cdrw and dvdrw burning problem

[mikerlit]

i had a crappy MSI CDRW burner for a while that didnt cost me too much so when it stopped working, i wasnt too bothered as i was thinking of upgrading to a dvd-writer anyway. the cds would burn 95% of the time to the end, and then fail to close ... and the other 5% it would burn, but seem tomake a barely readable cd. with effort, sometimes the disc could be read, but more often id just get errors and an unusable cd.

i bought a HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-4040 to replace it and at first, i didnt have any dvdr's, so i began writing cds with it. it seemed fine a few times, then after burning a cd for my friend, the errors started cropping up again. looking back thru the cds i had burned, it seemed that they were much like the coasters created by my discarded cd-writer

since then i have replaced the psu to provide more power to the burner, replaced all cables, changed the ide channel its on, put it as a slave/master, tried different aspi drivers, different software ... basically everything and NOTHING hassolved the problem.

PLEASE if anyone has any ideas, i'd love to solve this riddle.

[elmers]

Tried using a different brand of rw cds? Burning at lower speed?

[mikerlit]

yep, tried it all dvdr cdr's difrent brands, all possible speeds

[elmers]

Tough one! Does the burner have any problems reading cds? Is it in an office, near someplace where theres lots of dust to clog up the optics?

[jmichna]

Has the burner manufacturer posted a firmware update? Sometimes these things get fixed with a "BIOS" burner update.