NEW DVD-Burner creating tons of COASTERS!!! 1

[Bachinat0r]

I need some input on this one. i got a new samsung h552b dvd burner for x-mas. it was purchase from new egg and came bundled with some newegg stamped blank media. six blank media total. out of the 6 dvd's, 3 came out coaster. i was pissed. i have had a TDK Velo cd burner for years and never a coaster. so i decided to purchase some blank media at the closest store. blaming the whole incident on the bum media. the only thing i could find at the store around x-mas time was Memorex dvd-r. after trying 3 of those and all 3 turning out coasters, i had to walk away from my computer fearing that i might blow it up. so i decided to check out the media compatibility list from samsung's website. that day at work, i picked up a couple of TDK DVD-R's, which is on the compatibility list, to try at home. wouldn't you know that the first one came out a coaster. i am thinking my dvd burner is bad and need some insight. below are the different things i have tried throughout this whole process.

-update the version of nero that came with the burner.
-update the firmware for the burner.
-disable screen saver and all power options.
-disable antivirus.
-tried media from different manufacturor (i am trying to find some DVD+R media to try just for fun).

thanks for your help in advance!

 

[cdogg]

garebo and firewolfrl,

I understand that switching to a 40-pin cable worked for either yourself or someone you've heard about it from. However, the cause of the problem could have very well been a problematic setting in the BIOS, a bad controller on the motherboard, or high EMI (Electro-Magnetic Interference) on the inside of the case. 80-pin cables are backwards compatible. When the drive is connected with one, it may try to use a higher UDMA mode automatically. If there's a lot of interference or bad controller, then the higher speed won't work correctly. You have to manually go into the BIOS and lower it to UDMA mode 2 (ATA/33) which is exactly the same thing as giving it a 40-pin cable.

It's too simple to say that a burner required 40-pin. Unless it was stated in the drive's specifications in the manual, I highly doubt that to be the case.

Regardless, it's a closed issue.




~cdogg
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[firewolfrl]

Cdogg,
Dude you give lots of advise and you are a smart cookie.
But, you read too much into it. I said my burner doesn't like the 80 pin cables. not it required....lol
I did do some playing around. I installed the drive in another computer and used the 80 pin....the drive errored the same as before...then I did your Bios setting and the drive worked fine after that. though it did have some weird buffer issues(cpu useage was a tad higher)...then I installed the 40 pin and the drive worked great too....you are right in the Bios settings. the drive is a cheap 8x DVD burner from Staples...(slapping my hand on my forehead)
My test machine is a Gigabyte board with a 2800 AMD and 2 gig of ram and on a clean and new XPsp2 install.

my conclusion is the drive is CHEAP...and built maybe not up to todays standards...the drive was built in September 2004. ....lol...all this technology and I buy a backwards burner....goes to show that finding the best deal for a DVD burner maybe was not the best deal.
God I feel like a teenager saying this (always has to have the last word)
Now the issue is closed.

 

[jurgen36]

Well I use one Pioneer A6 and one A7 DVD burner in my own machine, actually Pioneer states very clearly in both manuals to use only 40 pin cables. There is even one extra note on a separate paper "WARNING DO NOT USE 80 PIN CABLES" so the cables do not seem to be backward compatible. Regards

Jurgen

 

[garebo]

To firewolfrl

I dont think your burner is cheap or not up to todays standards, it just doesnt use 80 pin ide cables and thats all. Doesnt mean you have anything less than a ?x dvd burner or that its somehow less than.
At least you solved the coaster problem.
Just another one of the thousands of little quirks. For example, you cant put a slot A heatsink\fan combo on backwards, it just wont work that way. And there are warnings all over the net about that and in this website as well. Not quite the same deal as the 80 pin cable, just an example of the fact that there are probably thousands of little bits of info that we need to know to assemble and run computers properly.
This is just another of those examples is all. It's one of the reasons this website is here too!





Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[garebo]

quote from c-dogg
"When the drive is connected with one, it may try to use a higher UDMA mode automatically. If there's a lot of interference or bad controller, then the higher speed won't work correctly. You have to manually go into the BIOS and lower it to UDMA mode 2 (ATA/33) which is exactly the same thing as giving it a 40-pin cable."
There's another bit of info i didnt know about. All i ever did was switch cables from 80 pin to 40 pin and solved the problem, didnt know i could fiddle with bios with this particular problem.



Good advice + great people = tek-tips