Does anyone have any idea.......?

[Stephen Morgan]

Right, this is gonna be long, hope it makes sense, bear with me.

I've been using Datawrite Titanium full face printable CD-Rs, I must have burned upward of about 800+ discs and had no problem with them, they would play on anything I would care to play them on, my stereo, DVD player, in the car, and people I gave the discs to had no problem either, until recently.
When I bought a new batch of discs in March I found that they would not play in my stereo when burned, but they were ok on my DVD player, but this is not what I want them for, I also found other people were having problems with them jumping and skipping, and sometimes not playing at all, so I was having to do another disc for them, it seemed to be a hit and miss affair with a replacement disc playing ok.
After this I bought a new CD burner, a Lite On, thinking this would solve the problem, no chance, the discs still would not play on my stereo, but would play for other people. Yesterday I did a copy of a disc, incidentally they're ok on my PC, and the disc displayed the usual problem of not playing for someone else. So, I copied this disc onto Viv's PC upstairs and burned it onto another disc from the same batch, Lo and behold this disc plays on my stereo.
So, my question is this.. could I have a problem with the motherboard, maybe a short or something in a connecting lead inside the PC? Given the amount of discs I've burned using the PC could this be an issue?

Any ideas?

[Alex]

I had a load of problems with Datawrite dvd r's, the first 50 worked, but then rest I couldn't get to burn properly, it got to about 75% way through and then stopped. I know it's not exactly the same problem as yours, but it does suggest that something's not 100% with their product.

I did a bit of googling when I had my problems with the discs, and found out that sometimes manufacturers change the way the discs are made, and then sometimes you end up with loads of what I've heard referred to as "coasters", ie completely useless blank cds, or ones which'll only play on certain computers / cd players. It seems a really odd situation where they get away with selling a product which only sometimes works and everyone seems complacent about it.

I doubt it'd be a motherboard problem, if anything it could be a problem with the cd burner, but again as you bought a new cd burner I doubt if that'd be the case. I'd suggest buying a better known brand (and perhaps a slightly more expensive one) of blank cd, and see if the same happens - I'd be surprised if they didn't work to be honest, my gut feeling is that it is a problem with the datawrite discs rather than your pc.

[Wayne]

I've never understood the various compatiblity problems that you get with these things, but as Alex says, it might be worth shopping around & trying some different discs.

I had a load of problems with Datawrite dvd r's,

Whereas i swear by them! I've used 'em since day one, & whilst you always get the odd duff disc from time to time like with most brands, I can't really say i've had any trouble with them at all.

[Lissa]

What speed do you burn your discs at? You might get more reliability if you lower the speed if you currently use over 8x.

[Stephen Morgan]

I usually burn at 24, and have had no problems until recently.

[Rob McCow]

Nothing to do with your PC I reckon.

When I bought a new batch of discs in March I found that they would not play in my stereo

Have you tried other CD manufacturers? I reckon this is where the problem is, Datawrite may have moved over to a cheaper production method.

[Dirk Gently]

Whereas i swear by them! I've used 'em since day one, & whilst you always get the odd duff disc from time to time like with most brands, I can't really say i've had any trouble with them at all.

Although I should say Wayne that one of my DVD players (the one upstairs, Panasonic) sometimes doesn't like your dvd's but the cheaper Daewoo downstairs will play them ok.

[Stephen Morgan]

Long way around it but I've been burning stuff from my PC onto a CD-RW this afternoon, taking it upsatirs and copying the disc onto a disc from the same batch that will not play on my stereo, Bingo, doing it this way and the thing plays on my stereo with no problem.
I can't keep on doing that though as it's taking ages, I'm gonna look around to see what other discs are available.

[Lissa]

SVP do sample packs of printable and non-printable discs so you can check whether they work on your computer.

[Stephen Morgan]

I've dealt with SVP, they are very good. They didn't quibble when I sent half of a pack of discs back to them in April because they appeared to be faulty, give 'em their due, they refunded me the whole amount.

[Stephen Morgan]

Well, it seems it is the discs, I've just bought a pack of 10 Verbatim discs (printable) from WH Smiths, burned one from my PC and it plays perfectly on my stereo, so, hopefully, problem solved. I'll see what discs are available next time I need some, there are plenty to choose from I know.

[Pip Madeley]

IWhereas i swear by them! I've used 'em since day one, & whilst you always get the odd duff disc from time to time like with most brands, I can't really say i've had any trouble with them at all.

Ditto! We might as well hold shares.

[Dirk Gently]

Steve swears by them, he says "That's another f***ing one that doesn't work!"

[Pip Madeley]

The worst brand I've encountered was Imitation - coaster after coaster after coaster... Datasafe was another ropey one. I used to always buy Bulkpaq at first (4x speed), but tried Datawrite Mach 8x speed DVD-Rs and never looked back...

[Stephen Morgan]

Steve swears by them, he says "That's another f***ing one that doesn't work!"

You're almost right there actually.