Please Help, wasting discs! -- From Awesome - To Fickle - To Awful!

[DIRTYHARRY77]

When I first stated backing up my library I was batting 1.000. Every disc worked and was in great condition. Then, every so often, I would end up with an unplayable disc. No worries, the next one usually was flawless.
Now I can't burn a workable disc to save my soul !!!
None work, not even in the particular computer it was made in, not even when I let Nero make it for me. I have never changed how I make them, yet I have this new problem.
Please help!! I burned over 20 discs - which are now garbage -before I realized something had gone wrong.

I have always used the following:
-Mad Dog, dual layer, external dvd-/+Rw Drive (5 months old)
-Sony, dual layer, internal dvd-/+Rw Drive (2 months old)
-DVD Shrink 3.2 (started with 3.1)
-Nero 6 suite
-I use 2 PCs: A Brand new Dell Dimension Desktop and an HP Pavilion Laptop. Both with lots of memory, RAM, and 2.8GB P4 processors
-Recently installed Service Pack 2 in both (heard it has caused problems)
-Media: Great Quality Brand DVD-R 1x-4x 4.7GB

Thanks A Lot

[skyspirit]

but what is the problem? you get an error in the burning process? computer freeze?

have you tried to update your firmware?

give more details..

[Mig$y]

Post your error log from Nero too, that may shed some light on the situation.

[DIRTYHARRY77]

The disc wont play in regular dvd players and is not recognized in PCs. All both do is spin the disc, freezing player programs (until ejected) and just not playing in regular players. Sometimes the TV dvd players say "playback feature not available on the this disc - please eject" (on some models), but otherwise there is no error messages to speak of.
I think my firmware is up to date but I'll check that and see if that's the problem.

[setarip]

Now that you have ServicePack 2 installed, try UNinstalling both DVD Shrink and NERO - and then FIRST REinstalling NERO and THEN REinstalling DVD Shrink...

[DIRTYHARRY77]

Ill give that a shot

[DIRTYHARRY77]

OK
I upadated my firmware and reinstalled and updated Nero and DVD shrink 3.2. The first burn on my PC was perfect (haven't tried my laptop yet). But my success rate for all subsequent burns has been very inconsistant (4 out of 10). I tried writing at differentr speeds but got the same result.
I'm definatly making progess but it's still too "miss and hit."
Any other suggestions?

[Mig$y]

Originally posted by DIRTYHARRY77

Any other suggestions?

Get rid of the GQ media and invest in some Ritek

[setarip]

"-Mad Dog, dual layer, external dvd-/+Rw Drive (5 months old)
-Sony, dual layer, internal dvd-/+Rw Drive (2 months old)"

Which one is creating the bad burns?

[DIRTYHARRY77]

Originally posted by setarip
Which one is creating the bad burns?

They both do. Nero says that the burn is successful, but most don't work.
Both the Sony and MD are 8x (I forgot to mention that before), but like I said, Ive tried other speeds.


From Mig$y "Get rid of the GQ media and invest in some Ritek"

I'll do that. I'm losing more $$ than I'm saving with these cheapoes.
It's frustrating though, they used to work great.



I appreciate everyone's help so far !

[setarip]

If you're getting the same results from both burners, then chances are exceedingly good that the problem is in the (poor) quality of the media...

[BB_Mike]

How could a windows update cause poor DVD burning?

I am in the same boat as dirty harry. I once ws doing things with no problems. Now, all of a sudden, I can't get one to work.

Maybe I need to build a stand along PC for DVD-shrinking, and seperate it from the rest of the world.

[charlypuss]

Hi guys,

XP SP2 Bad news. Really screwed my machine up. Unloaded the lot and went back to XP Pro SP1 (not easy) now all hunky dory.. Careful with laptops I use one all the time. If you are going to burn with it make sure the all of the power options are set to always on and no screen savers.

[DIRTYHARRY77]

Originally posted by BB_Mike
Maybe I need to build a stand along PC for DVD-shrinking, and seperate it from the rest of the world.

If you do be careful you don't buy XP with SP2. Alot of versions come with it now.
If new media doesn't solve my problem Im going to roll it back completely if I can.