[fergler]

For the past several months I've had problems with burning music cds. The first 4-5 songs sound find, but the rest have terrible static, and in some cases skipping. I've tried burning at different speeds, with different disc brands and different software: Napster, Roxio, Nero, Windows Media Player. Nothing seems to work.

I though maybe it was because my computer was running very slow (CPU usage at 100% when burning cds). Within the last week I had someone look at my computer. He completely cleaned it up, removing a number of viruses, upgrading software, etc. It runs fantastic now, but the static problem still persists. I am able to make data cd's as well as read and rip from cds, so I don't think it is the drive. I also purchased an external cd-r drive, but I keep getting run errors whenever I try to use it.

I have a Compaq Presario 2135 US laptop. The cd drive is a QSI SBW-241.

Any suggestions?

Thanks.

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Hello I am a sound engineer in a professional studio so I will offer my advice.

First off how long have you had this laptop with the cdr drive installed?

Second off if you keep a drive for a long time the optical lens tends to get dirty from putting in cds with dust or finger prints on them. I would buy a cloth that they sell at any lens store or glasses store. They are about $1 each. I use them because obviously if they are good enough to use on lenses for eyeglasses they will be well enough for cds which are not that sensitive. Before I ever put in a cd into my drive I wipe it with the cloth, with an inwards outward motion. Never wipe a cd in circles or you will scratch it.

I have two optical drives in my desktop. One burning uses, and one for normal cds. For example I never put in a cd-rom or data disc (anything with previous burnt data) into my burning drive. I always put those kinds of cd's into my normal optical drive which I use just for reading. This is not something you need for your lap top but it serves as good advice. So always clean your cds before you insert them! All those tiny specs of dust end up building on the optical lens inside the drive!

Now the real reason why you get all that skipping and static when you burn cds. Well I know this issue because I am a musician and I understand different audio formats, and burning processes. Some media is copyrighted and as a result you cannot burn certain songs. Sure they will sound fine when you play them on your lap top, but when you try and burn them they come out as skips and static. This is also caused by re-copyrighted media. For example an mp3 or wav file that has had copyright protection added to it over and over again before you got the file. Try possessing differenet versions of the media you have or many files of the same song/media. That might make you waste a lot of cd's until you get it right, but its worth a try.

A next thing you can do is to rearrange the song order and it might work. Because if copyrighted or protected media is next to eachother this will cause burn errors and thus skipping/static. It is protected media. That is why you can burn data cd's and read cds fine.

Use Nero. It is the best way to burn protected media. It can handle it. As for your virus problem, etc. I would try a clean install of windows. Just ask a friend to do that for you if you don't know. Or read the help files on this forum or google it. That might solve your problem altogether.

You can try buying a cd laser lens cleaner. The one with the little hairs on the read side. But that really is'nt recommended for a burning drive. It can solve normal drive issues. I have never tried or heard of anyone using a cleaning cd on a cdr drive.

As for your external drive... There must be a connection problem, or the drive is ruined. Take it back.

Before you do any of this re-install windows. That is well needed if you have had problems with virus' etc. If you still get burning skips/static you'll know that it is just the protected media as I said before.

Anymore ?'s

[superstar]

Hello I am a sound engineer in a professional studio so I will offer my advice.

First off how long have you had this laptop with the cdr drive installed?

Second off if you keep a drive for a long time the optical lens tends to get dirty from putting in cds with dust or finger prints on them. I would buy a cloth that they sell at any lens store or glasses store. They are about $1 each. I use them because obviously if they are good enough to use on lenses for eyeglasses they will be well enough for cds which are not that sensitive. Before I ever put in a cd into my drive I wipe it with the cloth, with an inwards outward motion. Never wipe a cd in circles or you will scratch it.

I have two optical drives in my desktop. One burning uses, and one for normal cds. For example I never put in a cd-rom or data disc (anything with previous burnt data) into my burning drive. I always put those kinds of cd's into my normal optical drive which I use just for reading. This is not something you need for your lap top but it serves as good advice. So always clean your cds before you insert them! All those tiny specs of dust end up building on the optical lens inside the drive!

Now the real reason why you get all that skipping and static when you burn cds. Well I know this issue because I am a musician and I understand different audio formats, and burning processes. Some media is copyrighted and as a result you cannot burn certain songs. Sure they will sound fine when you play them on your lap top, but when you try and burn them they come out as skips and static. This is also caused by re-copyrighted media. For example an mp3 or wav file that has had copyright protection added to it over and over again before you got the file. Try possessing differenet versions of the media you have or many files of the same song/media. That might make you waste a lot of cd's until you get it right, but its worth a try.

A next thing you can do is to rearrange the song order and it might work. Because if copyrighted or protected media is next to eachother this will cause burn errors and thus skipping/static. It is protected media. That is why you can burn data cd's and read cds fine.

Use Nero. It is the best way to burn protected media. It can handle it. As for your virus problem, etc. I would try a clean install of windows. Just ask a friend to do that for you if you don't know. Or read the help files on this forum or google it. That might solve your problem altogether.

You can try buying a cd laser lens cleaner. The one with the little hairs on the read side. But that really is'nt recommended for a burning drive. It can solve normal drive issues. I have never tried or heard of anyone using a cleaning cd on a cdr drive.

As for your external drive... There must be a connection problem, or the drive is ruined. Take it back.

Before you do any of this re-install windows. That is well needed if you have had problems with virus' etc. If you still get burning skips/static you'll know that it is just the protected media as I said before.

Anymore ?'s

[fergler]

Superstar:

Thanks for the advice. I have decided to reinstall the o/s...my weekend project. Hopefully that will remedy the situation. I'll try the cleaning cloths too. I've had the computer/drive for ~3 years. This is the only problem I've had with my laptop, so I hate to dump it for a new one.

The music I'm buring is a combination of Napster purchases and music ripped from purchased cd's. Most of the cd's I have are, I believe, pre-protected era. But, one never knows. I'm getting static/skipping on both types.

I did finally get the external drive to work without an error. The problem was I was using too high a burn rate. I only have a 1.0 USB port, so it can only burn at 4x. However, the last three songs still had static on them, leading me to believe it probably isn't a device problem. I also recently added additional RAM, so lack of memory shouldn't be a problem either.

Thanks again. I'll leave an update after the reinstall.

[superstar]

Another thing to remember is that if you want perfect audio, at least burn cd's at 8x speed. Never go higher than 16x speed with audio. This is something we learned in audio engineering school earlier in life.

Hopefully your reinstall of the o/s will fix the problem. It is still possible that Napster copy protects some of it's music. I have heard of new forms of copy protection that are quite more complex than ever before. Allowing you to use media on devices such as I pods, data cds, but not audio cds or mp3 players. And vice versa. If you ask me there getting a little too money hungry trying to protect audio.

Keep in mind that if there is at least 1 or 2 copy protected songs in your burning list, that can ruin your cd, and thus it won't burn. Sometimes you just have to play with them and rearrange the song order.

But I still think it has to do with your O/S. Let us know what happens.