hi to all, I recently installed a BENQ DVD burner (DV400 A) I alway get one wasted dvd every two DVDs burnt. The message window keep telling 'Communication Error' and 'failed writing'

My PC settings are:

Operating System: WIN ME Processore: PENTIUM 800 RAM: 320 Mb IDE Primary Master: HARD DISK 20 Gb IDE Primary Slave: ATAPI DVD-RW 4X BENQ IDE Secondary Master: HARD DISK Maxtor 80 Gb IDE Secondary Slave: Mast. CD-Rom SHUTTLE WAitec Burning Software: NERO 6

I always put the DVD data on the 'secondary master' Hard Disk while I burn by the BENQ burner on the IDE primary Slave. I've alway thought it was the best way: two drives on two separate IDEs.

I don't think it can be a buffer underrun problem. Maybe a hardware problem but which one? I noticed everything is ok on burning DVD when I turn on the PC and soon start burning: maybe the processor is not that hot... The rate of failed DVDs is higher when I use the PC for a long time.. but telling the true I'm not that sure about that opinion..

I guess to have installed the latest ASPI driver-

As I can't afford to waste so many DVDs, is there someone downthere able to help me? I got several answers all along the net but any of them filled my trouble. I need something working! :-)

I was forgetting.. When I launch Nero InfoTools and it starts checking the hardware I always get the famous WIN ME blue message about locking of the system - press Ctrl*Alt+Del to restart. Doest it help?

Thanks in advance to everyone. Fabrizio

-- Fabrizio (fabrbev@tin.it), March 21, 2004

Answers

Try all the obvious things first - make sure your computer's insides are clean and dust free, make sure all the fans are running and all your cables are tight. Check that the DMA is turned on for your drives. If you've installed and uninstalled a lot of programs, you may want to format your harddrive and re-install your OS. Reboot the system before burning a DVD. You may have one of those machines that just has an odd conflict that can't be solved.

I had a similar problem, where if the computer was on for a day or two, the chance that a DVD burn would fail was high (using Nero 5.5) - I think that my problem is Windows has a lot of memory issues, and programs tend to leave things in memory where you can't see them. A reboot takes care of the problem.

-- Bryan (gryps-innocens@gryphon.zzn.com), March 22, 2004.

Just a thought, May be that you need win XP or 2000 as your op sys

-- Robert Johnson (cabob936_99@yahoo.com), March 24, 2004.