Mechanical Positioning Error

[ajm1961]

OK, I am DESPERATE! I have created a few different CD audio projects (DMSA) files over the past few months, and I cannot burn them reliably!!

Attached are the screen shots from the last attempt. Basically I get a "Seek, synch, ATIP or mechanical error - Hardware error" at various stages on different attempts to burn my audio projects.

Here are some other details:

 

The audio projects are built from mp3 files (to be converted into WAV) that are either on a portable hard drive or the laptop hard drive. Have tried both, with no success. The latest project has 18 songs, total length of 72 minutes. Each song has an overlap (mix) between 2 and 10 seconds. In somes cases I had also used the Edit tool to remove silence on the track and thus shortening the overlap needed between the tracks.

 

The laptop is a Compaq Presario CQ56, about 8 months old.

The CD/DVD drive is a hp DVDRAM GT30L - its drivers details are in the attachment.

The controller is an Intel ICH9M-E/M SATA AHCI - its drivers details are also in the attachment.

 

I have tried:

- setting the controller to DMA, but there's no channel to set. I also tried via the BIOS, but again there is no property to set from there.

- I have tried upgrading my Roxio 2011 to the latest patch - already installed!

- I tried moving the files and rebuilding the project from the external hard drive to the laptop's - still unreliable

- I have purchased an external DVD/CD burner - LG Super-Multi model GE24LU20 - still no success

- I have installed the Roxio driver as indicated on this forum - still no difference

 

So... any suggestions, or should I just give up using your product? I was able to burn a Windows Media audio CD, but without any overlaps between songs. Please, I have no patience left, and I promised to make someone a mix for their wedding this weekend.

CD write error messages.doc

[gi7omy]

Forgot to mention that I am using Windows 7. Is this problematic? I remember the "good old days" of using a previous version of Roxio on my (noew defunct) Windows NT or XP Desktop. Never experienced these problems before.

 

 

First of all - the fact you are getting errors in other apps suggests either a faulty drive or faulty media (the laser can't read the small track on the disc with the disc into and alignment). Try a CD-RW (that's a re-writable/erasable CD) and not a previopusly used one)

 

Regarding Windows 7, normally the only time there can be problems is if it's an upgrade of a previous OS rather than a fresh installation (on a blank hard drive) but that would only affect some applications and not hardware

[cdanteek]

Makes sense to me. How else to explain that Sony - a "good" brand - didn't work for me, but Memorex - a "not so-good" brand - did wonderfully.

Good perspective - I will now certainly have a few brands ready just in case!!

 

Brand names mean nothing when it comes to optical media!

 

Sony and Memorex don't make optical media, they farm it out and someone makes it for them. Could be good this time then bad next time.

 

Even Verbatim who actually makes media is farming out production to Moserbaer India.

 

One brand I've never been burned on is JVC Taiyo Yuden from supermediastore.com and rima.com..

 

Buy the premium line, some parts of this world they use fake media ID"s for JVC Taiyo Yuden and pawn them off as Taiyo Yuden media ..

 

A good free tool to check media ID's, dvd identifier v5.2.0 [January 10, 2009], http://dvdidentifier.cdfreaks.com/

[ajm1961]

I've found that some burners seem to give excellent burns with a particular assortment of disc brands and manufacturers, while other burners perform better with a different array of blanks. I've had excellent results from some "rubbish" brands and poor results from "good" brands - it depends on which drive I'm using and what speed I'm burning at.

 

Recommended types are a good starting point, but it seems important to be prepared to experiment, and once you find a disc type/brand/MID and speed which suits your burner - stick with it.

 

Regards,

Brendon

Makes sense to me. How else to explain that Sony - a "good" brand - didn't work for me, but Memorex - a "not so-good" brand - did wonderfully.

Good perspective - I will now certainly have a few brands ready just in case!!

