Comms Failure

[leonvdm]

My sister in law has a PIII 1.7 with a 40gig hd and 256megs of memory. She is running Win98SE. Hard drive is currently at 7% capacity and is fully defragged.

I have just installed a LG8520B 52x24x52x burner and Nero Express that came bundled with it.

Burning an image to the HD is ok and works like a charm.

But as soon as you try to burn to the LG drive (either from a previously created image or "on the fly" about 10% is burnt and then the burn is aborted with a Communications Failure notice.

This happens irrespectively if the burner is placed as a master, slave or even on its own IDE port.

Any suggestions?

[cfitz]

Is the drive in DMA or PIO mode?

cfitz

[leonvdm]

I have tried with DMA switched on as well as switched off and there is no difference.

[cfitz]

So much for my suggestion to try PIO mode as a diagnostic measure...

Okay, what version of Nero are you using? Have you tried updating to the latest?

Do you have any trouble using the drive as a reader?

Can you give the exact error message?

cfitz

[leonvdm]

The drive came bundled with Nero Express 5.5.9.9
As the machine that this drive is supposed to be in is about six hours drive away from me I have removed the drive and brought it to my home. Due to the way our Internet access works - very expensive - I cannot log on and off without incurring high costs - I am trying to gain as much information before removing my LG drive from my machine and installing my sister-in-law's writer in my PC. I have contacted the local supplier who has not of great assistance. He stated that he has never heard of a Comms failure where CD's are concerned. The message that I receive when writing to CD states that the original is copy protected, then it tells me that it is burning at 52X (CD's are rated at 48X) then it burns about 10% and next moment a line is inserted stating: Communication failure. Next line states that the burn has been aborted. The CD that I was trying to copy was the Nero Express installation CD.

[cfitz]

Well, you may not want to hear this but I would recommend upgrading to the latest version of Nero. That version is somewhat old and had some problems. The current version is 5.5.10.15a:

http://www.nero.com/en/index.html#download

Unfortunately for you, it is 13.7 MiBytes to download. If you do decide to take the plunge and download the latest version, you might want to wait a few days because it looks like a new version may be coming out around April 1.

I doubt the installation CD is copy protected. Maybe you mean copyrighted?

Could you save the log file that Nero generates, and post the relevant portion with the error message?

cfitz

[leonvdm]

Sorry. Wrong usage of word but I am glad to see that the idea was correctly interpreted.

Ok what I am going to do is later over the weekend shut my machine down. Then rip out my drive and insert the new one. Then fire it up with my software that I know works OK. (Nero ??????)

I will then try it out and see what happens. I will also write down the exact messages as they occur and post them. If I do not get back this weekend I will definately browse back to this message next weekend and post you. Maybe you could send me your e-mail address? Mine is lvdm@telkomsa.net (yes in South Africa)
Thanks so far.

[Han]

Have you tried different brands of CDR media, like Fuji, TDK, Verbatim, MAM/Mitsui, Traxdata, Princo, etc.? Does burning at slower speed also result in communication failure?

[cfitz]

Sorry. Wrong usage of word but I am glad to see that the idea was correctly interpreted.

Okay, then that rules out that as having anything to do with your problem. The copyright warning is just an advisory to you and has nothing to do with actual burning.

Ok what I am going to do is later over the weekend shut my machine down. Then rip out my drive and insert the new one. Then fire it up with my software that I know works OK. (Nero ??????)

I will then try it out and see what happens. I will also write down the exact messages as they occur and post them.

Don't be too surprised if it works fine in your machine. I suspect that this problem has to do with the combination of system, drive and software in your sister-in-law's computer, and there is a good chance you won't see the same problem on your computer.

If I do not get back this weekend I will definately browse back to this message next weekend and post you. Maybe you could send me your e-mail address?

I prefer to keep the discussions on the open forum. That way your problem is exposed to the maximum number of people who might know the answer. Take Han's post, as an example. Also, if we (hopefully) solve your problem, then there will be a record to help others in the future.

Mine is xxxxx@xxxxxx.net (yes in South Africa)

For your own protection and privacy I recommend not posting your email address on forums like this. It is one way that spammers get email addresses. You can edit your post and remove the address by pressing the button located above your post to the right.

By the way, we have people from all over the world who post here, so though you are not unique in that regard, you are still welcome here.

cfitz

[leonvdm]

I have dropped the write speed to 8x and no difference.

I have tried TDK as well as LOgic CD's. Both these types do not give any problem on my own CDRW (LG). - As a matter of fact mine seems to be able to handle about anything I throw at it. But this new drive seems to be ?????????

[leonvdm]

Sorry about that. Still new at this game. But it shows you how desperate I am to help her. We stay out in the sticks and professional help is few and far between. And then most of the time I find by browsing forums like these I obtain information that I can use (and a lot cheaper too)

Thaanks again.

But how do you contact a person directly?

[cfitz]

But how do you contact a person directly?

You can send a private message by pressing the button at the bottom of a post by the person you wish to contact. But this is generally discouraged unless you have a message of a truly personal nature to convey. Again, keeping the discussion on the open forums works best.

cfitz

[Han]

Tell us more about your sister in law hardware. What's the motherboard model, chipset brand (Intel, VIA, SiS, ALi), installed busmaster drivers, type of data cable (40- or 80-pin)...

[gq]

This smalls like a hardware problem, check your cables connection First,
if that did not work, try your drive in another computer.
If it still have the problem, you need to return or exchange the drive

[leonvdm]

Sorry for the delay in feedback but that is the problem with time differences all over the world

I have tried the drive using both the 40 and 80 pin IDE cable. So that makes no diffs.

I have now e-mailed my sister in law a copy of a program called Belarc PCAdvisor that does a brakdown of the PC and all that is installed.

I have asked her to install and run the program and then to print out the page that is displayed and to fax it to me.

Problem is thatr she is away for the weekend and wil only do it on Monday. So the saga continues.....

[banzibaby]

Does'nt the bundled version of nero only work with the burner it shipped with.Mines is.I had 2 uninstall the version that came with a screwed Artec drive when i got a replacement Liteon.Nero just would'nt work with the newer drive untill i installed the version bundled with the liteon

Think it says so on the cd or in the eula

BaNzI

[leonvdm]

True the NERO does that. But I am sure that if you install a rather updated version like I have on my personal machine and then you download the updates you should get a working drive.

But the problem here is that The program that was supplied with the drive causes an error. Persons who are not all that computer literate have problems and the thing is that you have to keep it sweet and simple.

I am thus being forced to try all I can to get the machine working. If not it will have to go back to the supplier. And this is where the problems start. It is no use in getting programs like CloneCD and this does the job but it is not the right program.

So I am going to try my best and if it wos OK but if not ........

[banzibaby]

I hope U manage 2 get it fixed M8


BaNzI:)