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New CD-Rs record ok, no playback

PostPosted: Tue Oct 11, 2005 9:55 am
by Papa Ray
Hey, New here, excuse if in wrong forum. Actually don't have the first idea how to troubleshoot this more than we have.

Here is the situation.

Have a Plexor Premium drive, almost two years old, Nero 6 ultra 6.3.03 never updated, worked fine right out of the box. The only thing this drive and software is used for/by is to copy music files from hard drive to CD for my Grandson. Actually he is the one that has been doing it for the last two years.

When I first set him up with this, two years ago, I bought two 50 packs of Verbatim CD-R 1x-48x cds. He used them all up a few days ago.

So I go to store to get more for him. They don't have them anymore, guy says they are "old". Sells me two packs of fifty Verbatim CD-R 1X-52X cds.

Grandson does his thing, new CDs won't play in his pickup, won't play in his new stereo system at his house.

He told me he records at "8" or "16" speed for best quality sound.

So. do I have bad cds? (no errors at all on burn operations)
or is the Plexor drive not up to this new cd?
Does something need to be changed in set up in Nero?

Any and all suggestions would be appriciated.

If you need additional info I will try to comply.

Thank You

Papa Ray
West Texas
USA

PostPosted: Tue Oct 11, 2005 12:11 pm
by Justin42
Try burning even slower. I tend to not burn audio CDs over 4x. Car/truck CD players are notorious for being picky. That said, media you bought 2 years ago is probably much better quality than media you buy today, even from the same "brand".

Try to find some Fuji "Made in Japan" CD-Rs, they are getting harder to find but it is possible to do some digging (it should say near the UPC code on the media). Staples and Best Buy are good places to start. Don't buy "Made in Taiwan" media as there are a ton of companies in Taiwan, some decent, some horrible, and the goal right now is to verify the burner is working correctly (which I am 95% certain it is and this is a media problem).

Unfortunately, in the neverending quest for a buck, these companies have to sell media cheaper and cheaper; so they find cheaper and cheaper sources... so even though it's all "Verbatim" brand, it is probably made by some 2nd or 3rd tier media manufacturer in Taiwan with lax quality control (compared to the stuff you used 2 years ago).

Also, try upgrading Nero (it wasn't fully bug free til 6.6, IMHO, and they are up to 6.6.0.16a) and the Plextor Premium's firmware, they actually released an upgrade for it about 5 months ago or so, so that might help.

http://www.plextor.com/english/support/ ... emium.html

PostPosted: Tue Oct 11, 2005 12:15 pm
by hoxlund
our best buy store still has fuji's made in japan

in both 10 packs and 50 spindles

PostPosted: Tue Oct 11, 2005 12:24 pm
by dodecahedron
latest version of Nero Burning ROM is 6.6.0.16 (not 6.6.0.16a).
http://www.nero.com/nero6/en/prog_versions.php

PostPosted: Tue Oct 11, 2005 1:25 pm
by CCampbell
If you have not updated the firmware for the recorder in the past two years, then upgrading the firmware on the drive is also higly recommended.

Best Regards,

Craig

PostPosted: Tue Oct 11, 2005 1:32 pm
by Justin42
dodecahedron wrote:latest version of Nero Burning ROM is 6.6.0.16 (not 6.6.0.16a).
http://www.nero.com/nero6/en/prog_versions.php


Weird, I could've sworn they had a 16a version-- was there a 15a version?

PostPosted: Tue Oct 11, 2005 2:02 pm
by dodecahedron
Justin42 wrote:
dodecahedron wrote:latest version of Nero Burning ROM is 6.6.0.16 (not 6.6.0.16a).
http://www.nero.com/nero6/en/prog_versions.php


Weird, I could've sworn they had a 16a version-- was there a 15a version?
yes there was.
Nero 6.6.0.15 -> 6.6.0.15a -> 6.6.0.16 .

PostPosted: Tue Oct 11, 2005 9:50 pm
by Papa Ray
Thanks for the replys. I have some questions about the replys.

First, do I have to load all the firmware updates in order or just the latest one.

Same question with the updates for Nero.

These new CD-Rs are made in Taiwan.

My grandson says that he thinks the slowest burn he can do is 8x. But is not sure because he is not really proficient with the program.

I am thinking that if the firmware is updated, Nero might list a slower speed or handle the burn different [better?]

What ever, your response is great and we sure appriciate your assistance and your expertice.

Papa Ray
West Texas
USA

PostPosted: Tue Oct 11, 2005 10:26 pm
by Justin42
You just need to run the latest updates... in Nero's case they sometimes break the updates into multiple parts (one for the core application, one for NeroVision Express, etc) But you only need to get the latest-and-greatest for each specific app you're downloading.
The link is here:
http://www.nero.com/nero6/en/nero-up.php

You'll see it has a bunch of different "packages" depending on what applications you have installed, for now you can just download package 1 and see how that works, as that's the only one you NEED for testing. (and if you have the applications from the other packages, update them)

Same with the firmware, just download the latest version, close any running applications, and restart the computer. You probably won't get new burning speeds but with any luck the drive will handle the CDRs you have much better now. I would still say look for made-in-Japan media for the time being.

Order shouldn't matter, although it might be better to update the drive's firmware, reboot the computer, then update Nero.

Good luck!

PostPosted: Wed Oct 12, 2005 6:36 am
by dodecahedron
slowest burning speed is usually a property of the burner. updating Nero most likely won't change that.