Problems with cheap recordable disks

[Stereo Steve]

It's in the profile Kev. If you have trouble with Verbatim/ Ricoh/ TDK etc. then I would seriously suggest that your writer is on the way out or needs a firmware update.

[pinbrook]

The jank ones I have are ridisc dvd+r, I got a cake of 100 and 30 have been lobbed out the window already only I aint got a big enough desk at home to use them as beer coasters!.....lol

i hang them in the garden to scare away the cats.

[TraceyHand]

i hang them in the garden to scare away the cats.

LOL
I might try that!
Hang them down the garden on the washing line, it'd be like a landing strip

[george]

My supplier reckons he sells 100's of RiDisc without any problems... in fact someone bought 500 when I was there this morning so I got speaking to him and his advice was if you get three duds from the same pack don't waste your time trying any more from the same spindle, rather use them on another pc.

[kev67]

It's in the profile Kev. If you have trouble with Verbatim/ Ricoh/ TDK etc. then I would seriously suggest that your writer is on the way out or needs a firmware update.

Cheers Steve, and yes, possibly firmware as I do also tend to get the blue screen of death about lack of memory so I reckon my graphics card needs the proper latest drivers rather than the MS ones.....

Jo, what a good idea

George
I wish I'd known that earlier!, bloomin discs, I must've had a duff batch

Here's another question.....
What you do with old discs?

[kev67]

Nice site Steve

nice easy layout too - watch this space as I'll come to you when my discs run out

[AndrewPK]

While i do agree that the Disk's used do make a massive difference in the ratio between burns and coasters. The drive its self also makes a HUGE difference.

Certain drives will like Certain disks, I had an LG burner in this computer for about 18 months, it must have burnt over 600 dvd all of them onto Datawrite Gray 8x DVD-R, in that time, i probably had about 15-20 coasters. then about 6 months back that drive stopped working so i got my loverly new Pioneer drive, which coastered the first five of these gray datawrite DVDs, swapped to the red mach4 version, and have burnt about 100 dvds so far without a problem*

Another thing that was mentioned here was about the firmware, make sure your firmware is BANG up to date, both my old LG and my New pioneer had new firmware released when i installed them and adding the new firmware made a MAHOOOOOSIVE difference, (more reliable burns, better compatability both reading and writing, faster burning speed)

*not had a problem as such with the pioneer just a bit of 'oddness' the mach4 disks are available in 8x & 16x flavours, my DVD pioneer sees them BOTH as 16x (well 18x actually) but takes about 15mins to burn a full disk on the 16x discs (which is about the right burn time for an 8x disk) but takes about 6mins to do a full burn to an 8x disk (which is about right for a 16x burn).

[Cheapprices4u]

for latest firmwares i tell my customers to go to
www.rp1.org
go to firmware link on left hand nav bar, then select letter of manufactuer of drive from the alphabet across the top, find dvd writer or laptop dvd writer etc in the list, then find model number on teh page

download the latest version number specific to yoru drive
double click on it
it compares firmware on drive to one in file asks if you wish to update and your done

hopefully your drive will now behave a bit better on more discs

happy hunting people

[AndrewPK]

for latest firmwares i tell my customers to go to
www.rp1.org
go to firmware link on left hand nav bar, then select letter of manufactuer of drive from the alphabet across the top, find dvd writer or laptop dvd writer etc in the list, then find model number on teh page

Me thinks that should be www.rpc1.org

[Stereo Steve]

Andrew, the Mach4 8 and 16x are often exactly the same discs as far as we can tell. They have also changed the dye I believe quite recently from Optodisc to CMC (off the top of my head). It's also common for 8x discs to burn easilly at 18x. Another problem we have is that people buy 16x and their writer reports them as 8x so they want their money back! My new Vaio reports Verb 16x as 8x and Verb 52x CDR as 24x! Burns them fine and I'm not bothered but without a firmware update it's not going to let me burn them any faster. Problem with laptops is firmware updates are few and far between.

[AndrewPK]

Andrew, the Mach4 8 and 16x are often exactly the same discs as far as we can tell.

well that explains that then! i don't mind, my local 'disk dealer' charges about 2 quid more for the 16x version, so will stick with the 8x as they seem to work really well with my burner.

[Stereo Steve]

If I could still get those TDK G02's 2x I would buy a wheelbarrow load. Set them burning and put the kettle on or watch the F1. Unless you are a big scale duplicator, I don't see what the hype is with 16x! There are plenty of ways to spend the extra 7 minutes that a 8x disc will take, some of them quite fun. OK, so 7 minutes is being optimistic but we all have to have a target to aim for.

[AndrewPK]

Aye, the difference in time between a 16x and 8x disc is pretty much feck all, nice if my burner can do 16x, but not essential. Now 4x disks thats a different story, not done one at that speed for a while but seem to remember it taking my old LG drive anything up to 30-40 mins to burn a disk at 4x,
Used to stick it in, set it burning and go have a play on the PS2