[Brendon]

I've found that some burners seem to give excellent burns with a particular assortment of disc brands and manufacturers, while other burners perform better with a different array of blanks. I've had excellent results from some "rubbish" brands and poor results from "good" brands - it depends on which drive I'm using and what speed I'm burning at.

 

Recommended types are a good starting point, but it seems important to be prepared to experiment, and once you find a disc type/brand/MID and speed which suits your burner - stick with it.

 

Regards,

Brendon

[Jim_Hardin]

Never, ever had a problem with Sony discs...

 

I recommend them if Verbatim are not available.

[gi7omy]

Actually there's no real difference (the 'audio' tag to me is just a way to get a bit more money out of the customer)

 

I use standard CDs for everything and very rarely have problems

[ajm1961]

If you bought Memorex you have almost bought the least reliable. Many here recommend them only for a dumpster.

Yeah, I saw that some others did not recommend this brand, but it's working for me... ironic isn't it? Right now I would say that SONY is the brand to stay away from based on my experience. I know that when I was at Costco, they were selling two types of CD-R, one labelled for AUDIO, and another for DATA. I chose the former, thinking it was meant for burning audio projects. Is there a difference? They are 80 min, 700 Mb disks. They did seem to run slower though - I don;t have the wrapper anymore that rated the max speed. But the Memorex is listed as 40x. And they burn at twice the speed of the Sony disks I have.

[bimicher]

EUREKA! It seemed like it was the media after all!! I bought some Memorex CD-R on my way home, and I have been able to burn, burn, burn!!

Couldn't believe it! I have never had problems with a whole batch of disks before. These were SONY CR-R AUDIO I bought from Costco in Ohio. It seemed like a good deal, $29 for 100 disks - here in Canada we have additional taxes on blank CDs. But, in the end, it WASN'T WORTH IT!

Thanks to everyone for your advice. Next time I should look to the simple things first!

 

If you bought Memorex you have almost bought the least reliable. Many here recommend them only for a dumpster.

[ajm1961]

First of all - the fact you are getting errors in other apps suggests either a faulty drive or faulty media (the laser can't read the small track on the disc with the disc into and alignment). Try a CD-RW (that's a re-writable/erasable CD) and not a previopusly used one)

 

Regarding Windows 7, normally the only time there can be problems is if it's an upgrade of a previous OS rather than a fresh installation (on a blank hard drive) but that would only affect some applications and not hardware

 

EUREKA! It seemed like it was the media after all!! I bought some Memorex CD-R on my way home, and I have been able to burn, burn, burn!!

Couldn't believe it! I have never had problems with a whole batch of disks before. These were SONY CR-R AUDIO I bought from Costco in Ohio. It seemed like a good deal, $29 for 100 disks - here in Canada we have additional taxes on blank CDs. But, in the end, it WASN'T WORTH IT!

Thanks to everyone for your advice. Next time I should look to the simple things first!

[ajm1961]

...sick OS...

 

Forgot to mention that I am using Windows 7. Is this problematic? I remember the "good old days" of using a previous version of Roxio on my (noew defunct) Windows NT or XP Desktop. Never experienced these problems before.

[ajm1961]

Sorry to butt in here but there is another piece of information that I'd like to see. Put one of the CDs in your drive. From the Creator 2011 Home page go to Tools and then "Get disc information." Post that image after it read the disc and drive.

 

I thnk you may have a sick puppy OS. Are you experiencing any other issues with other programs?

 

Do you mean a blank CD or a CD that was partially burned in the process? I will post when I get back home.

I should mention that the process was interrupted at various stages - one made it to 78%, others at 30%, 27%, etc. I also tried burning from Windows Media Player. Out of about 4 tries, only one made it through. It obviously has no crossfades, which is not I wanted. I also tried using Roxio's Sound Editor to make WAV files with no "dead air" at the beginning or end of the track. I then compiled them in both Windows Media Player and Roxio 2011. In both cases, the process was interrupted again. In these cases I got a different message: "Illegal Track"...? Also tried burning the playlist on both my internal and external burners.

