Thinkpads Forum

Hey everyone,

I've had consistent trouble burning DVD+R DL discs on the Slim Multidrive in my T60p. The laptop is an 8744-C9U and the drive itself is a HL-DT-STDVDRAM GSA-4083N.

Essentially, the drive will be able to burn DL discs a few times, and then after a week, or a month, it will just start failing. ImgBurn will usually report that there are device errors and that burning cannot continue. If it does manage to burn the disc without reporting any errors and finalize the disc, then the disc is usually unreadable in other machines. I know it's not the media (or the images), as I've tried the media (and images) in other machines and it works fine, and it also worked when the drive first arrived. Also, I've tried different burning programs, including the provided one, Nero. I've also attempted to boot up in Ubuntu and burn that way, which also failed. The drive still burns DVDs and CDs just fine. It only begins to report errors when I burn dual layer DVDs.

Lastly, this is my 3rd drive that this has happened to, and I don't really want to call in again to get this one replaced, just to have it fail in a few weeks again. Is this just bad luck, or has anyone else experienced this? I'm using the newest BIOS available for my laptop, and the DVD drive shows a firmware of 1.0, and I was unable to find a newer one from a reputable source. At this point, any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I'm a dunce. I loathe having to type this, but it was the discs all along. I don't know if it was just pure (bad) luck that things happened the way they did, but I started getting the same errors when I eventually tried burning on the external again. It was really hit or miss with each individual disc, and I'd have to just keep trying the same image file over and over until one burned successfully. Nothing wrong with the SlimLine burner at all.

I have experienced the same problem - It would seem that some drives are only comfortable with certain vendor makes (and guess dye's) in the media as well as media from the same vendor but from different batch numbers etc.

For example: I have tried to burn Philips branded DVD's without success, but burned a-ok in other drives. Tried a 2nd cake of Philip's DVD's with different batch numbers in which ALL burned ok in the drive that refused to burn the initial lot! (using the same software)

Just as speakers will often make or break a decent stereo setup, questionable media often causes problems with CD or DVD burning.

Blank media from Taiyo Yuden, in Japan, is widely regarded as the best stuff on the planet. My personal experiences with such has served only to confirm that. Never had one single problem that could not be attributed to crappy burning software (NCH's ExpressBurn), or a stupid mistake on my part.

T-Y media does appear at the retail level, but it is rare, and it is most definitely not distinctively labeled. The best advice I can give along those lines is to CHECK THE FINE PRINT on the package, particularly the "Made in" designation. If it says "Made in Japan," there's a pretty good chance it's T-Y no matter what the package label says.

If the "Made in" portion says Taiwan, China, Korea, or wherever, quietly put it back on the shelf and move on.

I've also seen (and bought) lots of blank T-Y media from Ebay. The only tricks to remember there are to try and pick a seller that's local to your country of residence, and pay close attention to their feedback numbers.

Happy burning.