Anybody know what the latest deal is on this combination not working with 4X media?

To recap what I've tried so far;

I installed the drive with the bundled software (Nero 5.5.5.6 I think and InCD version 3.1 I think).

I did format the Liteon high speed media piece that came with the drive and it does work as advertised. The drive will also create data disks using generic memorex CD-R media.

The problems start when I try to use Memorex 4X CD-RW media and format it for packet writing using InCD. So far all I've gotten is a formatting progress bar that goes to about 50% of its total length (about 21-22 minutes into the process) and then another formatting box comes up (I think this is for logical formatting of the tracks) which errors out after a few seconds with an "Illegal Request" error.

I took the media home and stuck it (both of them one at a time) into my son's machine which has an Acer 1208 and also runs Nero and InCD. His machine says the 4x Memorex CD-RW was formatted as an 807mb disk and not a 700mb disk!. I did the CD-RW erase routine using Nero on his machine and it seemed to go well but I haven't tried to use the disk for packet writing on my machine here.

So where's the problem? The Liteon drive seems to read and write to "high speed" CD-RW fine using InCD, but when I stick a piece of slower CD-RW media in the drive it never formats properly.

Is it the drive or is it Memorex? Or is it InCD's inablility to recognise what kind of media I stuck in there?

Mike

Probably both. Writing at normal 4x CD-RW media would take 2X the time than with HS-RW media.

Visit www.cdrinfo.com - The Recording Authority

(in reply to MikeG)

The latest is this;

I went to Office Depot and asked specifically for "high speed" CD-RW and was handed a 5-pack box of (again) Memorex "high speed" CD-RW with "4x-10x" on the front of the box.

The admonishment on the front of the box said "For use only with drives that have the "high speed" logo on the front".

Well that's what this Liteon says on the front.

Those disks wouldn't format with InCD on either my Liteon or my son's Acer 1208a.

If anybody knows the answer to this I'd appreciate it.

Why would InCD be incapable of "backwards compatibility"? Meaning if I'm using a disk that is rated slower than the 16x CD-RW that was supplied with the drive, why can't it recognise that and adapt itself accordingly, or am I missing something here. Admittedly I am new to CD-RWs and packet writing but it makes no sense to me that a fast drive and/or software combination can't recognise when slower type media is inserted and adapt itself accordingly.

I'm stuck using the one piece of media that came with the drive for now until I find something else that works or InCD gets patched (or Liteon does another bios upgrade- mine came with the latest bios as new)

Mike

(in reply to MikeG)

try something other than memorex - TDK, Yamaha, Verbatim and see what they do. You should be able to find some at Frys, CompUSA, Staples, Costco's, Sam's

(in reply to MikeG)

Okay, it works now.

I'm now using Maxell 650mb high-speed 4-10x CD-RW media and it did properly UDF format and it works as advertised!

Thanks for the feedback!

Mike

(in reply to MikeG)

Mike

Did you try and format your CDRW media as a non UDF. I am interested to know if the problem was with INCD or the media brand. ie create a CD in Nero using the memorex. As I understand you still need to format the media to make it into a CD.

I have also upgraded Nero and InCD to the latest version, but only used the supplied CDRW in InCD.

Looks like I should stear clear of memorex media!

(in reply to MikeG)

Normally, I find this to be simply an upgrade issue.

As with Recorders, new brand of media is being made by the Media MFG's all the time. They may have the same names or looks, but the spec's for the media are not the same.

The Media MFG"s provide these spec's to the Recorder MFG"s, so they can include into the Recorders firmware. So when the media is inserted, the recorder has a Read/Write strategy for the media.

If it is unable to find a Read/Write strategy for a new brand of media, it uses a Generic Read/Write strategy, and this causes the problems you see.

So many times, simply upgrading the firmware will resolve the issue. But when it fails, you must resort to trying different brand of CDRW or CDR media, depending on the software used, such as InCD or Nero.

Regards,

Craig

(in reply to MikeG)