Ok guys so I have at least 50 maybe as many at 80 Memorex DVD+Rs that failed to burn in my burner. What is the chance that it's my burner and not the discs that caused the failed attempt? In other words what's the chance that all those discs were bad to from the manufacturer? I still have about 20 Memorex DVD+Rs left from what I had bought (2 50 packs) and I'm kinda leery about using them. I don't know if placing them in the drive and attempting to burn it would affect the disc in any way. Does the drive alter a disc in any way by attempting to burn and then failing? IF I got a new burner what is the chance that the unused discs would work?
Okay, first we need to know the answers to a few questions,
What type of burner do you have, (make, model, and firmware please)
What type of disks are they, what is the manufacturing code on them. Memorex are infamous for having several different companies make their disks, so what you have in your hands is anyone's guess. If you have Nero, use the Nero Disk Speed tool to check the code on the disks. If you don't have Nero, download IMGBurn, a freeware burning program which is awesome, download it from here.
Next check the current version of your firmware, also thru Nero or Imgburn. In Imgburn, use the Tools>drive>check for firmware updates function on the top menu. My guess is that by updating your fimware to the latest version, you'll be able to burn those pesky Memorex disks.
1) Drink coasters so you can keep your tables from staining up.
2) Trapshooting
3) Christmas decorations,just like in the movie Soldier.
4)Frizbees for the kiddies and Fido.
5) Landfill- Fill in some low spots for your next landscaping project.
Use your imagination!!!
Lots of definitions of Coasters,just get some very good lighting:
1) Failed during the actual burn coasters-look at the bottom of the disc for any discoloration.Any actual burn,disc is officially a coaster.
2) Failed during the Lead-In Phase. Disc gets spit out with a message like, Illegal disc-when it's time to burn. These discs may still be good-look for the discoloration. You may have to update the Firmware or use them on other Dvd-rw drives. Definitely don't throw these so called coasters away.
3) Playback coasters: Bad skipping,freezing,No disc error. Test these in other stand alone players and pc dvd drives.Test it in the burner that produced it.If multiple players show issues and the dvd-rw drive that produced that backup,shows issues-Definitely coaster material. I've seen encryption being the culprit of certain movie backups-using other drives to verify them.
Someone else may have 1 little playback issue so they throw it away.
4) Bad batch of media,get some very good lighting and look for anything peculiar on your discs. I've had batches that had something that looked like a water drop stain inbetween the acrylic and dye.
Move on down towards the bottom of the spindle. This can happen with any brand of dvd media.
A good quality,updated firmware drive can help immensely to lower the coaster rate. As well as quality media like Taiyo Yuden and Verbatim.
Memorex outsources their media. You got 2 batches,and the chance you got 2 different manufactures is high if you use +8x memorex.This is true with just about every brand named media: HP,TDK,Maxell,Sony,Fuji,etc.
Use neroinfotool,dvdinfopro,dvdidentifier,dvd decrypter or similar programs to find the MID code of those memorex from both batches.
Also look for the latest firmware version for your dvd-rw drive.Firmware controls the writing strategy so the drive knows how to burn certain media. Problems occur with people having old dvd-rw drives and mostly 16x media is the only available speed of blank media. They need a firmware update to keep up and there's a possibility that there isn't a newer update for your drive.
Thanks for the input huys. I started another thread about my original problem of not being able to burn discs. It can be viewed here: http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/626223 I think most of the info can be viewed in one of the log files. The log I think is from a newer burn using Sony discs...
I checked a Memorex DVD with Nero CD-DVD Speed and heres what I got:
Manufacturer: Ricoh MDI: RICOHJPN R03 (004)
The vast majority of the disks failed before initialization and (for Nero) the Buffer bar at the bottom turned green and shows 90-95%. I just wanted to know before I threw them all out. There are a few that had started to burn the data, but failed halfway through so they're coasters. I've installed a new firmware version and will try burning a disk tomorrow. Hopefully the problem will be solved between new firmware and new Sony disks.
That the 16x speed and not too shabby. I've burned a few hundred of them from memorex Ricohjpn-R03-00 and 500 of the Office Depot Ricohjpn-R03-00.
So far,that is their only manufacturer of Memorex, I am aware of in the +16x speed. Office Depot +16x has 2 manufacturers,ricoh and ritek-and both aren't too shabby. I rate both those manufacturer's quality up there along with SonyD16 and SonyD21.
I agree with my esteemed Lil' green colleage, Ricoh are good quality disks, so I think it may be a firmware issue then that is causing your burner to malfunction.
Which burner are you using? I have an old Sony DRU-510A which cannot burn the latest 16X disks due to its age and no new firmware updates, this could also cause your problem...
