AMD Duron. 750: 512mb: 40 Gig: 7 partitions.
Compaq Deskpro 400 256: 128mb: 3.2 Gig: 1 partition.

I'm getting right p1553d off with this now, it's been 12 months (17.5.2002 CD writer then 17 months old 28.10.2000.)

My old Yamaha CDRW is still writing to CDRW discs (about 2 years after yamaha said that it would'nt. (their answer being that the laser had misaligned)

ok since the start I have tried 4 types of s/w (creator 4, 5, Nero & another I can't remember.)

I bought a new drive (phillips) that didn't work. I eventually sent it back, and the supplier tested it and said it was perfect.

3/4 types of media (some recomended, some not mentioned (though it worked fine before.)

tried it on w2000 (on another partition)

then w98se (on another partition) clean install with an absolute minimum .

I got another pc (for testing purposes, and to use whilst I worked on this one) (compaq deskpro) with a clean install of w98se. tried the yamaha on that, didn't work. so I figured, ok it must be duff.

I just bought a liteon 52x24x52x. that don't work either, (on the AMD.) it writes to cdrw ok (as does the yamaha) but not to CDR. using nero with it BTW. same thing, goes through the process, does the burn, states all ok, completed successfully etc. but nothing.

tommorrow I shall put the yam back in the AMD, with CD creator, and try the liteon in the Compaq with nero.

then I shall probably throw both of them out the window to see which bounces the highest.

Vic: Could you come up with a thornier problem???:D I have no idea..just bumping this onto today's list. And truthfully, I have suspected for some time that there are those here who "check" on my posts..lol..so might draw in some experts.:)

I just read through most of the Nero manual a couple of days ago..and did you do all the stuff it wants to do? It basically said that the "on the fly" copy for CDRs was a bad idea, and that you need to let the Nero set speed and do a simulation, etc and etc. Need to "practice" because last Sunday, my husband tried using Nero to copy a CD and got zip. There were three of us there..all us got Nero with our CD writers, and none of us know much about it..sigh. In my husband's case, it's the writer itself..won't even read regular CDs and he checked connections, settings, and changed configurations, etc. Of course, the writer sat on shelf waiting to go into new build long enough for warranty to expire..so he's in the market for new writer.

well Kay. I have just burned a audio disc. on the fly at 52x. yes really 52x.

and another, of my old media, that had burned once and failed, at 32x. this one is a bit crackly at start but then ok. I think due to the previous burn. but I MUST say again.

I have just burned a audio disc. on the fly at 52x. yes really 52x.

ok so the answer to the problem. well, I don't think I should count my chickens yet as it's early days, but if anyone is having problems...,

there are copious amounts of keys and entries in registry that are left behind when CD progs are uninstalled, and these are not picked up by easy clean etc. you have to search the registry manually for them, with search words like....adaptec, direct, creator, ahead, nero etc.

I think you get the picture.. that's what I did and eventually got something to work, but

I aint finished YET !

I am IMPRESSED..confused, but impressed. What I understand you saying is that you did manage to get the writer to work (on which puter?) using Nero and burning to a CDR..and by getting every last reference to Easy CD Creator off your puter first?

still not getting the old media (vivasta) to work (except for the first 'used' one as mentioned. but have just picked up some maxwells which seem (so far) to be ok.

yes, both cd creator and nero left a lot of stuff in the registry, which was not detected/removed by usual means. ie: reg cleaner, easy cleaner and the like, but once I'd searched the registry and removed the entries manually (must have been close to 100) then at last I got it to work.

I was surprised to find that nero was using udf which means that I can still read/write to my original CDRW's.

I am currently thinking that the vivasta media has degraded, which may have been the start of the problem, or maybe the yamaha decided to give up first, but anyway there were 2 problems which of course was the start of the difficulty (one problem masking another) then the rubbish left behind by uninstalling s/w added to the burden.

I shall try burning a few more CD's before I can feel comfortable, but I am also going to put the yamaha in the compaq where it will serve a useful purpose even if it only writes to CDRW's.

I think the lessons learned so far,

make sure all trace is gone of any recording s/w (though it's difficult to establish) only way is by doing several registry searches manually.

make sure that the media is good quality and FRESH.
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oh, it's the AMD that is working with the liteon & nero.

Glad to see you have it working again. And I commend you on your diligent search and (re)seizure of your own pc. http://www.pcguide.com/ubb/icons/icon7.gif I myself would have given up the ghost long ago and just reformatted the durn thing... but you say a clean install on a partition didn't work?

Kay,
I was a bit confused with the first post too.

Hi FTT,

I tried on another re-formatted partition but no success, maybe it was the writer, or maybe the media. trouble is when you have more than one problem, having overcome one the other one causes failure, and it looks like I ended up with 3 problems.

I often considered re-formatting the lot, but without a spare pc to use meanwhile it would have caused a problem. and I would have ended up rushing it back together to keep up with my daily work.

In the event I think that it would have proved fruitless anyway, because one problem would still have been there and to continue the quest to solve would have incurred more problems. at least now I have the experrience of the results (as well as the success) to overcome and prevent re-occurrence and/or at least be well prepared if a problem re-occurrs.

as I said, I have'n finished yet, I have some more things that I want to do, and would like a few more successful burns under my belt before satisfying myself that it is indeed cured.

One last question. What do you mean by
"I was surprised to find that nero was using udf which means that I can still read/write to my original CDRW's." ??

Both the Easy CD and Sony software I have used previously have "required" the packet writing software to be installed for the other software..writing to CDRs and copying..to work properly. However, my understanding is that the UDF format is only used by the packet writing software...InCD, in this case..and not Nero writing to CDRs.

yes, sorry kay, I was refering to 'nero' as the bundle that came with the writer.

I thought that 'in CD' (from the nero CD 'bundle') used a format other than UDF (don't know where I got that idea from) & that I would have to 'read' all the CDRW's that I had produced on creator and then transfer them to CDRW's formatted by In Cd.

BTW: other probs that I had were that roxio states that my new liteon recorder is supported, but when I tried it isn't.

the old yamaha is read/writing CDRW's (creator 4) on the compaq, which I am pleased about (not doing CDR's though) and I now want to check to see if the nero bundled s/w really doesn't work with other recorders (as stated)

Your experience illustrates my belief that the best way to eliminate an installation of software is not to uninstall it, but to make a backup of the C: drive, before it is installed, then re-format the C: drive and restore the backup.

So if you had a backup taken way back before any of this troublesome software was ever installed, restoring that backup would eliminate all traces of the software.

Hence, no need to search the Registry for traces to delete and so on.

You move forward in time, building your software environment, step by step, but making records at key points when the system is in good shape [just before you install something or make a configuration change].
Then when you hit trouble you jump back to get out of it.
If some problem has sneaked into one or more backups, you jump back to the last good backup and thus eliminate the problem.
Then you start to move forward again.

Vic, it depends...if the "other" recorder is a rebadged Liteon (yes, Liteon is the maker of a huge number of burners, many of which are sold under other names) then it might.