DVD Burner Woes

Cyrus · Post by **Cyrus** » Tue May 22, 2007 8:29 am

I posted this on Guru3D hoping to get an answer there but with something like this I'm more likely to get an answer on the zboard. Anyway here is the post:

Basically I've always used Nero for burning images of DVDs because it has an option to verify data after burning to make sure the information is correct. Recently no matter what I burn at any speed the data verification fails and it says a certain amount of the data from one sector to another is corrupted.

The past 5 or so DVDs of different ISO images on different types of DVDs have ALL failed data verification. As far as software goes I'm not sure if that could be considering there should be no software interfering with the burning process, and the version of Nero I've been using has not been touched. That's why I think this DVD burner might be somehow physically damaged.

It's an old Pioneer DL DVD+- in some crappy external case (Bytecc brand) connected by a USB port.

Nothing has really changed so I have no idea why DVDs aren't burning properly all of the sudden. Anyone have any advice?

franpa · Post by **franpa** » Tue May 22, 2007 9:05 am

don't use nero in conjunction with protected DVD's ?

use DVD Shrink.

Cyrus · Post by **Cyrus** » Tue May 22, 2007 9:15 am

franpa wrote:don't use nero in conjunction with protected DVD's ?

use DVD Shrink.

It can't possibly be a problem with Nero as I've been using it in the same way for a long time now and I had almost no problems in the past. Perhaps 1/30 DVDs failed the data verification in the past, but that may have just been a bad batch. Either that or my burner is a piece of shit.

The only things which have changed (just to be really specfic) are:
- I installed drivers for my webcam
- I installed drivers for my bluetooth dongle
- I updated my firewall from an older version to a new version

So from those 3 things the firewall can't be the problem since I've set it not to interfere with my programs and it would alert me if it were anyway. The webcam and the bluetooth dongle however required USB ports so I may have switched the USB port which the burner was connected through. Could the location it's plugged in or other USB items being plugged in possibly affect it?

AntoineWG · Post by **AntoineWG** » Tue May 22, 2007 9:16 am

DVD Shrink tends to crap out on a lot of newer DVD's. DVD Decrypter does a better job, and the stuff that that won't handle, DVD Fab Decrypter usually will. DVD Decrpypter does have an option to verify data, but all 3 programs only handle video.

What speed are you burning at and what brand media are you using? I use decent media, but no matter what I use, I can't burn at 16x. Either they won't read in my DVD player or they fail verification. The same disc burned at 8x works perfectly.

USB devices could interfere with it if they're on the same controller. If you can, unplug everything that's not necessary (bluetooth?) or make sure the burner is on it's own USB 2.0 controller.

Cyrus · Post by **Cyrus** » Tue May 22, 2007 9:20 am

AntoineWG wrote:DVD Shrink tends to crap out on a lot of newer DVD's. DVD Decrypter does a better job, and the stuff that that won't handle, DVD Fab Decrypter usually will. DVD Decrpypter does have an option to verify data, but all 3 programs only handle video.

What speed are you burning at and what brand media are you using? I use decent media, but no matter what I use, I can't burn at 16x. Either they won't read in my DVD player or they fail verification. The same disc burned at 8x works perfectly.

I tried 16x and it failed, thinking it may have been a fluke I tried 16x again and it screwed up. So I decided not to try that again and tried 8x, and of course that failed verification as well. I tried again with 4x and that failed verification as well.

Like I said I tried different DVD types and different ISOs but all failed. I have a nice pile of corrupted DVDs in the garbage. Times like this I wish I had a rewritable around so I could try again if it screwed up.

Even if it were a Nero problem which seems unlikely, does any other image burning program have data verification like Nero does?

AntoineWG · Post by **AntoineWG** » Tue May 22, 2007 10:36 am

I've never tried it with data, but DVD Decrypter does.

EDIT: I didn't burn it, but it does load a CD ISO image and gave me the option to write and verify it.

PHoNyMiKe · Post by **PHoNyMiKe** » Tue May 22, 2007 11:57 am

I defrag before burning isos. plus ripit4me + dvd decrypter + dvd shrink ftw. make sure you don't have all your favorite bloated spyware running, and close aol to while you're at it.

funkyass · Post by **funkyass** » Tue May 22, 2007 1:01 pm

what phoney said, in addition to burning at a slower speed.

chances are, depending on how new the DVD blanks are, its the dvd blanks, not anything else.

Cyrus · Post by **Cyrus** » Tue May 22, 2007 11:41 pm

The system is free of spyware and viruses and the DVDs are about 3 months old. At this point I'm damn tired as I have other things to take care of and I'm not sure where to start to fix this piece of shit.

PHoNyMiKe · Post by **PHoNyMiKe** » Wed May 23, 2007 12:53 am

get a new one off newegg for $40. my dvd burner is like 1.5 years old, it stopped recognizing cds about a year into my ownership. and I tried a dvd-r and it said 'illegal media' or some shit. so it won't do cd-r's, or dvd-r's, but it'll burn dvd+r's like a champ! not bad, considering it's pry burned about 500 discs in its lifetime!

Cyrus · Post by **Cyrus** » Wed May 23, 2007 3:52 pm

phOnYmIkE wrote:get a new one off newegg for $40. my dvd burner is like 1.5 years old, it stopped recognizing cds about a year into my ownership. and I tried a dvd-r and it said 'illegal media' or some shit. so it won't do cd-r's, or dvd-r's, but it'll burn dvd+r's like a champ! not bad, considering it's pry burned about 500 discs in its lifetime!

Well at this point I've tried pretty much everything so the burner probably did crap out. Even if it turns out it wasn't a problem with the burner I could use another one anyway. Is there one you would recommend?

PHoNyMiKe · Post by **PHoNyMiKe** » Thu May 24, 2007 5:58 am

Cyrus wrote:
phOnYmIkE wrote:get a new one off newegg for $40. my dvd burner is like 1.5 years old, it stopped recognizing cds about a year into my ownership. and I tried a dvd-r and it said 'illegal media' or some shit. so it won't do cd-r's, or dvd-r's, but it'll burn dvd+r's like a champ! not bad, considering it's pry burned about 500 discs in its lifetime!

Well at this point I've tried pretty much everything so the burner probably did crap out. Even if it turns out it wasn't a problem with the burner I could use another one anyway. Is there one you would recommend?

of course! I highly recommend the best brand you can find for under $39 shipped.

Cyrus · Post by **Cyrus** » Thu May 24, 2007 6:22 am

Well I ended up getting a LiteOn 20x DVD+- SATA burner for $42 + 14% tax and it works like magic, no more failing verification bullshit. I froze the old one with liquid helium which I happened to have lying around and smashed it with a sledge hammer. I also picked up an Antec NineHundred case while I was there, and I have to say, great success.