Burning DVD coasters

[dickr]

I have started having problems burning DVDs. I'm running OS 10.2.8 on a 1 GHz 17" flat panel iMac with 768 MB of memory. The DVD drive is an OEM Pioneer DVR 105.

Since buying this computer, I have burned dozens of DVDs successfully. I have settled on ProDisc DVD-R 8x printables, which seemed to work very reliably. The last couple of months, though, an increasing number of burned disks have not worked properly. They play OK at the beginning, but an hour or more in, start hanging up and then stopping. The burner seems to do an occasional disk OK, but mostly not.

I didn't used to run verify on my burns, but now I do. Most of the disks verify almost to the end, and then show a message that they were unable to read sector *******, and that the burn failed.

I've tried burning at slower speeds. I've tried different burning softerware - Toast & Popcorn. I've tried different brands of disks, but with no real improvement.

I have access to an OX10.3 upgrade. Might that help?

Do you think the burner is at fault? I've seen some tutorials on replacing it, & it looks pretty daunting.
Or should I look at an external firewire burner? Recommendations?

Any help will be gratefully appreciated.

TIA,
dickr

 

[zainab.juma]

It does sound like a problem with the burner, although others might offer a different opinion. You should ask a question from the macosx.com techs, they may have some fix solutions. I've been using Toast since its infancy and rarely have a problem with it. How long ago did you buy your computer? See if it's still covered under your warranty and try and get a replacement drive. An Apple engineer in an Apple Store should be able to fix the problem for you free of charge if you're still covered.

 

[Roto31]

I first would try and burn a cd and see if the same problems ocour. Then in my experience it's the drive. I would first then try and do an upgrade to Panther (10.3). I did hear of problems like this in Jaguar and were fixed with Panther.

 

[dickr]

An update: I purchased a batch of Taio-Yuden (sp?) DVD-Rs. So far, I've burned 6 DVDs without any problems. I didn't know burnables could go bad with age, but apparently so.

Many thanks to all who answered.