Problem with Lite-On CD-RW drive... weird stuff

[Mikes95XLT]

Hey everyone maybe you can help me with a problem I've been having...

I have the Lite-On 52x32x52 black CD-RW drive from NewEgg (second one down) and I haven't noticed anything really wrong, but there are these small things that keep happening that have me bugged!!

Example 1: When burning audio CD's for my car, sometimes the last 4 or 5 songs take forever to access and come up and start playing. And it's only CD's burned with my burner.

Example 2: When burning data disc's for friends, such as a bunch of mp3's or something, when copying over the files to his computer my friend could not access the last 3 or 4 files for some reason.

Example 3: Sometimes I will get a CD (brand new, factory sealed) audio disc or something, and cannot play the CD on my computer. It won't even show up in the drive.

The burner came with some Nero software. Could it be the software? Or do I have a burner problem??

Thanks for any help.

 

[FTC]

Hi,

It is possible that your unit is a bit misaligned, but it is more likely that you just have the laser head it a bit dirty and / or you are using media that is either low quality or not well paired with your burner. Things I would try :

1. First of all, try to find a way to measure burn quality. Being a Lite-on I suppose you can run some K-probes of your burnt disks, so that you get a feeling of your quality right now (C1/C2 ratios).

2. Then upgrade the firmware,

3. Go buy some cdr media samples (1-2 of different brands). Look for good quality media.. Yuden, Verbatim, Fuji, TDK or so are generally safe bets.

4. Give the heads a cleanup with some CD laser cleanup set (or isopropyl alcohol directly applied with a ear-cotton-stick if you know how to do it - you may have to dismount the unit in this case)

5. Now do some test burns and measure quality again with different medias.... You are not just looking for readability, but for as low as possible C1/C2 errors.... and choose your preferred media.

After all of this, if things don't improve, and given current burner prices, just ditch it and but another...

Regards
FTC

 

[Mikes95XLT]

Hey thanks for the reply

Right now I use Memorex CD-R's. The drive isn't really that old, only about 6 or 7 months. How would I go about testing my burns? I'm not sure how to do that... also not sure how to upgrade the firmware...

Also, I don't know how to clean it with cotton swabs or anything, but one of those CD player kits from like Best Buy would work or something like that??

 

[stan03]

you can get firmware from here
http://www.liteon.com/prod/getProduct.do?cid=1_7_2&xml_id=4_2&menu_id=4_2_7

 

[Mikes95XLT]

Went there and no firmware update... it takes me to a page where there are two selections, but neither have data in the table. The one says to reference liteonit.com and I went there and looked for a firmware download, and none.

 

[Mikes95XLT]

Weird message

Ok so I was burning a new CD this morning, and I decided to use the feature where it figures out how fast to burn. It tested and everything, and then the readout said "Can write at 24x instead of 52x because speed of source data is too slow." What's that about???

 

[electromagnetic]

Re: Weird message

Ok so I was burning a new CD this morning, and I decided to use the feature where it figures out how fast to burn. It tested and everything, and then the readout said "Can write at 24x instead of 52x because speed of source data is too slow." What's that about???

Your other drive is maxed out at 24x read. I've had a similar problem to yours, the last few mp3 files of discs I would make wouldn't be readable, no errors on the burn. I was using "audio" cdr's and when I switched to regular ones the problem went away. You should definately try higher quality discs.

 

[Mikes95XLT]

Re: Re: Weird message

Your other drive is maxed out at 24x read.

I only have one drive... this drive is my only one. And that's from burning CD's from the HDD, not another CD.

I use Memorex CD-R's. Should I try different ones?

Something I did notice though, when I finished burning my CD this morning and stuck it in my truck, all the tracks played great. Maybe these CD-R's aren't rated at 52x?

The problem still remains though of my drive not being able to read this new CD I got. I stick it in, but it shows no CD in the drive.

 

[fadirocks]

Go to "My Computer" right click on your CDRW drive and hit properties.
In Properties click on Recording tab and from there you can disable recording! Now try to use Nero

For music CD don't burn anything faster than 16x

Good Luck!

 

[Mikes95XLT]

I'm confused... what would that do? If I disable recording, wouldn't that make my CD drive a non-burning drive? Then you said to try Nero, but if I disable recording, would Nero still be able to make a CD? Or did you mean that it might be able to read the CD that it won't right now? I'm confused... lol sorry.