CD Burner problems. Please help.

Hello everyone. Recently my cd burner stopped working. I have a dell demension desktop. The cd burner still reads the disks I put in but when I try to burn a cd it won't work and tells me to use a different brand of cd-r's or chose a slower recording speed. I've tried windows media, acoustica mp3 burner, and real player and it won't work on either of them. The burner is "_NEC CD-RW NR-9300A". It says that the device is working properly. Any help will be appreciated and I can provide computer model, drivers, etc. if it's needed. Thanks.

 

You say you want information. Well here it is.

--------[ Summary ]-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Computer:
Operating System Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
OS Service Pack Service Pack 2
Internet Explorer 6.0.2900.2180
Computer Name BASEMENTCOMPUTE
User Name Owner
Logon Domain BASEMENTCOMPUTE

Motherboard:
CPU Type Intel Pentium 4A, 2200 MHz (5.5 x 400)
Motherboard Name Unknown
Motherboard Chipset Intel Brookdale-G i845GL
System Memory 256 MB (PC2100 DDR SDRAM)
BIOS Type Award (03/24/03)
Communication Port Communications Port (COM1)
Communication Port Printer Port (LPT1)

Display:
Video Adapter Intel(R) 82845G/GL/GE/PE/GV Graphics Controller (64 MB)
3D Accelerator Intel Extreme Graphics
Monitor Dell E772c (6418034A0219)

Multimedia:
Audio Adapter Intel 82801DB(M) ICH4(-M) - AC'97 Audio Controller [B-0]

Storage:
Floppy Drive Floppy disk drive
Disk Drive IC35L060AVV207-0 (60 GB, 7200 RPM, Ultra-ATA/100)
Optical Drive _NEC CD-RW NR-9300A (48x/24x/48x CD-RW)
Optical Drive HL-DT-ST CD-ROM GCR-8481B (48x CD-ROM)

Partitions:
C: (NTFS) 57184 MB (35005 MB free)
F: (FAT) 31 MB (24 MB free)

 

Most likely your problem is crappy media (cheap cd's) or the recording speed is set too high. NEC burners sometimes have idiot proof functions that disallow users to burn at certain speeds if the media can't take it and will produce a bad cd. Set the burning speed to 2x and use some good media. To find out what media is good and what is not check out cdfreaks.com. That is most likely the problem as far as I can tell.

 

have you updated to the latest firmware?

 

What exactly do you mean by firmware? I'm not extremely competent when it comes to terms like that.

And also, it's worked plenty of times before with the same cd's and at max burner speeds so I don't know if that's the problem.

 

what is your Dells model number? also does your drives LED blink or do anything odd besides not work correctly?

firmware is instructions similar to a driver that is stored in a ROM chip in a device ... in this case your CD writer ... sometimes things like your problem happen because your CDRW has out of date firmware ... like you may have updated your CD burning program and now it wants a new set of instructions but since they are maybe out of date it no longer burns properly

here's dells troubleshooter, if it's of any help:
http://support.dell.com/support/edo...le.htm?c=us&l=en&s=gen&cs=#symptoms_solutions

 

My dell is a Dimension 2350. I just recently upgraded to Windows Media Player 10 and upgraded Acoustica. Maybe my firmware is outdated like you said. Do you know where I could get an update?

The led is in fine working order and blinks like it should. Nothing seems to be wrong with the drive besides the fact that it can't burn cds.

Thanks for all your help.

EDIT: I just tried burning a data cd. It seems to have the same symptoms as Windows Media Player and Acoustica where everything runs smoothly until it's closing the disk. Then it freezes up or tells me the disk can't be burned.

 

Firmware is the software that is literally inside the CD burner on a chip. It translates the data and instructions it gets from Windows and your PC into laser light pulses to write the data (and vice versa for reading data). One thing the firmware does is read manufacturer data written on CDs (all writable CDs have this) so that it knows the quality of the media. Updated firmware often fixes bugs in this firmware or allows it to uderstand new types of media not available when it was written.

Updating firmware is not without risk, however. If you use the wrong firmware (most updating tools check so that you can't do this) or if you lose power or otherwise fail to completely update the firmware, your CD drive will become nothing more than a paperweight. A faulty firmware upgrade can cause a drive to lose all function. I've never seen it happen, but if you're not comfortable with this risk then do not attempt it.

For OEM devices -- that is, devices you get from a PC manufacturer like Dell -- firmware can be difficult or impossible to find. The drives in such machines often are models that the actual drive manufacturers (NEC in this case) do not support after they sell them to Dell. They often are models that are physically identical, but have a slightly different model name that prevents using a retail firmware upgrade in the device.


One easy thing to do is to buy a 5-pack of quality brand-name media (the expensive stuff like Memorex). If you burn good quality media with no problem, then your other media is just bad quality.

Also, your drive may be dirty. Especially if the PC sits on the foor or if you smoke, dust particles build up inside all PCs that can cause electrical components to overheat or mechanical components to fail (or cause optical interference for a CD drive). You can buy a CD drive cleaning kit and try that.

 

looks like you're out of luck with the firmware as I don't see your devices firmware on dells site

if trying different media doesn't work ... you might try borrowing another drive just to rule out a software problem altogether

 

Thanks for all your help everyone. I'll try getting some new cds soon. Also, am I to understand that the firmware reads data off cd's as well as writes them? So if the firmware was out of date then it probably couldn't read cds. The drive reads and rips cds fine, it just can't burn them so I'm not sure if firmware is the problem. Can someone elaborate on this?

 

it depends on what the update consists of ... I was having a similar problem with my drive last summer and a firmware update fixed the problem ... but of course w/ computers there are a million and one reasons any particular problem could come about

 

To check your firmware version go to Control Panel > System > Hardware tab > Device Manager, expand the DVD/CD Rom Drives, right click on your 9300, click on properties, click the detail tab. To the right of the brand/model there is the firmware version. If it is lower than 1.12 go here to softpedia's site and download 1.12. I'm not sure if it is packaged with a flasher (the program that writes the firmware to the drive) so you may have to track a compatible flasher down. "Dump" firmware simply means save your current firmware; you should do this before flashing. "Flash" means write new firmware. When you do it make sure your computer is stable--fresh boot with no programs running (including anti-virus/malware software).

You might also go to http://www.cdspeed2000.com/ and download nero drivespeed and/or cd-dvd speed to find out how fast you can actually burn with your rig and media. Often times advertised speeds are higher than what you can actually do. Advertised speeds were achieved in a lab under absolute optimal conditions. I own an NEC 1300A and even though it claims to write DVDs at 4x, I have never been able to do this even with media that is NEC "certified". I really think you just have some bad media, even if you buy good stuff it might be part of a bad batch. Also buy one or two cd-rw and try them out. What kind of media are you using after all? It looks like the 9300A is only capable of burning cd-r as opposed to cd+r so that could also be your problem.