DVD drive - wtf.

[Unfocused]

I have previously posted here about some problems I've been experiencing with my DVD drive - it didn't read discs. I figured a way to "solve" it though by turning the drive off in the device manager, pulling the power cord out, rebooting the PC, plugging the cord back in and turning it back on in the device manager - afterwards the drive magically starts spinning again.

Now I have a different problem though - the drive won't read one certain DVD disc. The disc works fine in my dad's notebook, but not in my PC - it receives data slowly, almost crashes the PC and gives me a CRC error when I try to access some files.

I also noticed that the read speed varies between discs. When I put in the Battlefield 2142 DVD the drive spins up fast and loud and reads at a rate of about 7x. CoD4 DVD works fine, but the read rate is about 4x and I can't really hear the spinning. Same with the DVD that's giving me problems (from a computer mag BTW), with the difference that it doesn't actually read the data properly, it's just Nero speed test reporting the speed of about 4x.

What's up with that? Why the different speeds and why CRC errors on a disc working no problem elsewhere?

 

[VirusType2]

I think it's time to upgrade. It's not worth the pain in the ass.

you can get a LITE-ON burner for like $20 (U.S.) now. You can get one from www.ClubIT.com, www.newegg.com. (Companies that I have had good results with.)

LITE-ON drives are a decent reader, I won't steer you wrong, some abused DVD movies might not read, but it is possibly the best writer on the market regardless of price. The SmartX and SuperAllwrite features prevent buffer underuns and automatically read and write at the maximum speed depending on the quality of the disc in the drive, which is probably why it's such a good drive.

I paid like $35 and got the 20X DVD Double Layer burner with Lightscribe that is SATA (the retail version does come with a SATA cable if you don't have one), but I also have an EIDE 20X DVD version without lightscribe and they both perform flawlessly with Verbatim DL discs and just about any Single Layer disc.

They don't make faster drives than this. I was hoping the SATA one was faster, but I didn't notice a difference between the two. I suppose SATA might be better because I have heard rumors that EIDE can send incorrect data sometimes or something, however I have never noticed this in any situation. As long as the disc isn't ****ed, it can read fine.


NEVER USE Memorex or other extremely cheap discs because they aren't worth it, no matter how inexpensive they are. Out of 15 Memorex DL discs, only 3 of them didn't fail burning. I've gone through 50 Verbatim DL discs and none of them failed. I also hear the chemical on those cheap discs starts to erode in as little as 1 month and the data begins to deteriorate.

 

[VirusType2]

I think it's time to upgrade. It's not worth the pain in the ass.

you can get a LITE-ON burner for like $20 (U.S.) now. You can get one from www.ClubIT.com, www.newegg.com. (Companies that I have had good results with.)

LITE-ON drives are a decent reader, I won't steer you wrong, some abused DVD movies might not read, but it is possibly the best writer on the market regardless of price. The SmartX and SuperAllwrite features prevent buffer underuns and automatically read and write at the maximum speed depending on the quality of the disc in the drive, which is probably why it's such a good drive.

I paid like $35 and got the 20X DVD Double Layer burner with Lightscribe that is SATA (the retail version does come with a SATA cable if you don't have one), but I also have an EIDE 20X DVD version without lightscribe and they both perform flawlessly with Verbatim DL discs and just about any Single Layer disc.

They don't make faster drives than this. I was hoping the SATA one was faster, but I didn't notice a difference between the two. I suppose SATA might be better because I have heard rumors that EIDE can send incorrect data sometimes or something, however I have never noticed this in any situation. As long as the disc isn't ****ed, it can read fine.


NEVER USE Memorex or other extremely cheap discs because they aren't worth it, no matter how inexpensive they are. Out of 15 Memorex DL discs, only 3 of them didn't fail burning. I've gone through 50 Verbatim DL discs and none of them failed. I also hear the chemical on those cheap discs starts to erode in as little as 1 month and the data begins to deteriorate.

 

[Sanada]

Yeah, might as well just buy a replacement as they're so cheap now.

I'm sort of in the same boat with mine. It reads the DVD fine but with games that require the disc to be in the drive in order to play them, it always says the disc is not loaded in the drive or cannot be found. This means that EVERY game that requires this I have to go and find a no CD patch otherwise I can't play it. It did this with HL2 when it required the disc (non-steam version) and it pissed me off no end. I had to rip a drive out of another computer just to play it. It does it with CD based games too so it's not just DVD games.

This drive was also one of the first DL ones available so I paid quite a lot for it which looks stupid now since I've never ever burned a DL disc :|

 

[VirusType2]

This drive was also one of the first DL ones available so I paid quite a lot for it which looks stupid now since I've never ever burned a DL disc :|

yeah, with DVD's going for as little as about .20 cents and a decent DL DVD going for about 1.60 each, it's pretty stupid to burn DL discs for Data when two DVD's will do.

Unless you are backing up movies, which are almost always DL now, it might be a waste to buy a DL burner. However, the price difference between the two drives isn't significant, so you may as well future proof.