I've used EAC to rip over 400 CDs, mostly without any errors. That was before I even knew about the offset settings. I have a Plextor Premium CD-RW. I have since calibrated the drive myself using one of the listed reference CDs to a read offset of +30 and a write offset of -30. (I later found my manual offsets matched those listed in a table on the internert.)

Now when I rip CDs I'm getting sync errors at the very end of most tracks. This is happening with CDs that I ripped error free previously. I've tried going back to a read offset of zero (which I had used previously) and I'm still getting these consistent sync errors at the ends of tracks. Does anyone know what might be causing this? Does it have anything to do with the read offset? Is my Plextor beginning to fail? My CDs are clean. Please advise.

Being a pretty dumb Liberal Arts major, I would suggest you go back to the way you were doing it before.

That's the new problem! I've tried returning to my original settings and the sync errors continue. Are there any other suggestions (from a Computer Science major?)

I would try unticking "over read leadin/leadout".

Yeah, that very well could be your problem. Also if you keep having issues with your drive you could always try out Plextools. Plextools doesn't offer the same encoding capabilities as EAC. But if you don't mind using an external batch encoding program, Plextools is much faster than EAC and IMO provides similar if not identical results. I haven't tested the programs for differences, but then again I haven't heard any artifacts that Plextools could have possibly created.

Sorry for the slightly off-topic post, but I just figured if you had a Plextor drive you might want to give Plextools a shot.

Most drives can overread into leadin (beginning of track), but not leadout (end of track or disc). Isn't this mentioned in the dialog window itself?

I dont bother with these errors... At least my leadin offset is correct

But he has a Plextor...

If that happens on the last tracks only, uncheck "Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out" in EAC/Drive Options.../Offset / Speed tab. If that happens on other tracks too, make sure that "Synchronize between tracks" is checked in EAC/EAC Options.../Extraction tab.

Well, I appreciate the suggestions. Here's what I did.

1. Synchronize between tracks was already checked.
2. I unchecked the over read leadin/leadout. No help.
3. I removed the +30 read offset. No help.
4. I changed my gap/indices detection settings several different ways from Method A/Secure to Method B/Inaccurate. No help.
5. Tried ripping at default settings with my LiteOn DVD drive. Perfect rip.
6. Tried ripping at default settings with my TDK DVD burner. Perfect rip.
7. Noticed that for both of these drives under Drive Options, "Big Endian" byte order was unchecked.
8. Unchecked "Big Endian" byte order for Plextor. Perfect rip.
9. Changed Plextor back to over read, +30 and Method A/Secure. Perfect rip.

I now realize what happened. I recently downloaded the "ESSENTIAL" profile off the internet. I used that as a new basis for creating my own ripping profile. Apparently, that profile had "Big Endian" checked and it wasn't checked when I previously ripped 400 CDs. With that check box active, I get sync errors consistently at the ends of all tracks. Remove the check and the rips are perfect. Now I don't understand what "Big Endian" means, but I think it is strange that my music files will play fine and sound fine either way. From the pop up help balloon I would assume that you must have it set to the correct method for your drive, otherwise you'd get white noise. But in my case, both ways sound fine. I just get a sync error at the end with it checked.

Now I also discovered something else strange and I wonder if this happens to others. I've been using the WMA9 encoder as an external compressor with EAC. Normally, I've had the external window pop up during compression and all is good. But then I noticed the EAC option>tools>do not open external compressor window. If I check that, I seem to get WMA files encoded at 192 Kbps that are the correct size, but they will not play. I assumed the check box meant that your compression would still take place; you just wouldn't be distracted by the DOS window. But in my case, checking that box seems to "hose" the file creation process. Has anyone else experienced this when trying to use that check box? Thanks again.

Downloading and using someone else's EAC profiles is uselss at best and can be harmful as they are largely hardware- and system-specific.