A BURNING question from a newbie

[fields]

I have an older computer at home, that I got from, and used previously at work.

Don't laugh !!

Pentium 133
Twin 2gb hard drives
128mb Ram
4X Mitsumi FX3400S!B cd-rom drive
4X CD-R/RW RW7040S burner

I can hear you snickering !!

Even though it is slow, I can burn with it, but when I get into the larger files, or trying to copy my Win98 SE cd, to have for backup, I get "read" or "write" errors.

My question is, would a faster cd-rom drive help to get a 100% successful
burn, or is it a matter of the speed of the machine.

I am on a limited income, so spending a lot of money on a new computer, is out of the question.

If it is the speed of the machine, is there anything I can do to help achieve
a more successful burn rate ?


Any help would be appreciated,


fields.

 

[zver]

First,that burner is old,but if its still funktining its a good drive,,,Its a ricoh and they usually made good drives...You can find a hacked firmware for 6x speed-which will convert it in 7060..When you used-burn it--dont do nothing else on pc in same time couse you dont have an buffer underrun protection,but i did burn at 6 speed without problems,so as long you dont do nothing during burning you should be fine....Couse you got a old pc with old o/s,i would recomend last nero5(5048),couse my 7060 was working as a dream with that and last 4 version and didnt work at all with most 5.5 versions???Guess nero5.5 was really buggy??..,couse i dont think you can run a newer software with that...--actually;i dont know?
Still,you can check bao(search here for link)and see can it work--might(could)be lucky ..Also,for audio(if you want good quality rip) check eac couse i remember that its got more then excelent c2 correction for scratched cds ,if you dont mind average things,you can use nero couse its-was a excelent allinone solution.
Good luck with it!!
You can always lower burning speed if it makes coasters,but be sure before that everything is ok,like defragged drive,enough empty space,no burning on fly is a must for burners with a no underrun protection,also for overburn dont go faster then1-2x,couse i always had coasters on 4x when overburning with that ricoh.

 

[scarecrow]

I've burned a lot of stuff at 12X without errors on a Pentium 166MMX with a whopping 32MB of RAM/ Win98SE (now I can hear YOU snickering...), but that was on a Plexwriter 12/10/32S SCSI drive. Atapi w/o burnproof is a totally different story on those old machines, you can just cross fingers and chant sententias...
More than that, current media don't do a favour in such old drives- most are almost incompatible.

 

[LTR12101B]

I hope you're not trying to copy "on the fly" without a complete read buffer to HD!

On the fly copying is risky at best, and with no underrun proofing and a slow source, it's a lot worse.

You did say large files (from HD?) have a similar problem.

The writer is SCSI - so what SCSI card is it on - an ISA SCSI card would have much higher overhead than a PCI, and secondhand Adaptec 2940 cards can be found at a reasonable price (complete overkill, but I run my SCSI Scanner on one, a 2940U/UW version - great card, but the 2940 CAN be a little fragile, dead for no reason)

 

[fields]

Burning question

zver/scarecrow/LTR12101B :

Thank you for the replies, and I apologize for the delay in answering.

You get old........you get slow.

I appreciate the answers, and the suggestions.

The SCSI card, is a Adaptec-AHA-1542CF/1540CF ISA card.

On smaller burns, I have been ok at 4X, but on the larger ones, I drop down to 2X or even 1X, and after the first couple of coasters, I copy the files to my hard drive, and then from there to the burner.

I always use Ctrl-Alt-Del to shut down everything before trying a burn

The software is: Nero 5.5.10.28

I will check into the firmware upgrade to 7060, and Nero 5.5048 and then go from there.

I don't download music, or very many games, as I'm not into that.

Again, thanks for the information.

fields

 

[LTR12101B]

If you only get the problem when using the CD-ROM as source (and not with files on the HD), then the problem is that a 4x CD-ROM does not have ANY extra leeway to feed a writer at 4x - any delays cannot be made up, so the intial buffer load will slowly empty - is THAT what you see before it fails?

The ISA SCSI is probably no better, maybe worse, than an ATAPI writer, though 4x should be well within its limits.

But where do you go, you don't want to spend too much on it.

