI system. Now that is some serious performance! Ofcourse, he paid through the roof to convert his system. Man, I think I'm going to have to go that route!

[Richard_Cranium72]

For SithLord075 and others.

If you use your burner/scanner/whatever so often that the extra expense of a SCSI system is worth the bucks, by all means do it..

I have three SCSI scanners and love em.

I have a IDE HP Burner and burn a cd every week or so,, Do I NEED A SCSI burner ?? Probably not.

Unless you're in a business or some other parameter demands the fastest of hardware the most sensible thing to do is buy CHEAP and Quality.

A serious on-line competition gamer DOES need the best of hardware if he/she expects to be competitive. However the average joe home user/gamer can do just fine with standard stuff.

Granted we all like to say we've got this and we've got that, but in a year or maybe less the top of the line hardware is yesterdays news..

Save your money, unless you're rich..

my .02

DrVette

[skai]

Have USB cdrw been made yet? skai

[NDC]

Have USB cdrw been made yet?

Actually, It's been quite some time now since they've been availabe USB interface, I hear that they are pretty lousy though, I couldn't tell you from my personal experience using it though.

http://stores.yahoo.com/a-c/sonspresusbp.html

[ablang]

I have a Plextor PX-R412C, and I believe for the most part, the only coasters I've gotten were for trying to copy certain games (copy protection?).

[RLT65]

At my job we finally retired a 1994 vintage SCSI external yamaha 2x4 CD-R. I know for a fact that we burned at least 15000 CD's & the only problem is that we wore out several caddies. When this burner was purchased, it was around $5000. We got our moneys worth. I think the newer ones are not made as well. The new IDE yamaha's gives us much more trouble in 1 week that the old one gave us in 6 years!

Rhonda T.

[skai]

I guess my preference for SCSI relates to the fact that I can't write CD to CDRW I get a message saying that my {40xIDE} cd is not fast enough to keep up with my 8x SCSI writer
skai

[dgardner]

I have an ancient Traxdata 6X2X2 burner, and I only use TDK on it, they seem to be read by anything have great life after a burn, and my Burner loves them. I use CDRWIN as my buring software. The only time I get a coaster is when I use a dirrefent brand CDR.

[NDC]

As I have mention above on my first reply to this topic, when you're getting a lot of coasters for no apparent reason, try using a different type of media. Memorex CDRW has been hell for my Plextor CDRW drive, but all others seem to work perfectly. I'm not saying that Memorex are bunk CDRW medias. They just work good on some drives and not on others. It has to do with drive & media compatibility. http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif

[neo_otyugh]

wow
i never knew there were so many hurdles to jump to burn cds...i have an ide zipcd 650 4x4x24x, 384 megs of ram...and what i suaulyl do wehn i am burning cds is play counter strike online, i have never turned anything off...never gotten a buffer underun, and the last coaster i amde was cause at the time i did not know how to burn an iso intoa useable disc...