Insane problem with my CD burner.

My CD burner is not working and MY GOD I HAVE NO IDEA WHY. Here's what I've tried:

I tried burning a CD last night (with Nero 5.x something). It got to 6% and froze, then told me it couldn't complete. I Did a quick search on Nero's website and found that SP2 messed up Nero 5 and the solution was to download Nero 6. So I did that (it actually told me it was an "update" and then turned out to be a trial version which also removed by full version of 5).

I ran a burn simulation with Nero 6 (on a new CD-R) and it said it completed successfully. I then attempted to burn and again it failed.

I tried using XP's CD burning wizard. It also failed (and I wasted another CD).

I upgraded my CD-burner's firmware & drivers. Tried again. Failed.

Uninstalled SP2 (which I feel may not have been a good idea in hindsight). Tried both Nero and XP's wizard. Both failed. Lost 2 more CDs.

Then I was playing around in Nero and saw that it said there was no system ASPI installed. My understanding is that with SCSI (which I have) and ASPI is required. So I downloaded and installed ForceASPI, which updated all that and then Nero showed my System ASPI fully installed and working properly.

Tried burning again with Nero and XP's wizard. Failed. Lost a few more CDs.

Then I double checked my services to make sure that IMAP CD-Burning COM was running. IT WASN'T. Naturally, I started it and tried everything again. Still FAILED!

Then after that I went into servies to check IMAP again, and SOMEHOW IT STOPPED RUNNING.

What is going on here? Why can't I burn a CD? Any ideas? I'm desparate, I've already WASTED 11 CDs and feel like an idiot!

HELP!

(by the way, I've tried burning different data to the CD - it doesn't matter what I try to burn, it all fails).

DEVICE: LITE-ON LTR 48125W
XP Home w/ SP1

 

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Try a firmware upgrade.
Strangely enough I can't find any firmware on the lite-on site but I did find one on Cdfreaks.com

http://www.cdfreaks.com/drive/firmware/701

It's firmware version VS0D.

 

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"I upgraded my CD-burner's firmware & drivers. Tried again. Failed."

Tried that already. That's the version I have (vsod). Thanks for the link though, I'm following that right now, I might find something else...

 

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Doh.
Sorry bout that. Missed that line.
Is there a possibility that it's the media?
I remember buying cheap cd's from Costco once and they kept failing. Thought it was something wrong with the burner for a while but I eventually decided it was the cd-r's.

Other than that... don't know.
Good luck.
If all else fails, just throw the fucker out the window. That always works...

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(Have you considered a fresh os install? Never know. It might help.)

 

I guess I'll try a different CD....it's just odd how *now* 12 Cds would all be defective...ah well.

And I have thought about throwing it out the window. But before I do that, I'd like to Backup my important data

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. I can't use my USB stick since it crapped out on me too. Damn, I'm having a bad week...

*BTW, I am actually going to do a fresh OS install, but I need to BU first*

EDIT: Also, do you think I'm better off sticking with Nero, or with XP's wizard?

 

I despise Xp's cd burning wizard.
No particular reason, but I do.

Is there enough free space on your drive to partition it? Then you can use the second partition for a backup while you reinstall.
One problem with this if if you are using some kind of a Restore CD that comes with OEM machines. I've found that they tend to wipe out all partition data and completely reformat the whole drive. Pain in the ass.

Another option would be to network it to another computer to transfer the files across the network. Might take a while if you have a lot of files to backup but when needs must...

 

Hmmmm....My only other machine is my laptop, which is running Linux. So I think I'd need to install/config Samba (which at this point seems like a lot of work). I might try the drive partitioning thing though. I've got an actual (LEGAL!) copy of XP pro that I'm wanting to use for a new install, so maybe I'll do that.

But still, keep the ideas coming everyone.

 

http://download.burn4free.com/

much better than nero, cant burn VCDs tho, but nero refuses ot do that for me lately anyway

 

thanks vslayer, i might try that out.

I finally got Nero to burn 2 CDs for me (which is all I needed to do my backups). I uninstalled/installed the drivers, reduced to 16x write speed and set a huge buffer in Nero (80 MB). That worked, I'm now running my fresh new OS and life is good.

(Well, so far. I haven't tried the burner under the newly installed OS)

 

also try and delete your drive and restart your computer sometimes that helps, also some brands of media just suck I had a whole 10pk of Sony dvd-r's that was bad and got a pack of TDK and they all worked fine.

what error messege are you getting buffer underrun?? or a power one??

 

try a system restore too.

 

cardio:
I did try deleting/reinstalling the drive (I even tried unplugging it right from the mobo), but that didn't work. Also, I know it's not the media because I've been trying different brands, and sometimes it will work and sometimes it won't; there's no consistant patter. But thanks for you help anyway buddy

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.

SouthStar:
I just did a fresh OS install and it's working exactly the same as it did before. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. But thanks for your help also.

BTW, the error messages I'm getting:
Nero says "Write error at 0x000000", and the Win XP burning wizard just spits out the CDR and says "Could not write to disc."

Would posting a log file (from Nero) help?