I have used a NEC 1300A and a LG 4160 DVD-R. In both of them, it happens that in some of my discs the data verification failed because one or two files are different. This happens only to my system as I have used both of them in another combo without any problems. I already have formated my PC, tried another memory, tried another hard drive, tried another PSU but nothing worked. I also have tested my memory with memtest and my cpu with prime 95.
I have win2k sp4 and my motherboard is a Gigabyte 7IXEH.

Any ideas?

Probably it is the burning program bug, or files were modified immediately after burning but before verification.

Check your system for viruses. Especially if this files were .EXE.
Also try to compare this "different" files manually with TotalCMD or WinHEX.

Pri3st, I had what sounds exactly the same problem as you. I don't believe the problem was with the burner since I reproduced the error with two DVD drives. I re-installed XP and the problem was gone, a couple of weeks later I re-installed XP and the problem came back. I'd love to know what the root cause was but after again re-installing XP the problem went away, again.
I now only install one piece of burning software, Nero, and everything seems OK.

I don't have any virus. I am using Nero for burning and I also have installed alcohol 110%. I also compare the different files with TotalCMD.

evereux, do you think that the cause was the dma. I read in one forum that if I turn off the dma, the errors will be gone. Maybe after one of your XP installation the DMA was off thats why yours errors were gone.

I'm running my DVD drives in Multi-Word DMA Mode 2 and everything currently runs fine. I personally don't advise turning off DMA.

Happened to me as well.... I have a LG DVD Dual Layer Burner dunno what brand but it was the first LG to support Dual Layer and 8x burning came in both black and white bezels.

Updated firmware... still got data errors.

Now I burn with Test, Write and Verify with Padus Discjuggler. Also I only have the computer on with nothing else drawing power from the power point and I don't do anything else while it burns. So far 100% burns using this.

Theory power fluctuations cause data errors... just a theory.


Regards

You could try a different IDE cable...

I've had verification fail also but when using rewritable discs. In my situation I "think" it was because the disc had dust or other debrees on the surface, cleaning the disc fixed the problem.

I've noticed that many discs come right out of the package with what looks like paper dust if the disc comes in its own jewel case with an insert. Those that are in spindels sometimes look like they have some plastic shards or flakes from the other discs from being bumped around during shipping/handling. A good puff on the surface "may" elleviate some problems.

Pri3st
> I also compare the different files with TotalCMD.
...and the results were... (?)
What kind of differences do you see? In what type(s) of files?
What did you burn (DVD-Video or ISO)?

evereux
> I'm running my DVD drives in Multi-Word DMA Mode 2
This is far from real DMA mode. Check your configuration...
You should see "Ultra DMA mode 2"

Pri3st
> I read in one forum that if I turn off the dma, the errors will be gone.
Many modern DVD-writers burns much worse in PIO mode. (see faq)

I cant understand, is there any read error on burned DVD, or files just different?
Maybe only date of files changed?


NEC FAQ and troubleshooting guide.
http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=92320&page=1

Liteon FAQ, but contains very useful general information about DMA and quality
http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=109986

I had corruption problems with my Plexwriter on my
old P3 800MHz machine. I had to set the jumper to DMA
mode to force mutli-word DMA for it to work properly. In
my current P4 2.8GHz everything works smoothly
in Ultra-DMA. Does your rig pack enough horsepower?

I don't know if your drive has a jumper position for DMA.
I doubt it, being a NEC owner myself.

My new NEC 3500A has worked pretty well until now.
I've had quite a few inexplicable occurences of buffer
under-runs (both device buffer and secondary data
buffer...), which is very weird for a fast PC with lots of
memory, but all my burns have passed verification and
give very good Nero CD/DVD speed results.

>...and the results were... (?)
>What kind of differences do you see? In what type(s) of files?
>What did you burn (DVD-Video or ISO)?

The TotalCMD found also the errors. It doesn't matter the type of the files. It happens in both ISO and DVD- Video. Files likes .mpc were corrupted also.

My drives are working in Ultra-DMA mode.

>I cant understand, is there any read error on burned DVD, or files just different?

No, there are no read errors in the burned DVD, the file is perfectly readable but different than the original

Finally, I don't have any buffer underruns at all.

Edit: I have also used another IDE cable but the problem still exists.

Maybe it is just the media you're using ... there is a lot of el-cheapo crap or incompatible stuff out there (especially with DVD-R from my experience).

Check for available firmware upgrades which should increase media compatibility and also check reasonably priced sources for quality media.

I have used a differnt brands of media. But mostly verbatim ones. I don't think that this is the problem. As I said in another combo I don't have any problems.

I have the NEC 1300 A also, and have found out, that especially old (eg. CD-RW)or cheap & bad crap media (even certain DVD+R and espcially DVD+-RW), the NEC1300A is a bad reading drive. That drive had burnt my DVDs, but wasn't able to read certain positions on the DVD !!! reason: bad media, don't try to save money on DVD media...
Verbatim should be ok, according to my xp, but the last few of a 50-spindle verbatim (MCC Mitusbishi 8x) dvd+r had slight probs in last DVDs on the spindle... (probs only visble in nero-cd-dvd-speed verification, normal data reading&veryfications went smoothly, though, intertestingly). Now I have tried a new 25 spindle dvd+r 4x from Emtec, I hoped, Emtec had still the good RicohJPN dvd+r's, but they changed to a new brand, unknown to me, though perfect verifications with nero cd-dvd-speed test, opposite to my last verbatims...


maybe the bad reading of the NEC explains your errors ? Do the same discs verify ok, if read by another dvd-drive in another pc ?
This was the case with my 1st cheap dvd media trials.

if problem exists with two DVD drives...
I really think that it is burning software problem. It was used for all bad burns, wasnt it?

Do you use latest version of nero?
Did you experienced problems with alcohol120% burns?

I belife that if it is a media problem, there at least should be read errors...

As I said, I double checked the different files with TotalCMD.



In another pc with same version of Nero, I don't have any verification errors.



With alcohol you can't burn files only images. So I really don't know.

I had a similar problem on a PIII 700Mhz (with Windows 98): turning off DMA, data verification was ok while with DMA on some files were different.

I'd not exclude a motherboard bug: if you have VIA try updating IDE Drivers.