problems with DVD/CDRW drive

nope... I don't believe they have firmware updates on their website for any of their products (although I have seen one listed on the web for the SBW 241). What else could be the problem?

Buffer underrun is the inability of the laptop to provide enough data to the drive while it is burning.  Is this drive connected via USB?  Is this USB 1.1 or 2.0?  At 12Mbits/sec, it will not be able to keep up - you really need USB 2.0.

I know for a fact that the inspiron 2500 is usb 1.1 unless you are using an offboard pcmcia usb 2.0 add-on card.

Is this an internal burner or an external burner hooked up with usb?

it is an internal burner that is inside the computer (I pulled out my old cd-rom drive that came with dell and placed it in that slot).

I'm assuming it is installed correctly inside the slot since the computer sees it ok and reads from it with no problem.

could this be a memory issue? I know the hard drive space is not a problem (~ 40GB free space).

Check if DMA is enabled on this drive.  You may need to reinstall the IDE drivers for your laptop (not a big deal).

>>Check if DMA is enabled on this drive.<<

I checked under the Device Manager tab and didn't see any DMA options for this particular drive (could they be somewhere else?). I did see them for my hard drive though and they were enabled.

See if it is enabled in the BIOS, and enable it if it isn't.

I'll check as soon as I get home. thanks

There is no setting for DMA in its BIOS. According to the manufacturer's website DMA is supported but there is no mention of how to enable it.

I also tried increasing virtual memory from 300(initial)-700(max) to 2GB - 3GB just in case it was using virtual memory and was running out. it did seem to let it get a little further in the burn (locked up when it was closing the session), but that is the furthest I could get and that was only once (the next time it locked up on 70% again). It seems sporadic at times, but I did notice that a lot of times it fails between 60-70% if that helps.

guid

Try a different burning program.  Alcohol 120% http://www.alcohol-soft.com/

One more thing I just noticed... I decided to try to burn the disc differently so I created an ISO image of the data I was burning. I then went to burn the ISO image and it appeared to work fine (burned the disc and reported success). However, when I went to read the disc it was corrupted. At first I thought I had a work-around for the problem. :(

I'll give that software a shot next. thanks

guid

ok, I tried Alcohol120 and this is the error log (it failed also):

###################### Source Disc/Image Information ######################
#############################################################################

####################### Dumping/Recording Progress Log #######################
06:35:07 Processor info: Pentium III (0.18 um) With 256 KB On-Die L2 Cache  (897MHz)
06:35:07 Memory Available to Windows: 260,080 KB
06:35:07 Not enough Memory! Adjust memory buffer size to 74 MB.
06:35:07 Image file loading: C:\Documents and Settings\wguidry\Local Settings\Temp\VSNet.mds
06:35:07 Source Info:  Session: 1, Track: 1, Length: 552.3 MB / 062:50:22
06:35:32 (D:) QSI CDRW/DVD SBW242B(1:0): Recording Method/Speed
06:35:32 Recording - DAO / SAO - 24X (3600 KB/Sec)
06:35:33 (D:) QSI CDRW/DVD SBW242B(1:0): BURN-Free activated
06:39:29 (D:) QSI CDRW/DVD SBW242B(1:0) - [Write ERROR], LBA: 124240, Length: 16
    S:KEY - 03/0C/00  - "Write Error"
06:39:30 (D:) QSI CDRW/DVD SBW242B(1:0): Recording failed!
06:39:30 Error message:  [03/0C/00] - Write Error
06:39:30 (D:) QSI CDRW/DVD SBW242B(1:0): Recording failed!
06:39:32 Image file loading aborted!
06:39:42 Something is wrong with the recording procedure!
Please check the log file and report any errors to Technical Support.
##############################################################################

by the way...

one error above states:
>>06:35:07 Not enough Memory! Adjust memory buffer size to 74 MB.<<

I did check the memory buffer size of Alcohol120% and it has been set at 102 by default, therefore that is not the issue. Not sure why it would still be giving that memory error though.

I think it's referring to your hard disk - how much free space do you have?  Most burning programs want as much space as the CD in order to create a temporary image.

I have approximately 40GB free space on the hard disk.

I talked to one of my friends at work and they are going to bring their laptop tomorrow and let me put the drive in their computer and attempt to burn a disc. That way I will know at least if it is something with the drive or something with my laptop. Their laptop is a lot newer/faster than mine so maybe I can at least rule something out.

My only other concern is possibly that I'm not using the right media now. Most of the cd's I have left for testing are 1-52x speed and (unless I'm mistaken) you can't use disc that have a burn speed faster than your drive (is that correct?). If so, I need to go and buy some more 1-16x disc of different brands to be sure it isn't just being as picky as I've heard. Here is one article I found on the SBW241 drive that makes me wonder if it is the same issues with my SBW242B  and hence a media problem...

http://club.cdfreaks.com/lite/t-72133.html

about the fourth post down daEngineer says:

<begin quote>
The reason why many people are having problems with this burner is do to the fact that they are using the wrong CDs. QSI, which is a sub-company developped by Lucent Technologies, created combo drives that worked with only certain cd-r discs. The reason for the lack of compatibility is due primarily to the economy and business politics. QSI did not purchase the licence to conform compatibility with most cd-r discs. Even though they do not have the license, they do have the compatibility with all cd-rw discs and most DVD-R discs. Below are the discs that work and the discs that do not work, or have problems reading when using the QSI SBW-241 drive. Certain discs from certain manufacturers work better than others. Some work so well that they allow the drive to write at its MAX speed of 24x.

