1655 repeated verfication failures

[korz]

[qanda]This thread is about the BenQ DW1655. Click here to see full specs[/qanda]I've had my DW1655 for 3 or 4 years now and have burned probably 400 CD-R's and DVD+-R's with it. Suddenly, my verifications have started failing. I can still read every file I look at on the disk, but my trials are not exhaustive (we're talking thousands of photos or songs).

I use Taiyo Yuden media exclusively, purchased from either Supermediastore or Rima. At first, I thought that my media was starting to get old (bottom of the cakebox), but then I tried some 1-month-old TY's and I have the same problem. I've never burned any of my CD's or DVD's at maximum speed... I always back off by one or two speeds. In this case, I was using 48x disks and tried burning one at 20x and another at 16x, both are readable, but failed verification.

What's bugging me even more is that because I needed to burn some CD-R's in a hurry, I shared the files I was going to burn on my network, fired up my 18-month-old Gateway laptop, copied the files to the laptop HD, and tried to burn the CD-R's on the laptop. I again got repeated verification failures. I couldn't have burned more than 100 CD's and DVD's in the last 18 months with that laptop. The laptop has a Philips burner. Replacing that will be VERY expensive, I'll bet!

So, my questions:

1. 4 years and 400 CD's/DVD's... is that a reasonable life for a Benq burner?

2. If not, what should I do? I've tried using a lenscleaner CD (this is the very first time I've cleaned any of my burners... I really take care of my disks and they barely have even dust on them, so the burners should be pretty clean).

3. Can you tell from doing an analysis of the disk whether the problem is in the drive or the media? Tell me what to run and I'll post the result. I used to know how to do the analysis using the Nero StartSmart menu, but I've forgotten... it's been so long, so you'll have to walk me through it. I still have the error.txt from the last two failed verifications. I can post one or both of these. I use Nero 6 Ultra Edition (6.1.1.15) for burning on both the laptop and desktop.

4. Is there any standardization in laptop burners? Am I stuck buying a replacement from Gateway and probably paying hundreds of dollars, or can I buy a replacement elsewhere?

5. If I do need a new burner for my desktop, I can look in any one of the many "what's the best burner" post. Which is the best "what's the best burner" post?

Thanks.

Al.

[qwakrz]

Have you run a memory test. It could be some bad memory corrupting the files as it caches them before writing.

[korz]

Pardon my ignorance, but where do I find a memory test? Is there a built-in memory test in XP Pro or do I download something online. If online, then which one… I’m sure if I enter “memory test” into Google, I’ll get 2,000 different memory tests.

By the way, will these memory tests also tell me my memory speed? I built this machine especially for multitrack audio recording and paid (in 2004) $275 for 1G of Mushkin 2-2-2-4 PC3200 memory. It was the most expensive piece of my system.

I’d like to be able to test my various systems’ memory speed… each of them has the fastest memory that I can afford, but as the bus speeds increase, so also do the latency numbers increase, which that makes it difficult to compare speeds between systems.

Thanks.

[cxs]

Download the [B]memTest86+[/B] iso zip file from http://www.memtest.org/#downiso, decompress the iso, burn it to a CD and restart your PC with it in the drive (your PC’s BIOS has to be set so that it can boot from CD’s first). memtest86 will show you information about your RAM & bus speeds and allows you to run different tests. It can take several hours to run all tests depending on how much memory you have and your system’s speed.

For Windows you can download [B]CPU-Z[/B] from http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php. It is not a test tool but it will tell you the speed and timings supported by each RAM module in your PC, as well as what the current speed/timings are set to among other things.

[korz]

Will either of these test the integrity of the memory as suggested by qwakrz?

Thanks.

[cxs]

yes, just run memtest. i always use it to test new ram i buy and many overclockers use it to test their setups after changing timing and speed settings.

[negritude]

1. Replace the IDE cable

2. Make sure DMA is enabled

[korz]

I did memtest86+ yesterday and it came up with a whole page of bad addresses. I’ve contacted Mushkin and they are going to replace it with new memory (lifetime warranty). So, maybe the bad memory was the cause. I burned a tiny little CD (the memtest86+ image) and it verified without problems. I think the first bad memory location was at something like 367M, so it would not have been a problem for small burns, I guess.

I did check DMA and it’s on for this drive, but I had to use Nero DiskInfo to get this information. There was no DMA checkbox on any of the device Properties tabs. I’ve had this problem before… not sure why DMA is not an option for me.

As for cables, this is an aftermarket, round, “aerodynamic” cable that I paid something like $8 for, so I think it’s unlikely to fail.

I’m going to get that other memory test utility and run that to see how fast my current memory is. It’s only 266MHz memory and could be 2-2-2, but memtest86+ says it’s set to 2-3-3-6. I’ve got some 400MHz DDR memory that I can steal from another computer while the Mushkin comes in and I’m curious to see the difference in speed between the two.

I’ll try and report back if the new (borrowed) memory solves the problem.

If it does, I’ll never buy anything except Lifetime Warranty memory ever again (not that I make a habit of it).

Thanks.

Al.