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How do you know when your DVD writer is dying?

dqtus posted 2008 Jun 21 14:38

Hi, I have a NEC ND-3520A that I've been using to burn for the last few years. I usually go through quite a lot of DVDs so it has certainly taken its share of work. Anyways, lately I have noticed that it's taking super long to burn a regular DVD-r on 12x (like 35 min) and it's like lagging my comp. Not sure if this is partly due to the hot weather but my Pioneer can burn the 8x in like 16min and is fine. Is there any way to test the health of the DVD burner? Also another side note, my Pioneer burner is set to region 2 so if I burn a DVD with it does that make the DVD a region 2 as well? Thanks!

FulciLives posted 2008 Jun 21 15:28

Any DVD you burn will be region free, period. As for the DVD burner going bad ... I had a Pioneer DVR-108 model go bad on my recently. It would often fail the OPC (Optimal Power Calibration) test in both ImgBurn and K3B (a Linux based burning program). Even if I turned off OPC it would sometimes fail to burn or if it did it would then fail the verification process. Usually though when a DVD burner is burning really slow it tends to indicate that it is going into PIO mode instead of DMA mode (or is that the other way around?) so you want to check what mode you are in and also when such problems arise it could be a bad internal IDE cable. - John "FulciLives" Coleman

budz posted 2008 Jun 21 16:21

when it takes much longer to burn a dvd disc it usually means the drive is in PIO mode as FulciLives mentioned. use this link on how to set to dma mode: http://www.cdrlabs.com/forums/how-enable-dma-windows-with-pictures-t7625.html or your laser in your dvd burner could be dying so it's time to buy a new dvd burner. what are you burning? are you backing up a dvd movie? if you are and you're using dvd shrink to compress then burning with IMGBURN the disc will be region free.

dqtus posted 2008 Jun 21 17:22

ah ok could be that. it was fine before so im not sure why the modes would change. ok so Im looking at that link to check for dma enabled and my config has 2 DVD burners hooked up on the same IDE. I apparently have 2 secondary IDE channels but I believe Im only using one. Although Im assuming my burners are the secondary IDE channels since I have 2 SATA hard drives plugged in so are those the primary IDE channel or are they in a different category? In any case, the first secondary IDE channel are both set to DMA if available and the current transfer mode was like ultra DMA and bottom was not available. I wasn't sure if this was correct so I uninstalled the IDE and had windows redetect and now the top is PIO and the bottom is still not available. Maybe this is the wrong IDE channel for the burners?

budz posted 2008 Jun 21 19:06

use nero infotool and post the configuration of your hard drives and dvd burner. that will tell you whether or not you have the drives set up correctly. if you're getting the PIO mode that could be why your dvd burner is burning at such a slowwwwwww speed.

