LTC-48161H - Lots of errors - Please Help

[Markz2k]

I bought the LTC-48161H LiteON combo drive from Newegg last week, and have been having problems with burns. The burns complete succesfully, but have many errors trying to read them back, even in the combo drive that just wrote them! Using the 24X CDRW disc that came with the drive, I tried writing a full disc (from a known-good ISO image file.) at 16X and 24X. Both CD-Speed's quality check and Kprobe reported huge quantities of errors. I took the same CDRW disc to work, and tried it on a friends new LiteON 522452 drive, wrote the same ISO image file, (at 24X) and got 0 errors from CD-Speed. (Both systems using Nero 5.5.10.28 )

I have some GQ 32X discs that I got cheap at Fry's, and they also show massive errors, but in both LiteON drives. They were fine in the Plextor 241024 I had before this LiteON.

Here's the results from Kprobe at 16 and 24X:

16X:
http://members.cox.net/markz2k/16xrw.BMP
24X:
http://members.cox.net/markz2k/24xrw.BMP

So, the question is, did I get a bad drive, or do they all have problems? I have the latest firmware. I'd hate to pay for shipping to return it to Newegg for a replacement, and just end up with the same problems.

[CDRecorder]

Interesting... Did you read the disc back in the combo after you wrote it in the 52246S?

I have heard that the bundled disc that comes with Lite-On drives is poor quality, so it might be better to buy some Verbatim 24x discs before sending the drive back. Don't buy Memorex; as you probably already know, Memorex 24x CD-RW discs are very poor quality.

[OC-Freak]

Those scans is with the CD-R discs? Not the CD-RW discs?

If this is scans from the CD-R discs manufactured by ritek; That looks really crap to me as I've had few problems with newer ritek discs.

If this is scans from a ritek CD-RW; I don't know the quality of ritek CD-RW discs......I've never seen a ritek CD-RW disc.

I suggest you try some more media brands before changing it for a new one.....

[Markz2k]

Interesting... Did you read the disc back in the combo after you wrote it in the 52246S?.

No. I should have, but didn't. Just erased it, and made the 2 scans that are linked above.

Those scans is with the CD-R discs? Not the CD-RW discs?

No, it's the 24X RW that came with the drive.

I did some more testing with different media. Here's a scan from an Imation 4x-10x RW. It was burned from CD-Speed at max speed. (It wrote it at 12X)


And, here's the exact same Imation disc that was just erased then burned from Nero, just backing up some files on my HDD. (Again, at 12X)


I also have a 4x-10x verbatim disc, Nero only let me burn at 10x with that one. Also a backup of files from the HD. Scan here:


I tried a Verbatim 80-min "ValuLife" 1x-24x CD-R at 24x, got no errors with that one.

Don't know if the drive is actually flakey, or just needs a firmware upgrade or 2 to get the bugs out? This is my first LiteON, is this normal behavior for them? A bit flakey when new, followed by some firmware updates to make it solid?

If I had bought it locally at retail, I'd go exchange it, just for peace of mind. Since it will cost me money (and time) to ship it back to Newegg, gonna have to do some more testing. I don't like seeing it write a cd with a bunch of errors, then erasing it at and writing it again with no errors.

It's also kind of weird that there are VERY few threads on any of the common CD-R boards (the ones I know of, anyway) about this drive. I'd have thought it would be more popular.

[Dartman]

My 52 does pretty bad quality on cdrw disks but excellent on normal cdr's.
Might just be a firmware issue or something. I tried slower writes and it helped a bit but some claim the earlier firmware has better quality on rw media. I don't know if this info helps you or not but thats been my experience with my 52 so yours sounds similar. I don't use the rw very often so it hasn't been a issue but you might try different media as already been said and maybe even turn of the smart burn and see if it does any better, sometimes it helps if it's making a bad guess.

[rdgrimes]

The RW discs that comes with the drive is pure crap, throw it away and get some Verbatim DLP US 24x RW media. Same for the CDR's, as OC suggested, get some decent 48x media and try that before making any decisions.