This is a question I get asked on a daily basis and I try to answer every query on its merits. Well, today I started having problems with my main tower system: one of my A05 drives would miss the last 2 minutes of the film and, although 'CD Speed' showed a good graph, playback froze 2 minutes before the end of the film.

My first thoughts were to blame the media, so I tried several different brands but still got the same results. The next A05 appeared to burn and the burn looked good and even, but the discs were not recognised in any drive or player: another faulty disc I thought. So, I tried again with several different discs, all with the same results on this drive.

The Pioneer DVR-106 that I am reviewing was better but there was still some sticking in playback towards the edge of the disc. It's easy to blame this on media. Well I am supposed to be the expert on this so who do I go to for advice and what should I do?

After deciding that all the media could not be at fault my next thought was the drives have gone down. The idea, however, that 3 drives should go belly-up in the same day, although possible, seems very doubtful. So I then tried uninstalling and reinstalling my DVD writing software - Stomp "Record Now Max". I reinstalled it after a reboot and applied the latest PX Engine but, yep, still the same!!

Next I checked the DMA mode of all my IDE controllers (a common cause for problems. They were all set correctly in DMA mode so the problem was not in this area.

The fact that the burners had been working satisfactory previously with the same firmware eliminated a firmware problem so my next thoughts were the drives are possibly malfunctioning. I decided that before I condemned them I would replace them with new A05's (the fact that they are currently on offer at under £120 assisted me in this decision).

In the meantime, it had to be time for a system clean up. I checked all my hard drive and DVD drive connections to make sure there were no problems here.

The next option is one that I recommend to others when all else fails and there is a possible software or driver clash, (I had not installed anything to cause this) I backed up my essential files and did a fresh install of Windows XP (now where did I put those drivers?).

I installed "Record Now Max" (only) with the latest PX engine and proceeded to copy 3 different DVD's at the same time with my setup, and to my surprise and pleasure all three discs burnt Ok and playback was perfect right to the end of the disc.

PROBLEM SOLVED.

I am unable to find a reason for my problem but I found a cure so the moral of this is this: before you condemn your discs, burners or hardware check it out with a clean install of your operating system, there may be some driver, DLL or gremlin in it that can stuff up your burning process.

My system built up from scratch stands at the moment::-
ATHLON 2K running at 1.66 gigs
500 Watt PSU
512 meg DDR ram
NVIDIA RIVA TNT2 Graphics AGP
On board C-Media Audio
100 Mbs LAN PCI
Hollywood Real Magic DVD Decoder card
2 x CMD PCI Ultra DMA IDE controller cards (in addition to the on board IDE controller)
I have 6 Hard drives 3 DVD R burners and 3 DVD-ROM readers
And plenty of fans for cooling
The IDE set up is as follows
ON BOARD IDE
PRIMARY
Master 19 gig HD
Slave 18.6 gig HD
SECONDARY
Master PIONEER DVR_106D DVD Burner
Slave Toshiba SD_M1712 DVD-ROM reader
CMD PCI IDE 1
PRIMARY
Master 57.2 gig HD
Slave 9.3 gig HD
SECONDARY
Master PIONEER A05 DVD Burner
Slave NEC DV-5800 DVD-ROM reader
CMD PCI IDE 2
PRIMARY
Master 74.5 gig HD
Slave 7.86 gig HD
SECONDARY
Master PIONEER A05 DVD Burner
Slave SAMSUNG SD 616F DVD-ROM reader

With this set up I can do three independent burns or burn three copies all at the same time. I use each setup of IDE controller 2x hard drives DVD burner and DVD reader for one burn process. Doing it this way means the independent burns do not interfere with each other. I very rarely copy on the fly but with this setup it is easily possible with the modified Toshiba drive.

I set the burn copy process to copy the whole DVD to the temp hard drive first before burning. This will eliminate any coasters caused by unreadable media. The smaller hard drives are used just for this process. If I need to process a movie before burning this is done on the larger hard drives and can be done whilst the burn is in process providing I use a drive that is not on the IDE controller I am using for burning.

Providing that no programs are opened during the burn process the burning will continue uninterrupted but if a program like DVDDecrypter, CD Speed or Smart Ripper are opened during the burn process there will be a bus reset and the burn will fail, these programs will run satisfactory side by side with the burn process but must be opened prior to commencing the burn.

If you have any comments or questions about this article please send them to: flash@dvd-recordable.net.