Memorex DVD-RW problems

[tribalfears]

Here's my problem, my burner has stopped burning Video dvd's. It will read them just fine, but won't write to a blank disc. I've tried uninstalling the drive, updating the firmware, and using different apps to burn a video dvd but having no luck. It just crapped out on me...I went to my other computer, tried to do the exact same write process and that burner gives me an error message at the initial write stage...

Are my drives shot? Has it come to that dreaded time to replace them?

 

[Rik]

How many different makes of blank dvd have you tried?

 

[tribalfears]

2 - Sony and GQ (cheaper brand)

 

[SNGX1275]

You said "I went to my other computer, tried to do the exact same write process and that burner gives me an error message at the initial write stage" I take that to mean you physically put the burner in question in another machine? You said "drives" in the last line, so that makes things not clear.

What is/are the error message(s)?

Its highly unlikely 2 different drives died in 2 different computers at the exact same time.

You also said you can't burn "Video DVDs", can you burn data dvds?

Write better discriptions of problems and you'll get better answers.

 

[tribalfears]

I figured out what the problem was with the other system, that burner isn't dual format and I noticed these Sony discs are -r. So that is that problem. As far as this computer, yes I can burn data dvd's...just not video dvd's. I'm wondering if maybe it's a driver...

Copytodvd and Nero both show it as a max 4x drive, it's actually a 16x drive...but I've uninstalled all burning programs and uninstalled the drive, rebooted...same thing...

 

[SNGX1275]

Its just incompatable with those disks then. The data is written no different for a video disk or a data disk, they use the same laser. So your drive is fine. If you fire up Nero without putting a disk in, what does it show your drive speed as? Mine shows 48x cd burning but if I put in a sony CD-R disk it drops to 32.

So you have 2 different burners or 1 burner 2 comps? you still aren't clear on that. Doesn't really matter though because if you can burn data dvds your burner is fine.

 

[tribalfears]

My main computer has a Memorex 16x Dual layer/Dual Format burner. I was trying to use a Sony DVD-R disc to write the information on. When I fire Nero up without blank media, it says max cd speed is 48x.

I have 2 computers, 2 different burners...I wasn't thinking that my other computer uses +R media only...so that was the problem with that computer. But my Memorex should use -R as well shouldn't? Seeing as how it's a Dual Format drive...? I guess I'm just confused as how -R won't work...I've used them before...at least I thought I had.

So I bought some blank +R discs, and Copytodvd is showing a max burn speed of 8x. Before, it was at 16x and these new discs are 16x. Is there a driver problem?

 

[SNGX1275]

Its pretty common that people think CD/DVD drives need seperate drivers or they can be updated to fix problems. That IS NOT the case in Windows. Windows XP (and every one since at least 98) uses a standard generic driver. You'll only get yourself into worse trouble trying to download drivers for a CD/DVD drive.

It sounds like a media issue to me if it will burn some disks but not others. It also doesn't sound like the drive is real healthy if it used to burn the same disks and now it won't. Could be a different production batch of the disks though, and that would explain the behavior if the drive is picky. Your last real option is to check if there is a firmware update to the drive, that may expand the range of brands of disks it can burn.

 

[tribalfears]

Well it is burning some video dvd's now. It will back them up to the hard drive, but when it completes the burn process...it's as if it didn't burn anything. Some movies work, some don't...but the files are getting encoded to the hard drive. I don't get it...