CD Rom Drive Problems

Miroslav

Interesting what I just did....

I d/l Nero Info tool

In the Supported Write Features, it says I cannot write to CD-R but can to CD-RW - does this sound right? Is that possible?

I never used it to write before, but did on the last drive and CD-R's were fine

Miroslav

Full Details

CD-Rom Drive (although it says it's CD/DVD R/RW everywhere else)

Read Speed 32x
Write Speed 8x

Firmware version BB04

Buffer Size 2MB

Supported READ Features

CD-R
CD-RW
DVD-ROM
DVD-R
DVD-RW
CD+G

Supported WRITE Features

CD-RW

Hmmmmm, does this tell anyone anything?

It tells my untrained eye, that CD-R's are not possible to use and only CD-RW's are......I didn't know it was possible

Miroslav

Just tried an anti virus on the drive and it says that it's locked by a disc utility?

I'm sorry, I'm not up on know-how with PC's, what could it be?

bbb_uk

I've never come across a writer that just does RW (ReWritable) discs.

Have you downloaded the latest firmware from Samsung's website here, it also has the manual but it isn't much use or even clear on what type of discs it can write.

But doing a google search, I came across this site that indicated it could write to CD-R (normal blank CDs) but I noticed it never supported burn-proof. Burn-proof is a backup method used by writers if the data they are writing isn't supplied to writer by your computer fast enough, it just pauses the writing until the computer has time to pass the data to the writer and then the writer just continues where it left off.

In other words without burn-proof if your system was slow enough and couldn't supply the data fast enough to the writer then it would fail at writing to the discs.

I'd suggest upgrade the firmware from Samsung's website (above) and run Nero to see what it says the drive can support as it could be a old bug in the firmware of your writer.

Miroslav

This firmware won't ruin the drive totally will it as the warranty will be void after?

I'm checking sites all over the place and trying new things all the time

I won't defrag until tomorrow

bbb_uk

I've never heard of it ruining a drive unless the firmware came from dubious sources though there is no guarantees these days.

Just ensure you have followed the text file included in the firmware download. You are downloading from samsung's own website and following their instructions to the letter.

If the drive is locked it means something was just writing to it and has said it has finished yet.

Just some points I'd recommend first:-

1. Ensure there is no disc in the drive
2. Reboot your PC to ensure that your writer isn't still locked.
3. Ensure you close down any programmes running (in case your computer is slow)
4. Now follow the instructions that came in the text file of the firmware download.

PS: I'm always upgrading my writers (I've had two pioneers) firmware and never had any problems.

culpepper

Things ive found that make a difference when writing CD's...
Make sure if you are writing from a disk image you use disc at once.
if you are writing your individual files to disk use track at once.
Try a slower writing speed.
dont finalise a cd you are using as a compilation until its full.
try just simulating the disk first before actually writing it,so it pretends to write the disk then any faults will be caught before it wastes a disk.
HTH

Miroslav

bbb_uk wrote:

I've never heard of it ruining a drive unless the firmware came from dubious sources though there is no guarantees these days.

Just ensure you have followed the text file included in the firmware download. You are downloading from samsung's own website and following their instructions to the letter.

If the drive is locked it means something was just writing to it and has said it has finished yet.

Just some points I'd recommend first:-

1. Ensure there is no disc in the drive
2. Reboot your PC to ensure that your writer isn't still locked.
3. Ensure you close down any programmes running (in case your computer is slow)
4. Now follow the instructions that came in the text file of the firmware download.

PS: I'm always upgrading my writers (I've had two pioneers) firmware and never had any problems.

Thanks for all the help. I have d/l firmware onto floppy as T4i & yourself suggested, so will use as last resort!

I was just worried as one of the sites said don't do unless you are advanced

Miroslav

culpepper wrote:

Things ive found that make a difference when writing CD's...
Make sure if you are writing from a disk image you use disc at once.
if you are writing your individual files to disk use track at once.
Try a slower writing speed.
dont finalise a cd you are using as a compilation until its full.
try just simulating the disk first before actually writing it,so it pretends to write the disk then any faults will be caught before it wastes a disk.
HTH

I will attempt to do all that. Will do 2x write speed and maybe file at a time and not finalise the CD so I can add bit by bit.

I am copying from hard drive.

I attempted a test, it got to 99% before stopping.......could a file be dodgy?

Thanks for the help

Miroslav

Well, after trying to install firmware - it said it could not detect the Samsung CD Drive! Is it possible that it's not a Samsung drive and my PC has the old one still listed? I've tried re-detecting it but to no avail. It doesn't say Samsung on it and the links I've been given, it looks like my old one, maybe I'm imagining it! This one has no name on it and I have no box or anything as the bloke took it all away, he only fitted it, no nothing left with it.

:mad:

I'm going to have to go all through the rigmarole of getting someone out again......bleeding hopeless!

I have some floppies to save the pics too, but that's way more expensive and not money saving.