I'll also be trying out a different laptop tonight to see if I can get it done. Man, this is exhausting work!! Thanks to all that replied.

[sknis]

Sorry to butt in here but there is another piece of information that I'd like to see. Put one of the CDs in your drive. From the Creator 2011 Home page go to Tools and then "Get disc information." Post that image after it read the disc and drive.

 

I thnk you may have a sick puppy OS. Are you experiencing any other issues with other programs?

[Jim_Hardin]

Do you have any RW discs (cd or dvd) you could slap together a simple test with???

 

Try Windows built in burning and burning a song from Windows Media Player+

 

Here are the pics, I extracted and cropped them:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[gi7omy]

It's not at all strange - especially if you look at what the error report said

 

"Seek, synch, ATIP or mechanical error - Hardware error"

 

It wouldn't be the first time I've installed a drive for a customer and found it to be faulty

[ajm1961]

First of all , this not "my" or "our" product. This is a users forum and we are just users of the software like you.

 

The error message shows that it is a hardware error and not a software error. You have a bad burner, the burner firmware needs updating or you are using inferior discs such as Maxel, Memorex or store brands.

 

BTW, why are you using Word to attach your pictures. You can easily attach pictures by simply following the instructions given here.

OK - for some reason I thought that Roxio tech support also chimed in on this forum. So, sorry if I said "your product".

As for the pictures, I was simply more familiar in using Word to put all the pics in. I will look at the instructions for another method.

Now, as to your suggestion that the burner is at fault - isn't it strange that this problem is occuring on two recently purchased drives? One is internal, the other external. I also looked into the Device Manager and looked for more recent drivers. In both cases, Windows displays a message that the most recent driver is installed. So, I'm scratching my head on this one. As for the media, I am using Sony CD-R. I will try to use another computer, I'm running out of options I think...

Thanks for replying.

[bimicher]

OK, I am DESPERATE! I have created a few different CD audio projects (DMSA) files over the past few months, and I cannot burn them reliably!!

Attached are the screen shots from the last attempt. Basically I get a "Seek, synch, ATIP or mechanical error - Hardware error" at various stages on different attempts to burn my audio projects.

Here are some other details:

 

The audio projects are built from mp3 files (to be converted into WAV) that are either on a portable hard drive or the laptop hard drive. Have tried both, with no success. The latest project has 18 songs, total length of 72 minutes. Each song has an overlap (mix) between 2 and 10 seconds. In somes cases I had also used the Edit tool to remove silence on the track and thus shortening the overlap needed between the tracks.

 

The laptop is a Compaq Presario CQ56, about 8 months old.

The CD/DVD drive is a hp DVDRAM GT30L - its drivers details are in the attachment.

The controller is an Intel ICH9M-E/M SATA AHCI - its drivers details are also in the attachment.

 

I have tried:

- setting the controller to DMA, but there's no channel to set. I also tried via the BIOS, but again there is no property to set from there.

- I have tried upgrading my Roxio 2011 to the latest patch - already installed!

- I tried moving the files and rebuilding the project from the external hard drive to the laptop's - still unreliable

- I have purchased an external DVD/CD burner - LG Super-Multi model GE24LU20 - still no success

- I have installed the Roxio driver as indicated on this forum - still no difference

 

So... any suggestions, or should I just give up using your product? I was able to burn a Windows Media audio CD, but without any overlaps between songs. Please, I have no patience left, and I promised to make someone a mix for their wedding this weekend.

 

First of all , this not "my" or "our" product. This is a users forum and we are just users of the software like you.

 

The error message shows that it is a hardware error and not a software error. You have a bad burner, the burner firmware needs updating or you are using inferior discs such as Maxel, Memorex or store brands.

 

BTW, why are you using Word to attach your pictures. You can easily attach pictures by simply following the instructions given here.