DVD+R burning issues - firmware?

[aspec00]

Hi all,
I have a labtop with a DVD+R burner (4X). I believe the drive is made by Ricoh - RW8165. I do a decent amount of backing up onto DVDs and recently, I have begun to have issues.

Here is what Nero Express says (in both my old version 5.5 and my demo version of 7).
1. Burn process started
2. DVD+RW RW8165
Illegal medium
3. Generating DVD high compatibility borders
4. DVD+RW RW8165
Could not perform end of Disc-At-Once
5. Burn process failed.


I have never had issues before and these issues began when I bought new DVDs. I first bought Fuji DVDs (never had issues with them before) and tried a number of the DVDs in the pack. I could not get them to work and therefore bought Verbatim DVDs. None of them work. Therefore, this is probably not a DVD issue.

I have also played with all of the settings in Nero. Nothing works. I have tried burning different files and nothing works. On the other hand, I have tried burning CD-Rs and have had no issues. Therefore, the drive itself seems to be working fine (I can also watch DVDs, etc.).

Therefore, I think Verbatim/Fuji and probably other manufacturers have begun hardcoding new info onto their blank DVDs, which makes them incompatible with my burner's firmware.

Here are the details from Nero 7's info tool.
The only name that comes up is DVD+RW RW8165. The computer is an ABS zForceF2
Firmware version 1.01.

I believe there is a newer firmware version but I do not want to try and do anything yet because a) I am not 100% sure if my drive is a Ricoh and therefore if I have the newest firmware version for my drive and, b) I am a bit worried about updating any firmware since messing up can be bad news.

BUT, my dvd burner is partially useless if I can't backup my info on DVDs.

Thoughts? Help?

Thanks

 

[ski]

Did you try burning at a slower speed?
Are the Fuji DVD's the same type as previously?
Did you try cleaning the lens?

 

[ski]

Also, you can determine the DVD drive brand with this utility:

http://www.lavalys.com/products/download.php?pid=3&lang=en

 

[aspec00]

I actually think I have figured out the problem and this solution will hopefully help others...

as i previously stated, I tried just about everything (including finally updating my firmware).

the solution is this simple: the newer types of DVDs do not work with RW8165 4X dvd+r burners. The newer types of DVDs that I am referring to are 16X. 8X works fine.

All this means is that Ricoh needs to get their butts in gear and put out a firmware update since 8X are going to become harder and harder to find.

Hope that helps and saves ppl time!

 

[paparazi]

Disk compatibility is a common issue with DVDwriters.
The manufacturers will often release several firmware updates to try and make a particular drive write more reliably on differant dye and disk types but the reality is, that once another drive is released the older drive support often ceases leaving you the user to "buy what works" or upgrade.
Martin

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