[eatonll2]

Greetings All,

For the past several weeks, I've been having a difficult time getting my ND-6100A on my Dell Inspiron 700m notebook to burn CD-r discs. To put it simply, the drive is very erratic. Sometimes it recognizes the blank disc; usually it doesnt.

What discs have I been using, you say? A no-name Target CD-r, a Philips 52x CD-r and--most recently--a Maxell 48x CD-r. I even threw in a Memorex 4x CD-rw for variety. I doubt the problem is with the disc.

What programs have you used to burn? I-Tunes for music (which has mysteriously stopped recognizing the disc as blank), Sonic RecordNow! (ditto) and CDBurnerXP Pro 3 (you guessed it). I'm running XP and once or twice when I've gotten the drive to recognize the disc, I get a strange error message spat back at me. I wish I could write it here, but I haven't been able to get the drive to recognize the disc today.

I have had the latest automatic Windows updates as well.

So, any counsel, friends? I'd sure appreciate it.

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Go to your local computer store and purchase a CD cleaner kit. They do work as we sometimes have to use them in our workplace.

[makai]

Go to your local computer store and purchase a CD cleaner kit. They do work as we sometimes have to use them in our workplace.

[eatonll2]

I'll give that a try. Yesterday, I did get the drive to work for a little bit (don't ask me how; trial and error). I burned a few discs, then this message popped up:

Writing Error: (3) Error occurred writing data to disc. A flaw exists in the Power calibration area (1048).

Does that mean my drive is dirty or that it's failing? I googled it and it seemed like the latter, but I'm hoping it's the former.

[makai]

It could be failing, but you have to remember that it uses the laser to calibrate. I guess you have to decide what is best for you. I would puchase the cleaning kit first before replacing the drive, simply because it's cheaper. Notebook drives run around $100 on ebay. I assume it's more expensive if it's purchase from Dell.

[eatonll2]

Thanks, Makai. I'll pick up the cleaning kit first and give it a spin (no pun intended). If that doesn't work, I'll consider replacing the drive. Thanks a bunch.

[Psych]

Just a small point, but being a 700m isn't that going to be fairly new and still under warranty? Have you tried calling Dell Tech Support? If it's a hardware problem it's free - they only charge for software support as far as I know...