PC Profiles Forum: Hardware: Drives: NEC DVD+/-RW Combo drive

<< Back to Main Site


	MAIN INDEX	SEARCH POSTS	WHO'S ONLINE	LOG IN

Home: Hardware: Drives:
NEC DVD+/-RW Combo drive

azzey
User

Oct 22, 2006, 7:18 PM

Post #1 of 4 (2509 views)
Shortcut

NEC DVD+/-RW Combo drive	Can't Post

Today my trusty NEC drive had partially died Mad

When I first bought it, it had some problems reading certain CD's, but after a while that problem went away and it was good for about a year. Today I went to burn a CD and got the error "Power Calibration Error - Burn Process Failed". I tried it in my Shuttle and same thing--"Power Calibration Error". I tried burning a DVD and it worked fine. Reading any discs works fine. It seems to me like there just a problem with CD's.

Time to buy a new one and put this one in the server downstairs (no need to burn CD's).
____________________________
Mike

-"Microsoft isn't evil, they just make really crappy operating systems" --Linus Torvalds
-"Don't be Evil" --Google's motto

hotrod
User

Oct 30, 2006, 9:47 AM

Post #2 of 4 (2407 views)
Shortcut

Re: [azzey] NEC DVD+/-RW Combo drive [In reply to]	Can't Post

It does sound like its on its way out but before you totally give up hope go to the manufacturers website and you should be able to find the latest firmware upgrade. I would be sure you have the latest installed and if you already do then I would say its curtains...

If you dont have the latest firmware upgrade installed theres usually a firmware flash utility you can download from thier site and you can install it from that program then recheck to see if it repaired the issue.

It's definitely worth a try before you write it off and spend money you could use some where else.

Hotrod

azzey
User

Oct 31, 2006, 9:41 AM

Post #3 of 4 (2393 views)
Shortcut

Re: [hotrod] NEC DVD+/-RW Combo drive [In reply to]	Can't Post

Actually, before I read your post I tried a couple things:

Different brand of CD's - Now I'm using some nice expensive Verbatims, but I was still getting coasters
I upgraded the firmware from 1.01 to 1.04 and so far I have had no coasters (but I only burned two CD's)

If I burn with the old CD's now, I still get burn errors. I'll have to wait for the weekend when I have more time to do some more testing.

Oh, I burned a copy of Ubuntu-64 and I got errors on two sectors.. I think I'll call that a victory of the 100 or so that I was getting before. At least it finished burning now!
____________________________
Mike

-"Microsoft isn't evil, they just make really crappy operating systems" --Linus Torvalds
-"Don't be Evil" --Google's motto

hotrod
User

Oct 31, 2006, 10:11 AM

Post #4 of 4 (2390 views)
Shortcut

Re: [azzey] NEC DVD+/-RW Combo drive [In reply to]	Can't Post

The brand of CD definitely could be an issue. On more than one occasion I have had problems buring Sony brand CD/DVD's and I use Sony Drives. I have given up on using Sony's and use what I would call a cheaper brand (9.99 for 100 CD's) and have very little problems.

A friend of mine came over and saw that I had some high gloss white labeled DVD's and he noticed on the fine print on the center ring that it had the manufacturer's name and it was Princo. He told me that brand was one of the top manufacturer's that you want to use and to his surprise they were making CD's for Office Max. That was the label that was on them. So far out of 50 DVD's I have used about 40 and have had 0 defects in burning. I will continue to use these and they have great sale prices at different times that makes them an economical choice. My friend has burned well over 1,000 DVD's and after researching and thru experience he has narrowed his brands down to about 3 he uses. I will try to find out the other two and post later.

It's good to hear things seem to be working better on the drive. I always love reviving a piece of hardware and prolonging its use. It gives you a sense of getting something for free.

Hotrod

(This post was edited by hotrod on Oct 31, 2006, 10:14 AM)

Search for (options)