Okay I'll just start off with what I got or what I've been using.

System:
AMD 2800XP
1 GB RAM
NEC 3500A Firmware 2.18 (updated with no problems)
Windows XP SP1
SATA RAID 2 80 GIG HD's

Burning Software(s):
Alcohol 120%
Nero 6.3.03 Ultra
CloneDVD2
DVDShrink
Roxio Easy CD and DVD Creator 6
Latest WinDVD Demo (for viewing)
BlazeDVD (or something like that for viewing)
CSS + Region free (seeing if i could get past the protection on some of those dvd discs)

Okay anyway.. a lot of this i've uninstalled and reinstalled and the whole kaboodles to see if I could my newly purchased drive working.

Well as far as reading dscs I can only get it to read two of a five movie dvd disc's i've tried.
Ninja Scrolls Anime disc and blizzard dvd moviepack disc. the others i tried were discs ranging from the movie volcanos, cast away, and other discs i don't really care about and it would tell me no disc was in the drive.

I've even had glitches reading NS Anime at first but i just cleaned the disk off and it's worked fine since.

Anyway to the point I've tried burning discs in Nero and the various other programs and when I view the disc to see if any data is on it i see 0 bytes written. I check the disk's backside it and looks like its been written too. Where the hells my data and why can't i view it? I've been using Legacy DVD-R 4.7GB disks. I don't know how well these hold up to the burner. Is this is a hardware issue? I'm tempted to go back to 2.16 to see if that could be the issue (mind you i dont think that is the case).

I believe i ordered the drive from chiefvalue.com (have to check my emails to make sure) and it came nicely packed and everything and looked like no damage. Its on Primary Slave. I haven't tried the CD-RW capabiltiies. I've tried burning data to the DVD also and still its a no go.

I'm on about 7 coasters now and have about 43 disks left to go so if you can help it'd be most appreciated :)

P.S. I Like the boards by the way lots of useful information!~

Welcome to CDRinfo.

What media do you have?

As for reading, better avoid NEC since its error correction it is not too strong.

(in reply to addiktion)

I'm using Legacy DVD-R's 4.7 GB's. do you think its a media issue? I might run to wallie world and purchase a different set of dvds and see if that is the case.

Is the LED light suppose to turn Amber while its burning? I remember this on my old lite on burner it would change from green (read) to amber (write).

Still nothing yet. I needa find those 2.16 drivers too and see if thats the problem.

(in reply to Iggy)

iggy what burner would you recommend for reading purposes? Im thinkin about getting a 2nd dvd burner put in as soon as i figure out this one.

(in reply to Iggy)

It depends on what you are about to read. If it is for movies reading mostly and you want to be fast, LiteOn 167 is a good choice.

What 2.16 drivers, do yo mean firmware? You have already the 2.18 which is newer, don't you?

Give it a try with a different media brand. Btw do you know the ID for those media you have?

(in reply to addiktion)

ID? im not to sure what the ID is for the media. And yes I was talking about firmware. I'm going to go purchase some more media tomorrow and see how it handles.

(in reply to Iggy)

media ID is a "unique word" that gives the real manufacturer behind the name of each media, if you visit a media store you will see many brands, but most of them made by 3-5 manufacturers

(in reply to addiktion)

I might have found the problem but im not 100%.

I talked to a friend of mine today and he has a burner as well. Well I guess he has a low end power supply and it wasn't supplyin his burner enough power to burn his cd's correctly. He was getting a similiar problem. Well I know my system is a lot more beefier then his and im only runnin on a 300 watt with 2 hds, 2 burners, a high end cpu, and multiple devices connected to usb. (webcam,zip drive, i pod) so that very well could be the case. Same reason why I can't get my AMD cpu to run at 3200XP i think anyway. I can only run at 2800 else I crash due to ram failure. I've even swapped in new ram and still the same thing.

This would also explain why i can only burn at 4x on my cd burner and not its full potential of 24x because when the cd winds up to burn it just shuts down due to lack of power ( i believe ).

Is this a possibility?

Either way I'm thinkin about upgrading to a 500W power supply to keep my beast running.

(in reply to emperor)

Wow, that's definitely a possibility for the mysterious shutdowns...depending on the amps supplied on each voltage rail. Only 4x on a 24x CD burner is definitely a bad problem, let alone the DVD writing issues. Also you might want to try Memtest86 or Memtest86+ to make sure your RAM is functioning properly. It runs off a boot floppy, so hopefully the weak power supply won't affect it...

Personally I like Antec products. They have been very reliable for me and also my company (I build some servers from time to time).
That new NeoPower 480w and Phantom 350w look really good...both support the newer ATX 2.0 standard too!

You can even email Antec support to find out how beefy of a power supply you "really" need based upon your current or future configuration.

(in reply to addiktion)

If this is the problem, meaning the power supply, then you are lucky that you still have a PC.

(in reply to tqhoang)

Problem Fixed!!!!

Swapped in a 420 Watt powersupply.. and walla burner works perfectly now.

Thanks for the help everyone :>

CPU's runnin full potential and i can read disks just fine.

(in reply to Iggy)