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Hey all. Trying to burn an MP3 disc for my wife. Didn't work out so well. Went through 3 discs and every time the burner software spits it out, saying the disc is damaged. Tried a 4th one in "normal" non MP3 format, and that one got spat out too.
As far as I know, it's a HP burner. I've tried with HP Record and Music Match, both of them won't burn nothing. I'm using Memorex CD-R. But, I'm suspecting it's the burner itself, as we've always had trouble with the thing.
Is there a way I can check the burner, or clean it, or something short of replacing it?
If I do have to replace it, will a DVD drive also burn CD's?
It doesn't matter if it's audio or data CD it should burn to either. Does it read data CD's ? does it read and play prerecorded music CD's ? Have you tried playing any CD with mp3's already on it ? if yes, then It sounds like the firmware drivers are not installed or corrupted which will not allow it to be seen as a burner by windows but just as a standerd CD drive. If you want to check to see if your firmware drivers are installed go to nero's site and download their CD Info Tool program. It will tell you all about your drive. If all else is ok, then the drive might be bad.
I don't do much in the way of actually playing cd's on my computer. In fact, I haven't loaded much into it. The last thing I loaded was some Canon photo printer software. My wife and sister in law use Printmaster a lot. And our wedding pictures are on cd.
For all I know, it could be just the music that it's having a problem with. I've made some picture cd's with no problem in the past, but I haven't tried lately. The last time I burned pictures was probably last year some time, before we got our picture printer. The last time I attempted a music cd was about a year and a half.
I'll try a picture cd in the morning and let you know how it goes.
Also, is there a way to clear a CD-R, even though there's nothing on it? If I try to read the 4 cd's, it's unreadable (ie blank) but they won't take any more data.
I bought a box of blank cd's once and tried four of them and they were all bad, never had a problem before that, took the discs back and exchanged them for another brand and all was good.
I've also had problems with HP burners. Is it a 2x4x8 by any chance? They were notorious for having bad springs in the lens focusing mechanism. I believe there was a class action suit over it.
Another unit that was in a very dusty area had the lens fouled up by dust. Quite a job to clean the lens by taking the drive apart and cleaning it with a q-tip. Not a job for the faint of heart.
DVD burners are pretty cheap. You should be able to get one for under a hundred bucks CDN. I'd recommend an LG unit.
Well, I tried making a picture CD. That one got spat out too. I wish I could remember where I got these blanks. We only got them a couple months ago. So from a 10 pack, 5 are now no good.
Is there a way to clean the lens without totally taking the drive apart?
I had several HP writers....the only one I was happy with, and the only one I still have, was the first one, a 4/4/24 actually made by (I think) Teac. The others all went bye-bye as quickly as I could replace them. I think the worst one was the last one, supposed to be a 24/10/40 but couldn't run more than 10-12X or it made coasters.
For the amount of trouble...I'd get a new writer. I use Sony cd and dvd-writers, have had no trouble with any of them. Sony DVDRW is $60 US....$80-90 CD?
i can't write music sucessfully to data cd's, and my burners work great. there are lens cleaners available, dry and wet. any store that sells music or computer gear will have them.
I can't understand that one. I have a couple of hundred mp3's on data CompUSA CD-R's and CD-RW's. It's possible that the disks are bad, but five out of a ten box is unusual. He could try a different brand and if the problem still persists then I'd look at the drivers. CD cleaner disks only have little brushes on them to sweep off the lens. If the lens is dirtier then that, then the drive has to be opened, and like furball sez, it's not a job for a novice to do. Usually if the lens is clean enough to read the disks, it should clean enough to write to them. bigrig, if you know what brand and model # that burner is, go to their website and download the drivers for it and reinstall them. Then see if it starts working again.
will the data cd's not take music for play in regular cd players? i have to use audio cd's to write music to. regular ones sre a lot cheaper, sure would be nice to cut costs somewhere.