Problem with Verbatim 4X DVD+RW

CD, DVD and (Ultra HD) Blu-ray Writers Plextor Writer
#1

I bought five of these disks and burnt them at 4X without any problems in my Plextor 708A. Then when I tried to burn them again I got intermittent Power Calibration errors. If I tried again with the same disk it would burn okay. However, I then had a Power Calibration error every time I tried to burn and the only way I could get it to work was to drop down to 2.4X.

These disks are DataLifePlus and the 2.4 speed version is recommended by Plextor. Do I have a bad batch and will these disks still be reliable at 2.4 speed? Otherwise what is a good alternative that I can get here in the UK?

Thanks

Teresa

#2

I have now bought some Ricoh DVD+RW 4X and so far I have had no problems burning to them at 4X. Either I had a bad batch of Verbatims or the 708 firmware doesn’t pick them up correctly. Plextor’s media list only includes the 2.4X Verbatim +RW as recommended, so perhaps the 4X is not compatable.

Teresa

#3

You were already using the latest firmware right? I think that you’re probably right when you say that the media is not fully supported yet, especially since the Ricoh 4x DVD+RW media does work ok. I think the only option you have left is to tell Plextor about your problem so that they can hopefully add support for this media in a future firmware release. Thanks for letting us know your experiences!

#4

Unfortunately I spoke too soon. I burned a Ricoh that I had used successfully a few times and my PC had trouble reading it. I tried to burn it again and had a power calibration error. I then dropped the speed to 2.4 and it burned fine. I ran Nero CD DVD Speed on it and got a nice curve with no kinks.

I’m using the latest firmware, 1.03, and Nero 6.0.0.23. My PC is a reasonably fast 2.8GHz P4 with 1 GB ram. I have the latest motherboard BIOS (Asus P4P800 Deluxe) and pretty much the latest drivers. My Plextor is a master with no slave and is at DMA 2.

I’m getting a bit cheesed off with this as I’ve paid for 4X disks, but can only use them as 2.4.

I’ve just put a brand new Ricoh disk in and it’s burning at 4X quite happily. I’ll have to experiment a bit more and then contact Plextor. Is it possible that my drive is faulty?

Thanks

Teresa