RW writing problem

[Demon Cleaner]

- Updated firmware
- Changed IDE cabling + redetected
- Changed drive letter path

No changes, it doesn't want to burn RW anymore, plus I tested with the Commodore discs, which it also refuses to burn.

[Harrison]

Sounds like the drive is partly broken then. Is there another PC you could connect the drive to for testing to see if the drive is actually working or not? Because if you find the drive is working it could be the IDE on the motherboard that isn't working properly.

Have you also tried updating your motherboard drivers?

[Demon Cleaner]

Is there another PC you could connect the drive to for testing to see if the drive is actually working or not?

You know, for cheap money I can buy another one rather than testing it on several PCs with no results.

Have you also tried updating your motherboard drivers?

Nope. I have the P4P800 Asus board, with the latest updated BIOS, which is already very obsolete.

I don't think it has something to do with drivers or firmware or bad connectivity or whatever. I tried to burn a disc with a scratch, burn went fine, and afterwards it refused burning RWs, in my opinion, drive is broken. But this was the last time I bought a Pioneer burner, as it's the 4th and 3 of them died, not immediately in the first month, but finally it broke anyway.

I also found a working copy of God of War now, so I can now play.

[Harrison]

If you get a new burner I highly recommend NEC. Been using them for years without any problems.

And that scratching disc issue I had a while back seemed to be scratches on the actual discs when I checked through all of the blanks from the same spindle pack so the drive wasn't actually scratching the discs after all.

[Demon Cleaner]

So NEC is the way to go, I thought I'd buy an LG as Oz uses them a lot. Never had a NEC, perhaps it's time to get one Should I buy the newest model, or is there any particular good older model?

[Harrison]

Newest NEC model is always the way to go. NEC have recently released a new range under the name Optiarc. This is a joint venture with Sony, so both NEC and Sony drives are using the same NEC Optiarc drive units.

The NEC Optiarc drives are available in both IDE and SATA versions and both come in silver, black or beige and both are 18x drives.

I've PM'd you some model numbers of current NEC drives. Model numbers may vary slightly in other countries.