[bloomcounty]

Hi,

All of a sudden, I can no longer burn data or music cds on my cd burner.

Windows 98 SE
Easy CD Creator 3.5c
(I'm not sure what kind of cd burner -- some kind of generic thing, I think)

(I know it's old stuff, but it worked fine until recently.)

I originally started having the problem a long time ago, when I could no longer burn at 6x speed, only 2x speed. But I didn't mind. Then it wouldn't burn music cds, only data discs. And not it won't do either. I keep getting buffer underrun errors as the reason (plus some other kind of errors listed after those, but those are causing it).

I defraged my harddrive, to no avail. I also did the system tests on the drive to test recording speed, etc. and it passed all of them. I have a feeling it's some kind of setting or something that got changed by itself.

Out of the blue, before this started (meaning not being able to burn anything), when I started my computer and inserted a cd, instead of it normally starting up the Windows default cd player, a window popped up saying it couldn't find the .exe for it (but listed the name of it as some really weird looking characters). I tried turning disc detector off and back on, then finally just typed in the actual cdplayer.exe name and it started the auto-play again. Perhaps something that caused it to suddenly not find the cdplayer is also causing this buffer underrun problem?

I have the free versions of AVG and ZoneAlarm on my system, but I've tried turning those off, which made no difference.

Please help! This stuff all worked before, and I'd just like for it to work again (I don't want to get new programs, etc., at this point -- just get this working again.)

Thanks in advance!

-- bloomcounty

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Hi there

the types of symptoms you are experiencing could all be the result of one single problem, or you could have several unrelated issues (sorry to state the obvious!).

The CD burner & ECDC : if you have a relatively new burner & ECDC 3.5, the chances are ECDC needs updating in order to work properly with your burner. You can often do this just by updating ECDC's driver database rather than upgrading to a newer version. This may explain why you coulf only burn at 2x.

You mentioned about weird characters etc, this could be the result of a virus/malware infection and/or file corruption. Try running scandisk to check for errors & make sure AVG is fully updated & scan everything again. Also check Roxio's website for driver updates for the burner.

If none of these things help or you are getting problems applications or general windows errors, try running hijack this. Download HJT from here:
http://www.majorgeek...wnload3155.html

Close all other applications first then run HJT & select save log file. Copy & paste the log file into this topic. I will then be able to tell you if you have a malware problem but I will ask you to go to the malware forum on the Geekstogo website in order to have it fixed as they are the experts in these matters!

[Samm]

Hi there

the types of symptoms you are experiencing could all be the result of one single problem, or you could have several unrelated issues (sorry to state the obvious!).

The CD burner & ECDC : if you have a relatively new burner & ECDC 3.5, the chances are ECDC needs updating in order to work properly with your burner. You can often do this just by updating ECDC's driver database rather than upgrading to a newer version. This may explain why you coulf only burn at 2x.

You mentioned about weird characters etc, this could be the result of a virus/malware infection and/or file corruption. Try running scandisk to check for errors & make sure AVG is fully updated & scan everything again. Also check Roxio's website for driver updates for the burner.

If none of these things help or you are getting problems applications or general windows errors, try running hijack this. Download HJT from here:
http://www.majorgeek...wnload3155.html

Close all other applications first then run HJT & select save log file. Copy & paste the log file into this topic. I will then be able to tell you if you have a malware problem but I will ask you to go to the malware forum on the Geekstogo website in order to have it fixed as they are the experts in these matters!

[bloomcounty]

Hi,

Thanks for the response!

The drive is old -- it's the one that came with my computer that I got from ABS like 5 years ago. I don't know the brand. That EasyCD Creator 3.5 software also came on the system (and I updated that to 3.5c years ago, which worked fine).

My system did a scan disc when it did the defrag and didn't come up with anything.

I checked the Roxio website, and there's no updates for anything close to Easy CDCreator 3.5...

AVG scan didn't come up with anything.

Here's my HijackThis log, but it looks pretty clean:

Logfile of HijackThis v1.99.1
Scan saved at 7:37:36 AM, on 08/28/05
Platform: Windows 98 SE (Win9x 4.10.2222A)
MSIE: Internet Explorer v5.51 SP2 (5.51.4807.2300)

Running processes:
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\KERNEL32.DLL
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\MSGSRV32.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\MPREXE.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\mmtask.tsk
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\ZONELABS\VSMON.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\DDHELP.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\EXPLORER.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\TASKMON.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\SYSTRAY.EXE
C:\PROGRAM FILES\GRISOFT\AVG FREE\AVGCC.EXE
C:\PROGRAM FILES\GRISOFT\AVG FREE\AVGEMC.EXE
C:\PROGRAM FILES\GRISOFT\AVG FREE\AVGAMSVR.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\RNAAPP.EXE
C:\PROGRAM FILES\ZONE LABS\ZONEALARM\ZLCLIENT.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\TAPISRV.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\WMIEXE.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\PSTORES.EXE
C:\MY DOCUMENTS\HIJACKTHIS NEW\HIJACKTHIS.EXE