Working CDs and DVDs (Excellent Quality and Speed usage):

1. Verbatim Data Life Plus (AZO and Super AZO brand CD-R)
2. All Sony Brand CD-R
3. HP CD-R
4. Ricoh Platinum CD-R
5. All Kodak CD-R
6. FujiFilm CD-R
7. Toshiba CD-R
8. All CD-RW discs
9. All DVD-R discs
10. All DVD-RW discs

Does NOT WORK!!!! (Burn problems and read problems):

1. Maxell CD-R
2. Memorex CD-R
3. SmartBuy CD-R
4. Plextor CD-R
5. Minor Name CD-R
6. No Name CD-R
7. All DVD+-R dics
8. All DVD-RAM discs

If a certain brand or type of disc is not listed above, then it has not been tested on this drive. You may wish to test it yourself or use one of those discs listed in the Working CDs and DVDs section mentioned. For optimal performance including the usage of the full 24x speed of this drive use: Verbatim Super AZO CD-R
or Sony Brand discs or any CD-RW disc.

<end quote>

In my case though I've tried CD-RW unsuccessfully but I'll try one more today just to make sure nothing has changed.

the other problem is trying to find places to buy old disc that only burn from 1x-16x as it seems most companies now all sell 1x-52x. :(

It worked ok on my co-workers laptop. This is getting difficult now. I'm going to try her cd-writer on my laptop tonight (since we know it works on hers and never gave her probems) just to say for sure if it is a problem with my laptop. Could it be some hardware is not compliant with cd-burners on an Inspiron 2500? I haven't seen any notice of anyone using one for that model of Dell.

Strange enough hers worked great on my computer burning at 24x!!! Hers is a Matshita UJDA740 DVD/CDRW. Why would hers work on my computer or her computer, but mine only works on her computer. I have already tried reformatting windows and reloading all the ECDC software and that didn't seem to help. It seems as if my computer isn't compatible with my QSI drive, however I have not heard of that happening before. I am going to do a comparison of her computer with mine tomorrow after work to see if we are using the same drivers/software versions, etc... Any insight, please let me know. This is getting way too strange for me... thanks

guid

>> bad mojo!<<

hehe, I have the same feeling... Well, I did a side by side comparison with my friends laptop (a Sony Vaio slightly newer than mine) and she had a few drivers that were a little later than mine (IDE controller drivers) so I got on the internet and found the drivers I needed to update everything to the latest versions (IDE/Atapi controllers,motherboard controllers, etc...).

Now the only difference between our laptops (I can see directly) is that hers is using Ultra DMA Mode 5 and mine is using Ultra DMA Mode 4 (it doesn't appear that I can go to Mode 5). I'm not sure if that matters or not. Any idea if that would be the problem?

Also, I flashed my BIOS to the latest version by Dell (just in case something strange was going on in BIOS). I have just put the drive back in and it still won't burn. I'm going to try the built-in Windows burning ability to burn this time just to see what happens. I'm starting to suspect Roxio has problems with this drive... guess there is only one way to find out now. If this doesn't work, I'll just keep looking for other updates. thanks everyone for trying. I'll keep you posted on my status.

Now would you believe it burned fine using the Windows Built-in burning software?!?!?! This is unbelievable. I know I tried it before and it failed last time. I guess maybe one of the updates I installed fixed it, but this particular drive does not seem to work in ECDC 6 for some reason. My friend uses a program called Sonic Stage (or something like that) and it worked on hers. Not sure what to do now... I'm going to keep testing to see if I can figure out how to get this to work in ECDC 6.

quick update:

It seems I possibly have narrowed down the problem a little further (I think...). It appears to be a heating issue with the drive... If I let the drive sit with no use for about 30 minutes and burn a cd about 6/8 times it burns fine. However, if I burn a cd (or read a really big cd) and then try to burn it fails pretty much every time. I noticed when the drive cools off it seems to work again. Not sure if this means there is a problem with the drive or if my computer cannot handle the drive and causing it to overheat. I'm assuming it is a heating issue unless there is some type of buffer or something that waits before it empties or something. I'm really starting to believe this is a 'moody' drive as someone on the internet has already said.

I'm really starting to think about considering this drive as good as dead and just buy another one that won't give me these issues. If I do go that route, any recommendations on better laptop cdrw/dvd rom drives? I can open a new question if you prefer me to ask that as a separate question. thanks for the help. I'll keep playing some more for now.

guid

p.s. thanks for the link Callandor.

I'm going to split points as follows for your help:
Callandor 350 pts
bobo_tech 150 pts