problems with compaq's cd-rw

[falcor]

okay, i feel like a frigging turd asking this, but, i recently bought a pack of compaq cd-rw to use for my test rips. no program i have (cdrwin, nero, win xp's built in burning software, fire burner) none of them caqn write to these friggin things. the error i usually get involves closing the disc, or lead-out track. am i missing something? i have burned like over a hundred cds on cd-r's, and this is the first time i used a cd-rw (cuts down on coasters:D ) anyway, i was wondering, is it me, the media, the hardware? or am i just missing a parameter that pertains to rw? thanks, falcor

[markrb]

I have never needed to set anything special to burn on a CDRW. Usually the software will read the disc and find out it's a CDRW and then set the appropriate speed for writting it.

I have used EZ CD Creator, Nero, CDRWIN, VCDEasy and fireburner with CDRW's all with no issues or special settings with several drives.

Have you checked to see if Compaq has an updated firmware for the drive?

Have you tried slowing the burn down?

Mark

[falcor]

sorry, i guess i wasnt clear. the drive itself is not compaq, just the media. the drive is a lite-on 8x4x32 with which i have never had a problem writing cd-r's, now, i cant write a cd-rw. i really want to be able to test out my test encodes before making frisbees ya know?;)

[jggimi]

1) Have you checked your burn speed? a 4x cd-rw should be burned at 4x.

2) Do Nero, cdrwin, etc. see the discs as cd-rw's? If not, you've got a driver issue of some kind.

[smiller667]

Everything relevant has been said - just a tiny suggestion: if the errors just happen during the leadout phase, the cd-rw might still work in a standalone - quite a few players will happily play such broken discs as they don't require a proper leadout.
Also, do you try to "fill" your CD-RW completely? Your CD-RWs might have a smaller margin of safety regarding the maximum recording time compared to your average CD-R. Try reducing the image size by a few megs and see if it works.

[falcor]

@jggimi yeah, "everyone" sees the discs as cd-rw's. i am at 4 speed, thats the speed i burn everything at, well, almost everything

@smiller667, i didnt try to fill the discs at all, in fact, i started out trying to burn a 10 meg test rip, then, when i saw that it wasnt working, i tried just this little rinky text doc of about oh, i dunno, 17k and nothing. as far as the discs working without a lead out, there is nothing on them at all. i mean when i search their contents in explorer, theyre blank. and when i insert them in win xp, the auto insert feature asks me if i want to open the writeable folder (xp detects media and responds appropriately;,,,sorry if you knew that). so as far as the sys is concerned, they are blank media.

anyway, now i have a different problem, i tried to flash the firmware on my lite-on cd-rom drive and now it wont acess. when i tried to flash it back, i get an error: status port is 0xffff, then something about atapi soft reset. i dunno, maybe its time for a new drive? well, thanks for letting me ramble, boy, i DO go on dont I?

:D