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billelder · Guest

I use an NEC 3440A CD/DVD burner to make file backups to archive. It will burn to DVD but not to CD. One morning it burned perfectly to a CD and hasn't done so since. But will still burn a DVD. It also will not recognize a CD but will a DVD. I do burn far more CD's than DVD's.

Do these burners use two different lasers to burn? That's the only explanation I can think of. I checked the cables, even replaced them and the same results.

Thanks!

TheVoiceOfBob · Posted: Mon Dec 18, 2006 5:34 am Post subject:

Bill,
Depending on the drive, there are often two different lasers in combo drives, both using the same lens.

I was looking up your drive on NEC's site, plus looking it up in general. Is Windows reporting it as a 3440a? I was thinking of having you do a firmware upgrade to see if that might help, but NEC doesn't show any such drive. They do show a 3550a and a 3540a. In probing around it looks like others have purchased a 3540a drive and had Windows report it in Device Manager as a 3440a. You might need to look physically on the drive case for the correct model. This way you could possibly do a firmware upgrade by downloading from NEC's site http://support.necam.com/Optical/downloads/FlashFirmware/

Double check in Device Manger what firmware level you are at presently. It should be shown on the details tab, but not all report it there.
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The Voice of Bob

billelder · Guest

Bob,

Sorry...poor typing skills. It's the NEC 3540a and I did download and install the latest 1.04 firmware and it didn't help.

My other computer has the same model and make and it's fine. They're not expensive do I'll just get another one. I was just curious about one burner going ba before the other. If I had to guess I burn CD's on this one at a rate of about 20 audio to 1 video. Maybe more.

Thanks!

allensco · Posted: Mon Dec 18, 2006 7:04 am Post subject:

I have a Sony DRU-510A DVD/CD burner. Mine didn't play nice with iTunes. It would burn CD's sometimes. I read on the iTunes site that some Sony drives, including mine, didn't play nice with iTunes. After a firmware update, it still didn't like iTunes. BUT after an iTunes update (to the latest), it works fine. I guess they got it figured out and have better support now for the drive I have.

As for burning DVD's, it has always worked great. No problems at anytime.

Thanks for the reminder Bill, I need to backup my audio files soon!

TheVoiceOfBob · Posted: Mon Dec 18, 2006 8:55 am Post subject:

Bill,

It appears you have done about all you can for that drive. You are correct, they aren't terribly expensive, even the ones that do dual layer DVDs. I picked one of those up not long ago and swapped out my older single layer DVD burner and put that one in my wife's PC. The DL blanks are still a bit pricey, but having the ability to burn 9 Gigs on one disk is nice.
_________________
Try to imagine a world where there is no such thing as hypothetical situations.

The Voice of Bob

sdelgo · Posted: Mon Dec 18, 2006 11:13 am Post subject:

Before buying a new drive I'd try different media... I had similar issues and started using more reliable media (Sony, TDK and Imation) as opposed to Memorex and Maxell.

Steve
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