Hello all. I'm needing some help. I consider myself a reasonably advanced computer user, however I'm having a problem that totally has me stumped.

I'm trying to burn an audio CD and am having difficulties. It doesn't really matter what the audio content is, the problem is always the same. The issue does not occur for data CD's.

For this example, I'm trying to burn an audio CD with two tracks (MP3 48K source--Internet radio broadcast) which are about 35 minutes for each track. I have the files saved into a folder on the hard drive.

The problem occurs with Nero Burning ROM 6, either using the Burning ROM program or Nero Express (which I hate, but tested anyway just to see if I got different results.).

The issue specifically is during burning, Nero's "buffer" takes around 1.5-2 minutes to "fill" before the CD spins up. Burning at 48x, it drains Nero's buffer within about 5 seconds, then the drive goes into underwrite mode while the buffer takes 1-2 minutes to refill. This fill-and-drain cycle repeats for approximately 20-minutes until the disk is completed--usually a frisbee.

The hardware and pertinent info: one year old home-built Asus A7M266-D motherboard, dual Athlon MP2800+ processors, 1Gb R-ECC PC2100 SDRAM, 222Gb RAID-0 primary volume (3x74Gb WD 10K eSATA controlled by a 3-Ware Escalade 8506-4LP RAID controller in PCI-X [64bit/66Mhz] slot). Running Windows XP Pro SP2. Same issue using either TDK VeloCD 4800B or Asus CRW-5232 (52x) drive. Same issue using Escalade or Adaptec RAID controllers. Media brand doesn't matter--I'm using either TDK 48x CD-R or some cheesy off-brand CD's ("GQ" I think--either way the issue is identical with both). Issue is RESOLVED when using Nero 5.5.10.54. Uninstalling 5.5 and installing Nero 6 re-creates the problem. All drives have latest firmware. Nero 6 upgraded to latest available patches as well.

System performance seems totally normal for what it is---hard drives read/write 75-90Mbytes/sec so I don't think it's inability to pull data fast enough off the drive.

Anyone have any ideas? Ahead's tech support (e-mail only, 5 day turn-around per question) is flat-out useless in my experience.

-Dan

Not sure if it will help, but can you run the Nero Info Tool in the Nero Toolkit and post the log please.

i dont want to sound stupid..but is your burner buffer underrun protected?

and also..if it worked in nero5...why not go back to it...

plan c) start over?...whipe..then re-windows

Actually, not a stupid question at all. The Nero 5.5 that I have is an OEM version that is keyed to TDK VeloCD drives only, so it doesn't work with any other drives. I also have a Sony DRU-530A DVD+-RW that I'd like to use with it as well. Also, CD Drives don't last forever (though from an overall quality standpoint the TDKs seem to be pretty decent drives) and I want to make sure if (when) I have to replace the burner I don't suddenly find myself unable to burn CD's--rather solve this problem when it's an option rather than when it's holding up a schedule.

The initial goal, before getting into this mess, was to go to the latest version, and swap out the TDK for two Asus 52x32x52x drives so that I could burn to two drives simultaneously (many of my disk runs are for 5-20 duplicates at a time). This gives me two options: move to a "more compatible" option by purchasing the "retail" version of 6.0 Ultra (as I did) or seeing if I can find another 4800B drive (no longer in production, but I've seen a used one here and there on eBay) so the 5.5 will work with it. In all, I'm actually happy with 5.5 except that it also doesn't support my Sony DRU-530 DVD burner (due to the TDK OEM keying) and long-term I'm going to eventually have to get this issue resolved as I eventually won't be able to find a replacement TDK.

Also, this was on a 3-hour-old install of Windows XP (tried it both before and after a reformat and reinstall--long story short, this has been an issue for 2 months, in an unrelated event, my Adaptec RAID controller failed 10/28, purchased new controller, wiped clean, reinstalled, problem still exists (drat!)).

I believe buffer underrun in the burner is working fine. The drive happily underruns and waits for more data. Actually, the problem is in Nero's software buffer filling--it takes around 1-2 minutes on the read cycle (filling the "top status bar"). It's as if it can't get the data off the hard drive fast enough--as if I were running on a 7-year-old hard drive.

I'll have to re-install 6 to get you guys a log. Give me a couple days here and I'll get one posted.

i dont want to sound stupid..


Too late! :laugh:


dneuwir, download the Nero Info Tool, which is free and can be used and downloaded seperately, and save the scan and post it here.