Topic: DVD drive problems?

[Swampy]

I got a DVD-RW drive last spring and it never really worked right. Has a hard time playing dvds or cds, they stutter and skip... Has trouble burning dvds, but it would still burn cds... So I go out today and get a new drive, and bam, same problems. So at this point I pretty much know its the computer. Any one heard of anything like this? I followed all the windows troubleshooting advice to no sucess... Can anyone help me out in this matter?

[caymanreview]

how much ram do you have and what processor?

[Swampy]

Ram= 512 DDR
Processor = AMD Athalon XP 1700

[kindms]

Shot in the dark. Power supply ? How much juice do you have in the computer

[Swampy]

donno, can I check this somehow?

[kindms]

It would mean opening the case but should be written on the side of the unit somewhere

[Nick in Edinboro]

Also some thoughts:
  - Enough free HD space?   Empty Temp Files!
  - Defragmented recently?  Defragment!
  - What version of DirectX are you using?  Upgrade to atleast 8 or 9!
  - DMA access option enabled for your internal DVD-ROM?  Should be checked as YES!
  - Might be a problem w/sound card or vid card--do they have latest drivers?  Update them!

Try those Alex!

[dnsacks]

Alex:

Is anything else plugged into the ide channel used by the dvd drive (i.e. is there a hard drive or another cd or dvd drive attached to the (usually grey) flat ribbon cable that connects the drive to your motherboard?

A dvd drive sharing the same ide channel (cable) as, say, your main hard drive could cause this problem.  Ideally your dvd drive should be on its own ide channel (connected to its own cable) and not on the same channel/cable as a hard drive

[Ed.]

Shot in the dark. Power supply ? How much juice do you have in the computer

just a note, its not always the amount of power, but the quality.  i only have a 450w psu, but it way out preforms my old 750w one that was just a cheap off brand pos.

i think i paid around $80 for mine, can't remember the name, could look when i get home from work, but its a quality product and made my computer run 100% better.

[Swampy]

Thanks for the suggestions thus far guys. Nick, I tried almost all of thoes, I cant install the new directx because my internet doesnt work any more... I dont think it would be the video card because it wont even burn dvds, so its not just the playing...

Now, the cable thing... Its only one drive with one cable, so it doesnt share, but where it plugs into the motherboard the HD plugs in right next to it... Is that what you mean? Maybe I should try a new cable?

Thanks for bearing with me guys, I know little about computers really, so thanks. Id like to solve this myself, but my dads friend who built my computer could probably fix it in a jif, but hes done way too much for me already... THANKS!

[Swampy]

Lemmie ask this if no one knows what the problem is... Is there any way to do a disc to disc burn Just using windows? I tried installing Nero, but it doesnt seem to recognize either drive, I have a hard time burning trades and B&Ps on time because I have to rip everything and then burn it... CAN ANYONE HELP ME???

[Ed.]

i think bean was just having this problem with his puter.  i've never tried the disc to disc burn.  always rip with EAC, burn with nero.

[Swampy]

Beauler?

[Steve J]

Alex, as far a I can recall, Windows does not have a native disc-to-disc burning utility. As far as the root problem, I encountered similar difficulties with a DVD burner I installed. In my case, it turned out to be a driver conflict and was resolved by d/l'ing an updated driver. Have you checked the Device Manager for any conflicts (assuming Win XP here)?

[dnsacks]

if your having problems because your trying to copy disks directly (i.e. reading the music off of the disk you want to copy while simultaneously writing the music to a blank disk), you're likely having problems on the read side (i.e. the disk drive you're reading from isn't able to read fast enough to supply the data to your burning drive.

You should really be ripping the disk you want to copy to your hard drive using eac and then burning a copy from the info ripped to your hard drive (since this is really the only way to come close to assuring that the cd you're burning is a accurate copy of the cd you're copying).  If you must burn "on the fly" I suspect that the only way to solve this problem would be to significantly reduce the burner's write speed (to 2x or 4x)