Unable to write to CDs or DVDs with combo drive

[Jane]

I have a Sony Vaio PC with a combo CD-RW/DVD-RW drive. XP
Home OS. The RW drive is Pioneer, model DVR-104. I also
have a separate CD-ROM drive.

I bought this PC in fall of 2002 and have never been
consistently successful in copying files to CD or DVD!

Am novice when it comes to burning CDs or DVDs. All I
want to do is copy documents to a CD or DVD as a backup.
Also, possibly photos, but backing up the documents is
very important.

I have called Sony about this drive. Also, Microsoft.
They have me uninstall and reinstall drive. Works
sometime, then quits. Suspect shutting down and booting
messes everything up again. Generally get a message about
the media being too high speed for the drive. Using
Memorex 1X-4X CDs. Originally tried higher speed CDs.
I've reset the write speed for the device under its
properties. This has worked occasionally in the past.
The randomness gets me. I also downloaded a driver update
which made no difference. Found literature that
conflicts. Some places say write speed is 2X, another
place says 4X. Have tried setting write speed to
different values. Still NG.

Have all sorts of writing software (OEM) since this PC was
designed for movie making. Most progs want to write video
stuff. Veritas doesn't like my attempts. I've generally
used Windows, selected "File, Copy, Write these files to
CD" to attempt to write to CD. Have not tried writing to
a DVD since my other PC only has CD drive.

I thought a combo drive might be trouble when I bought the
PC. Have feeling this drive doesn't know if it's CD or
DVD because of wording for the drive in Control Panel and
wording in help.

Any advice is greatly appreciated!

 

[V Green]

Download Nero, there's a fully-functional 30 day
trial.

www.nero.com

Beats the pants off of other software I've had,
and I've had a lot...

 

[Jane]

Thanks so much for quick reply. I'll download Nero and
give it a try. I'll post back to let you know outcome.

 

[Jane]

Hi
I downloaded Nero Burner. Installed well and recognized
my drive as Pioneer DVD DVR-104. However, I wasn't able
to burn a CD or a DVD. I suspect that the default write
speeds are incorrect. Although I have conflicting info,
the latest info re this drive says write speed is 2X. I
was only given choices of 4X or 8X so I chose 4X.

Tried to burn small document file to a 2X DVD and a 1X-4X
CD. Both are RWs. Both are Memorex.

Messages I was given --
Illegal mode for this track.
Could not perform fixation.
Burn Process Failed at 4X(600KB/S)

I like Nero though. It is really easy to use compared to
similar software.

 

[Nathan McNulty]

Two things. First, update the firmware of your drive. The firmware
contains the codes for different media. It may be that the discs you are
using are currently not supported by your drive. Also, the reason a disc
may show up as max burn of 2x even though your drive can handle 4x is
because 2x is the fastest that media is rated to burn at. Check the
link below for the firmware update from Pioneer

http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/hs/pioneer.html

Nathan McNulty

 

[Jane]

Thank you for responding, Nathan. I have installed the
firmware updates more than once over the last 9 or so
months. Just recently did it again when I opened up a
Memorex disk box that actually contained an insert about
my Pioneer DVR-104 drive issues and told me where to go
for the firmware. If this info is in Memorex boxes, this
must be a big problem for any Sony Vaio with a Pioneer
drive like mine. Lucky me.

On the website containing the fix, there was also a
warning about using media with an incorrect speed prior to
installing the firmware. It can damage the drive. I
believe now that this has happened. Fortunately, Sony is
saying they will replace the CD/DVD burner if it has been
damaged by this problem. At the time I bought this PC at
Best Buy, the startup pack came with higher speed RW CDs
and I did try to copy files to them. I have since tried
using 1X-4X CDs. I was rarely successful burning a CD
until I downloaded the firmware several months ago. After
that...NG.

I'll post here to let you know the outcome.

Thanks again,
Jane

 

[Nathan McNulty]

Cool. And if they offer to repair or replace it, take them up on the
offer as long as it doesn't cost you anything. You may get a newer
revision of the drive that has higher quality components or at least the
newer firmware preloaded.

Nathan McNulty