If you can get good 4x burns from HD, then tinkering with Nero's cache options might help, or keep watch for another upgrade in HD cacpacity (people seem to want silly money for any working HD over 1Gb though).

A faster CD-ROM might allow you to get away with direct from CD-ROM transfer.

As for forcing it to 6x with firmware.
1. I wouldn't bother, unless you can get 4x stable (although modern media may be happier at 6x than 4x)
2. With the right tools, you can force-load without hacking the firmware.
http://www.cdmediaworld.com/hardware/cdrom/cd_modifications_ricoh_7060.shtml
- oops, the non-hack method is only possible on IDE versions

 

[fields]

Burning question

LTR12101B :

Yes, the buffer load slowly running out, is what I see.

I guess that for now, I will have to keep my eye peeled for a faster cd-rom drive, and at the same time, check with other seniors in the area, to see if they have any surplus parts, to try to locate a pci card for this burner.

I sure appreciate the help, and information, and once I can get this unit performing properly, I'll let you know.

Ah the good old days......stone....chisel.....mallet.


Have a great day,

dustie

 

[LTR12101B]

If it works ok from the HD, then the best answer is to keep a full CD size of free space available, and either pre-assemble any burn on the HD, or use stronger caching in Nero.

I'm looking at V6 now, but the options are giong to be similar in V5.

In "Compilation Properties", under MISC, you can set to cache files / cache files smaller than X (tinker with those).

In Preferences, CACHE, you can choose to cache files dropped from CD-ROM

In the CD Copy task, you can turn off "on the fly" - but you MUST have space to buffer the entire source CD to hard disk.


You could, of course, consider running an extra SCSI hard disk - middle sized secondhand SCSI drives tend to be cheaper than IDE, as they aren't that popular. Have you had a rummage round EBAY? - though watch out for some "bargains" with completely insane post & packing - seem to be some reasonable bargains on sub-10Gb IDE drives.

If the problem is "on the fly", the best answer is enough disk space not to need it.

 

[fields]

Burning question

LTR12101B:

Once again thanks for the advice.

I'll try to follow it, and once I get it going properly, I'll let you know, or I just may have to come running back for help.

Either way, the help is greatly appreciated.

fields

 

[fields]

Burning question / LTR12101B

LTR12101B:

I said that I would get back to you and let you know how I was doing. Just sorry it took so long.

Ill for a while, H.A., but on the mend now, and as luck would have it, I managed to get hold of some better (for me) equipment. Nothing fancy, but it works, and with no problems so far.

Pentium II 299MMX
52X cd-rom
16X Burner
30gb Hard drive

I've copied a number of complete cd's, and made others for back up etc., and so far, not one coaster.

I've followed your advice from previous posts, and again I thank you.

fields

 

[LTR12101B]

Pentium II 299MMX - that's wierd - is that a mistype of a 266, or a 300 being reported as a 299 ?

Anyway, a P-II should drive a 16x burner ok, so long as you're not expecting it to convert MP3 to audio on the fly at that speed - My old Cyrix P150+ couldn't handle any more than 1x with those demands, and the upgrade to P200 MMX took it up to the 2x that my drive could do.

 

[fields]

Burning question from a newbie

It's actually a 300 being reported as a 299 .

I actually copied my Windows 98 SE cd set for 16x, used Task Mgr. to close anything running, and it went through without a hitch.

I used a cd-rw just in case I screwed up, but it did it ok.

I copied it again, on a cdr, but only at 8x, and it went perfectly.

I can't explain it, but everything seems to being going great, so I'm not complaining.

I sure appreciate the past help, and if I'm stuck in the future, I Know where to head.

This forum is great.

fields

 

[serjer]

glad 2 hear everything is now ok btw did u overclocked ur cpu?b4 i was burning @ 8x on my old celeron 266

 

[fields]

Burning question from a newbie

serjer:

No, I haven't overclocked it.

To be honest, I don't know how to do it, and as I learned long ago, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

At my age, I'm in no hurry, just would like to have things run smoothly.

The help provided in this forum has been great, and with this machine running well, I have no complaints at all.

fields