Can't burn > 100M on pocket CD-R

T

themushroom

1
Here's what's happening: When trying to burn data to a 185 meg pocket CD-R using Nero, I can get the disk to finish if it's less than 110 megs -- but more data than that, Nero stops buffering files after the second or third, the burn buffer locks at 76%, the timer keeps rolling and the burn light is on, the completion status doesn't change (4% to 6%), and either Nero will give up after awhile citing various drive errors or not give up at all and I have to hardboot to stop the drive, but nothing will have actually been burned to disk (I'd be out of CD's if they *did* write that 4%!). :confused: Anyone know why this is happening and how to take advantage of the full capacity of the disk? No, I haven't tried making disks with other programs yet, sorry.<br><br>
The drive is a Phillips 8x4x32, Nero version 5.5.6.4, the 3" pocket CD-R's are Memorex. TIA
 
B

boingo

1
That sounds real similar to a problem I've been having burning 80min audio CDs with nero.

On odd occassions it just seems to get stuck at a percent and will not return an error...will just sit there. My cdr will still keep the burning light flashing though...

When I reboot I find that the CD is completely empty...

Never seem to have had this prob if I'm burning less that 74 mins of audio....I originally thought it was bad media, but can use the CD again with no problems...

It looks like its doing a simulation write to me....maybe a program bug?

b0b
 
T

themushroom

1
finally... something

Thanks for your input, Boingo. :cool: I haven't had that problem with 5" disks of any capacity, in fact on a couple occasions where I couldn't get >105M to burn to a 3" media and Nero had reported errors (that Nero's FAQ said meant there was a problem with the drive, or possibly the media -- if the error was mentioned at all), on those occasions it kindly stopped and reported errors, I stuck a regular-sized disk in and it burned fine (thus the drive isn't broken, or totally). Any time I've had problems burning up to 700 megs to a disk it was a buffer underrun due to me setting the speed too high for the CPU/HD-read to handle. :rolleyes:

As said earlier, I haven't tried any other programs yet to burn a 3" disk, but a majority of the wares I've seen don't have a specific mention/setting for pocket CD-R/W disks (they do ask if it's a 72 min or an 80 min though). Nero's media check function does recognise the disk as 186 megs. I could always try Roxio 5 Pt for comparison's sake but I'm curious if this is a software limitation/error or a hardware limitation/error... the manual doesn't say anything about media size.

A coworker said it could be how much of a buffer I'm using (the computer has 40M RAM, Nero is set to Automatic) but this doesn't make sense to me... it should buffer the same amount of data regardless of what size media it's writing to. Next computer will have >128M RAM so it could potentially buffer an entire 3" disk but that's ... last year's New Years resolution. :p

Anyone else have ideas about this? Only thing I can come up with is, if there's any validity to what one error message said and a friend's experience with a SmartAndFriendly 4x CDR years ago, that the light blue Maxell media isn't well liked by the drive. (I think I've made more coasters out of light blue than dark blue when it comes to 5" disks...)
 
Strahlen

Strahlen

1
Nero small disc probs

Good good, having the same problems with card CDR's, Nero will not finish burning, even if the cdr isn't packed to the edge, and with the small amount of space that is available, that's usually what I want to do, pack it to the edge..

Using a Plex 12/10/32A

Windows 98se

Gonna use CDRWin from now on, more manual, but once you get used to the hand tweaking, damn sight more stable..

>>X<<
 
T

themushroom

1
How much data on that card-CDR?

Okay, question Strahlin (because I had my bro-in-law buy a Phillips 12x8x32 CDRW specifically for the purpose of making business card CD's).... How much data can you get on a card CD without it locking on you? Those disks are only like 50M. Granted, bro-in-law only needs to fill 18M so I wouldn't want him to get some nasty surprise. BTW I too prefer to fill a disk, whatever the size. :D
 
Strahlen

Strahlen

1
themushroom, around 48MB, Nero kept going though, not finishing the lead out.. I could still use the CDR mind you, after ejecting the media with a reset, was low priority, for bringing software that I frequently use to my local cyber cafe, but not something I'd put up with for sending stuff to someone else..

As I said earlier, I stick to CDRWin now, will post a link to a zip for you in a few minutes, zipped, with ' safe ' serial (proggy has devious protection, timed etc... ) more tuned for the manual tweaker, but once mastered, you get the comforting feeling that things are running the way *you* want 'em to run..

>>X<<
 
T

themushroom

1
CDRWin and shortcomings

Heh, thanks for the info... 48 out of 50 is kinda silly but if it's still useable then that's okay. As long as it's not 20 out of 50, ya know. ;) And thanks for the links to CDRWin, however I really really don't like that program, it was the second one I ever tried (after the Adeptec 4 that came with the drive) and yech... May try Roxio 5 Pt sometime soon.<br><br>
No new theories as to why I can't get >105M onto a pocket CD-R? You'd think Nero 5.5 wouldn't have a prob...
 
T

themushroom

1
Followup (still bad)

I haven't tried the other flexible burnwares (CDRWin, NTI, Roxio 5, Adaptec 4, etc) yet -- but decided to see if I could burn a music disk with MP3 CD Burn 1.13 ... chose 19.5 minutes of music on a 21 minute medium, set it to cut to disk, and it just flashed the burn light on the drive but stayed at 0% done. Eventually hit the Abort button, it gave up (unlike Nero), got a BSOD, reboot, and the disk hadn't been altered at all. Am closer to concluding it's something about the Phillips 8x4x32, need to check their site for info. :)
 
T

themushroom

1
You might be right

I think you might be right there, Road; will confirm this with Phillips before giving up hope at filling a 3" disk. (And I tried making a music disk with Prassio 1.3, it too flashed the burn light but didn't burn anything.)
 
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