dqtus posted 2008 Jun 21 22:53

Here is what infotool gave me. I don't think I saw PIO anywhere so I should be fine right? Nero InfoTool 5.2.3.0 Drive Information ------------------ Drive : PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-107D Type : DVD±R/RW Recorder Firmware Version : 1.18 Buffer Size : 2000 KB Date : 04-07-01 Serial Number : DCDL265694WL Vendor Specific : 04/07/01 PIONEER Drive Letter : E:\ Location : 0:0 Mechanism : Tray Read Speed : 40 X Write Speed : 24 X Read CD Text : Yes Return C2 Pointers : Yes Read CD-R : Yes Read CD-RW : Yes Read DVD-ROM : Yes Read DVD-RAM : Yes Read DVD-R : Yes Read DVD-RW : Yes Read DVD-R DL : No Read DVD+R : Yes Read DVD+RW : Yes Read DVD+R DL : No Read BD-ROM : No Read BD-R : No Read BD-RE : No Read HD DVD-RAM : No Read HD DVD-R : No Read HD DVD-RW : No Read HD DVD-R DL : No Read HD DVD-RW DL : No Read HD-BURN : No Read Digital Audio : Yes Read CD+G : No Read VideoCD : Yes Write CD-R : Yes Write CD-RW : Yes Write DVD-R : Yes Write DVD-RW : Yes Write DVD-R DL : No Write DVD+R : Yes Write DVD+RW : Yes Write DVD+R DL : No Write DVD-RAM : No Write BD-R : No Write BD-RE : No Write HD DVD-R : No Write HD DVD-RW : No Write HD DVD-R DL : No Write HD DVD-RW DL : No Write HD-BURN-R : No Write HD-BURN-RW : No Buffer Underrun Protection : Yes Mount Rainier : No SolidBurn : No Labelflash : No LightScribe : No Modes : Packet, TAO, DAO, SAO, RAW SAO, RAW DAO, RAW SAO 16, RAW SAO 96, RAW DAO 16, RAW DAO 96 Region Protection Control : RPC II Region : 2 Changes User : 3 Changes Vendor : 4 CSS : Yes CPRM : Yes AACS : No VCPS : No Drive Information ------------------ Drive : _NEC DVD_RW ND-3520AW Type : DVD±R/RW DL Recorder Firmware Version : 3.04 Buffer Size : 2 MB Date : ? Serial Number : 53E8M87S111 Vendor Specific : 05040500 Drive Letter : F:\ Location : 0:1 Mechanism : Tray Read Speed : 16.0 , 12.0 , 8.0 , 5.0 , 1.0 X Write Speed : 12.0 , 8.0 , 6.0 , 4.0 , 2.0 X Read CD Text : Yes Return C2 Pointers : Yes Read CD-R : Yes Read CD-RW : Yes Read DVD-ROM : Yes Read DVD-RAM : No Read DVD-R : Yes Read DVD-RW : Yes Read DVD-R DL : Yes Read DVD+R : Yes Read DVD+RW : Yes Read DVD+R DL : Yes Read BD-ROM : No Read BD-R : No Read BD-RE : No Read HD DVD-RAM : No Read HD DVD-R : No Read HD DVD-RW : No Read HD DVD-R DL : No Read HD DVD-RW DL : No Read HD-BURN : No Read Digital Audio : Yes Read CD+G : Yes Read VideoCD : Yes Write CD-R : Yes Write CD-RW : Yes Write DVD-R : Yes Write DVD-RW : Yes Write DVD-R DL : Yes Write DVD+R : Yes Write DVD+RW : Yes Write DVD+R DL : Yes Write DVD-RAM : No Write BD-R : No Write BD-RE : No Write HD DVD-R : No Write HD DVD-RW : No Write HD DVD-R DL : No Write HD DVD-RW DL : No Write HD-BURN-R : No Write HD-BURN-RW : No Buffer Underrun Protection : Yes Mount Rainier : No SolidBurn : No Labelflash : No LightScribe : No Modes : Packet, TAO, DAO, SAO, RAW SAO, RAW DAO, RAW SAO 16, RAW SAO 96, RAW DAO 16, RAW DAO 96 Region Protection Control : RPC II Region : 1 Changes User : 4 Changes Vendor : 4 CSS : Yes CPRM : Yes AACS : No VCPS : No Drive Information ------------------ Drive : Generic DVD-ROM Type : DVD-ROM Drive Firmware Version : 1.0 Buffer Size : 512 KB Date : ? Serial Number : n/a Vendor Specific : Drive Letter : G:\ Location : 4:0 Mechanism : Tray Read Speed : 32 , 8 X Write Speed : n/a Read CD Text : Yes Return C2 Pointers : Yes Read CD-R : Yes Read CD-RW : Yes Read DVD-ROM : Yes Read DVD-RAM : Yes Read DVD-R : Yes Read DVD-RW : Yes Read DVD-R DL : No Read DVD+R : Yes Read DVD+RW : Yes Read DVD+R DL : No Read BD-ROM : No Read BD-R : No Read BD-RE : No Read HD DVD-RAM : No Read HD DVD-R : No Read HD DVD-RW : No Read HD DVD-R DL : No Read HD DVD-RW DL : No Read HD-BURN : No Read Digital Audio : Yes Read CD+G : Yes Read VideoCD : Yes Write CD-R : No Write CD-RW : No Write DVD-R : No Write DVD-RW : No Write DVD-R DL : No Write DVD+R : No Write DVD+RW : No Write DVD+R DL : No Write DVD-RAM : No Write BD-R : No Write BD-RE : No Write HD DVD-R : No Write HD DVD-RW : No Write HD DVD-R DL : No Write HD DVD-RW DL : No Write HD-BURN-R : No Write HD-BURN-RW : No Buffer Underrun Protection : No Mount Rainier : No SolidBurn : No Labelflash : No LightScribe : No Modes : n/a Region Protection Control : RPC II Region : None Changes User : 5 Changes Vendor : 4 CSS : Yes CPRM : Yes AACS : No VCPS : No

budz posted 2008 Jun 21 23:10

you posted the wrong info from nero infotool. go to the configuration tab and you'll see the primary & secondary ide channels. you will see if your dvd burners are in PIO or UDMA MODE. this is what it's suppose to look like:

dqtus posted 2008 Jun 21 23:26

Hmmm doesnt look like mine shows this info. This is what I get but I just did a burn and it went fine so I guess somehow it fixed itself untitled.bmp

budz posted 2008 Jun 21 23:29

dqtus : Hmmm doesnt look like mine shows this info. This is what I get but I just did a burn and it went fine so I guess somehow it fixed itself untitled.bmp it's because you're using version 5 of nero which is a old version. if you're using crappy media that can also be a reason why you had long burn times. use good quality dvd media like VERBATIM & TAIYO YUDEN.

dqtus posted 2008 Jun 21 23:42

yea mine are all taiyo yuden premiums. Which version of nero is good now? I had used 5 before and switched to 6 once and got all sorts of bad burns and hated it so i switched back to 5.5 since if it aint broken dont fix it right. So what is a stable version of nero then?

budz posted 2008 Jun 21 23:47

dqtus : yea mine are all taiyo yuden premiums. Which version of nero is good now? I had used 5 before and switched to 6 once and got all sorts of bad burns and hated it so i switched back to 5.5 since if it aint broken dont fix it right. So what is a stable version of nero then? I wouldn't even use NERO if someone paid me. :lol: :lol: :lol: NERO is crappy to use for dvd burning. Use IMGBURN to burn your TAIYO YUDEN discs. :)

FulciLives posted 2008 Jun 21 23:55

ImgBurn rocks and Taiyo Yuden rocks :) - John "FulciLives" Coleman

Bagheera posted 2008 Oct 07 11:54

With ImgBurn and good media, it is damn near impossible to create a coaster.

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