New Lite-On burner, can’t make a virtually error free copy!

CD, DVD and (Ultra HD) Blu-ray Writers LiteOn / PLDS / Sony Writer
#1

Kinda long, but trying to give all the history.

I picked up Lite-On 48246S burner a few weeks ago and I recently started making some copies. When I got it, the most recent firmware was SS06, which I upgraded to immediately. I made copies of Windows 2000 and Office 2000, Windows is a pressed disc and Office is a copy. I popped them in my work computer to test them out and it was having a hard time recognizing them. I used Verbatim Blue’s rated for 16x but burned them at 32x. So I thought maybe that was the problem. The reason I burned them at 32x was Nero gave that option in the drop down list, so I thought it was OK, because doesn’t Nero check the media and give speed options based on that?

I ran the CD Quality Test in the Nero Toolbox on these discs and they were full of errors, yellow, C2 I believe? The Surface Scan said every sector was damaged! So I tried burning another copy of Windows (pressed disc) at 16x, Windows seemed to recognize it but the Quality Test and the Surface Scan reported the same results. So I thought, so what they seem to work, but I ran those tests on the copy of Office that a friend made and those tests were perfect!!

Then I encountered more issues. I wanted to transfer some files from home to work so I put them on a Verbatim RW disc rated for 12x. My work comp didn’t want to recognize it! I solved this problem and I’m putting it here in case it has something to do with the other problem. If I burned the data in Mode1 then problems, changed it to Mode2 and it works fine. This would be a nice solution but when you use the CD Copy function of Nero, you can’t set this option.

I’m trying to make these copies on the fly from my Sony CDU5221 40x CD-ROM, so I tried making an image file first, still no good. Actually, when I try to run the Quality Test from my Lite-On drive, it frequently spins up and down and reads at like 8x or so. I made a copy at 10x, on the fly, to one of the Verbatim RW discs and it’s fine!!

So what’s going on? Does the Lite-On not like the Verbatim blues? What’s my next step, upgrade the firmware and try again? Drive bad? Before I upgraded, I used EZCD and a 2x burner! So Nero is new for me and I never tested any of my other CD’s made in the past but various Windows comps seemed to like them just fine.

Questions, comments appreciated!!

#2

Verbatim 16x Metal Azo? That could be that it does not like them!
But: 32x is just what the burner suggest for the media. Nero won’t check anything.

What you report with Mode 1 vs Mode 2 is probably the SAO bug. Try Mode 1 and select DAO/96 as write mode (you can also use that for making copies, since Nero will rebuild all ECC data. This increases CPU load, but avoids “generational loss”)

#3

The label says, “DataLifePlus Premium AZO Blue Technology 1x-16x”

But I already did try 16x!! :eek:

#4

Just saw it…have editted my post :slight_smile:

Note that DAO/96 in Nero does not work in 5.5.8.x versions or the such…update to the latest version to use that.

#5

Ah yes, I see that option. I’m going home for lunch today and will give it a try. :smiley:

So these discs are rated at 16x but should I be able to burn them at higher speeds? Granted 16x is light speed compared to 2x that I was used to, just curious since Nero gives me the option. If so, what is the highest otf speed I can get away with using my 40x rom? When I did the burn at 32x, the read buffer did almost hit zero once, but never did.

So are my other discs bad? Or maybe not bad, but just not that good! :bigsmile: Meening the ones I have already burned.

I have V 5.5.9.17

#6

Nero asks the writer: “What do think you can do on the inserted discs?”
Writer: “4x, 8x, 12x, 16x, 24x and 32x”

=> Nero will show 4x, 8x, 12x, 16x, 24x, 32x. It has no chance to know if the speed which the writer suggests makes sense or not.

The discs are good, but not all discs work in all writers, and especially such “old” discs are not good for some LiteOns.

In the Review of 52246S, the used TDK 12x is also of very high quality, but the LiteOn did not like it.

Version 5.5.9.17 works properly with DAO/96.

#7

No, I don’t mean the blanks, I mean the burned discs that have all the errors… garbago?

I was just looking at Nero and when I was just transfering data, I was making a multisession disc. If you do that, the only burning option is TAO. So no DAO/96 option…

What’s the difference between using Mode1 vs. Mode2 for a multisession disc anyway?

#8

Multisession requires TAO, yes… so don’t use Multisession for DAO/96 testing!

I don’t know if there is any difference between Mode 1 and Mode 2 form 1 for Multisession.

#9

OK, Bad news. Made a copy with the DAO/96 option set, still riddled with errors. Boy, at this rate if it is a problem with the media, I won’t have any blanks left by the time I figure that out!

What next? Would upgrading the firmware make the drive more compatible with this “older” media? I always assumed that when they say they added more media compatibility, I thought that meant for newer media. Try burning at less than 16x? I don’t know what that would tell me.

Thoughts??

Is that SAO bug you speak of hardware or software related?

#10

The SAO bug is a firmware problem with sometimes seems to cause bad subchannel data to be written. It is definitely present in SS06 firmware. It can cause CD players to show bad track postions or can cause sectors unreadable for some drives. But: It cannot cause C2 errors!

If you use DAO96 with Mode 1 on the Verbatim CD-RW media: Is the disc than as bad as with DAO in Mode 1 (= does not work in that one drive)? DAO96 could only fix this issue, but never the C2 error problem.

An update probably won’t help with these discs, but you can try of course.

#11

I’m sorry, I’m having a little trouble decifering your reply. :slight_smile: But I think I have an idea… As far as if it’s as bad or not, unfortunately I never let the test run the whole way, once I see a bunch of errors, I quit.

If I remember correctly, DAO on CD-RW media works fine! DAO or DAO/96 on CD-R media is no good. I had a feeling that DAO/96 was almost worse but not really sure.

The C2 errors are what’s bothering me. I gave a copy of XP to a friend that had many C2 errors and he said it worked fine except once it said it couldn’t find a file and after a couple retries, it worked.

So in other words are you’re saying that different media may correct this? It’s not a bad drive issue is it?

#12

So in other words are you’re saying that different media may correct this?
Yes. Unfortunately, I can’t get Metal Azo discs here to verify your problems, but more modern media should fix it.
Again: DAO/96 will not help about C2 errors…

#13

The good news is the burner is probably OK. The bad news is, I’ll maybe have to donate my CD-R stock! :stuck_out_tongue: I only have about 10 discs left. I have a Maxell CD-R sitting in front of me certified to 40x, InfoTool says Ritek. I’ll give this one a try.

Thanks for your quick responses and help! I’m out of town this weekend so may not get to it until Sunday, will post then with hopefully victorius results! :wink:

#14

I have found if you use nero drivespeed to limit the speed of the drives reading to 40x no errors will appear for some reason try that on your cdwriter see if errors dissappear?

#15

Tried setting the read speed to 40x, didn’t change anything. Actually, when I’m scanning one of these “bad” discs the writer never gets over 8x!!

But, I have some good news. Burned Office at 24x on-the-fly to a Maxell 40x CD-R and… drum roll please… error free! :cool: This was in regular DAO mode. I guess I’ll use the Verbatims for multisession and get something else for direct copies.

Now, does anyone have some info regarding SS06, SS08, and SS09 firmware for this drive? Should I bother flashing?

Did a little search, but too lazy right now to dig around. :bigsmile:

#16

I don’t think those older Verbatim metal azo discs were very good for high-speed writing, this is why they’ve changed the dye formulation on their current DataLifePlus discs.