Stay far away from Staples brand CDs. I've received multiple 100/pack spindles as presents, and decided on the third to check who makes them since I had never burned a coaster, found out they were CMC and felt mighty lucky. About 4 months or so down the road one CDs that had been burned failed to read and I checked it out, hiked out a magnifying glass, and looked at the CDs (I went through my entire stacks of CDs). Of 300 Staples CDs, I've burned 2 coasters (both from the third spindle, both on a Plextor 20/10/40-12). Of those 300, after close inspection with the magnifying glass, I have found 9 CDs that are plagued with the 2000/2001 news story CD fungus that resides in between the layers of the CDs and consumes the reflective layer. Example photos:

http://student.andover.edu/~tegeril/cdfungus

It is not a surface-tangible flaw, can be seen on both sides of the CDs and cause underrun errors when trying to read the data on said CDs. Never again will I buy a CD by them.

It looks more like a ***** then fungus... either wya is not good though! [:I]

(in reply to Tegeril)

It's fungus, up close it's very apparent that it and it's sibling defective CDs are nothing but the fungus in action.

(in reply to Tegeril)

Thanks for the information! I never buy store branded media like that anyway, because they get them the cheapest possible.... I know you got them as gifts... oh well.... perhaps 1 or 2 are okay?

(in reply to Tegeril)

Theyre manufactured by CMC. Total crap.

(in reply to Tegeril)

So out of 300 CDs you found 9 bad ones which suffered (as far as I can tell) a problem that was isolated to some bad lots and that prompted you to reject all CDs branded by Staples? That's a tad harsh, is it not?

(in reply to Tegeril)

9 that suffered from that problem.

About 20 that burned as coasters.
About 10 that don't read now for inexplicable reasons.

This was just a very visible example.

(in reply to Tegeril)

quote:

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Originally posted by Dolphinius_Rex

It looks more like a ***** then fungus... either wya is not good though! [:I]

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Yes, it does look like a crack running from the centre

(in reply to Tegeril)

It isn't.

(in reply to Tegeril)

I have a 50 pk, cmc and not one coaster out of more than 25 burned so far. One's burner also has a lot to do with it. None so far unreadable. Perhaps I just got a good batch though I'll stick to cheaper media like SmartBuy since I have some of that that's yrs old and still reads fine. Staples are a bit pricy here in Canada.

(in reply to Tegeril)

most of my CMC media has died within 5 years, the first ones to go were ones with labels on them... this may have been a coincedence though.

(in reply to Tegeril)