PC Problems? I am a PC TECH.

[johndowe]

Hi there.

A bit of help on burning CD & DVD's.


If you have burned CD and DVD you probably have made at least a few bad copies, and i don't mean copy protected software, but data disks from files on your CPU, why does this happen?

Well, that question is not that easy to ansewer as one may think, computers are the most complex pieces of equipment ever crerated by man.

First: The burner, some burners are more selective about the discs they "like" or "dis-like" one disc brand may work great for your drive but not on your freind's drive, it is not a quality problem as much as a compatibility problem, but i have found that "MAXELL" and "MEMOREX" discs usually work with most drives, but for music cd's for your car cd player, MEMOREX do not perform so well, so if you have a brand that performs well for you and your drive stick with it, if not try other brands until you find one you make the least amount of bad copies.

Second: The speed of the drive and the disk can influence the outcome of the burning session, if your drive is 12X and the disk is 16X you should not burn any faster than 12X, the best speed would be about 10X, to make sure your drive's hardware can do the job properly.

Third: The cpu system, if you have an older cpu with a new DVD drive you probably won't be able to make a good copy at maximum disk/drive speed, you will have to slow down a bit.

Fourth: What are you doing? With the computer when you are burning discs? The right ansewer should be nothing else than the burning software, within reason of course, why? Because the disc writing process is very time critical and if the cpu is buzy with another program while the burning process needs the cpu's attention but doesn't get it, you will have a bad copy.

Fifth: Make sure your disks are clean and free of contaminants aspecilaly the source disc.


PS Some burners are more compatible than others, i haven't even come close to testing them all i only tested 3 brands and i like LG's the best for DVD's they take any brand of CD and DVD's, but their CD drives suck, go figure.

JohnDowe.