O2 - BHO: (no name) - {53707962-6F74-2D53-2644-206D7942484F} - C:\PROGRA~1\SPYBOT~1\SDHELPER.DLL
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [ScanRegistry] C:\WINDOWS\scanregw.exe /autorun
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [TaskMonitor] C:\WINDOWS\taskmon.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [SystemTray] SysTray.Exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [LoadPowerProfile] Rundll32.exe powrprof.dll,LoadCurrentPwrScheme
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [AVG7_CC] C:\PROGRA~1\GRISOFT\AVGFRE~1\AVGCC.EXE /STARTUP
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [AVG7_EMC] C:\PROGRA~1\GRISOFT\AVGFRE~1\AVGEMC.EXE
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [AVG7_AMSVR] C:\PROGRA~1\GRISOFT\AVGFRE~1\AVGAMSVR.EXE
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [Zone Labs Client] C:\Program Files\Zone Labs\ZoneAlarm\zlclient.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\RunServices: [LoadPowerProfile] Rundll32.exe powrprof.dll,LoadCurrentPwrScheme
O4 - HKLM\..\RunServices: [TrueVector] C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\ZONELABS\VSMON.EXE -service

It all worked okay before, I was satisfied withe 2x speed, but now it won't work at all. I'm hoping just to get it back working again.

Thanks for the help!

Looking forward to hearing back,

bloomcounty

[Samm]

Hi

Yeah, your HJT log looks fine.

Can you confirm the following for me :

Are you mainly trying to create CDs using files stored on the hard drive or are you copying straight from the CDROM drive to the burner?

Have you noticed any BSODs lately or other windows errors?

When you get the buffer underrun error, is it always at roughly the same point in the burning process & if so, is it right at the start or further on?

Try one more thing as well..
Close down AVG & Zonealarm & any other apps that run in the background. Disable windows power managment (especially for the hard drive). Then go to control panel->system->performance->file system and drag the 'read ahead optimization' slider all the way to the left.
Also, find which folder ECDC uses to store images/temp files & empty it.

Then try to burn a CD again

[bloomcounty]

1. Creating cds from files on harddrive only

2. No BSOD or Windows errors

3. Buffer underrun is right at start, a few seconds into it (before anything really gets burned on the cd, as I can use the cd again)

4. I did all the things you said, and it seems doing the "control panel->system->performance->file system and drag the 'read ahead optimization' slider all the way to the left" did the trick. As of right now, it'll burn data discs and regular cds at 2x speed (tried 6x with a regular cd, no dice). But at least it's working at 2x so far.

However, I noticed that having my computer set that way causes some other things to go a bit slower -- so I guess I just change that setting (which I then have to restart my computer) each time I'm going to burn cds, then switch it back when I'm done? Or is it better to leave it set that way? What does that do exactly? (I don't mind changing it back and forth -- it's a bit of a hassle, but not *that* big a deal...)

Thanks for the help!

Looking forward to hearing back,

bloomcounty

[Samm]

Hi again

Disabling read ahead optimization prevents chucks of data being moved into a cache. This is known to cause problems with CD burning, audio & video applications at times. Unfortunately, as you've noticed, you will suffer a slight drop in performance as a result.

To get round the problem of rebooting the system everytime when you switch between enabling/disabling read ahead optimization, you should be able to create a User profile just for CD burning. You can then disable the read ahead optimization for this profile only. To switch between profiles, all you should need to do then is log off & log back on under the new profile.

I'm a bit sketchy on the exact procedure for setting this up as I haven't needed to do it for some time! I will PM Keith for you how is our resident Windows expert & ask him if he can help you out with this.

Cheers
Samm

[bloomcounty]

Sounds great -- thanks!

-- bloomcounty

[Tyger]

Just to pitch in here, and not keep you from checking on what Samm says, cause she really knows her stuff, but have you checked to make sure your physical memory and your available memory are the same? You could have a faulty memory chip.

[Samm]

Just to pitch in here, and not keep you from checking on what Samm says, cause she really knows her stuff, but have you checked to make sure your physical memory and your available memory are the same? You could have a faulty memory chip.

That was my thought to start with as well, Tyger. But Bloomcounty says he hasn't been experiencing any BSODs or other windows problems, so I've rather discounted it. Still, if the problems return I think it may be wise to run memtest or similar just to eliminate this possibility completely.

Bloomcounty:
I've had a reply back from keith. I've pasted his instructions below :

"If he clicks start, settings, control panel then double clicks users, he can set an account with options from access to the my documents to the entire PC.

This should mean he has to log on as there is more than one user.

Depending on how often he needs to record, he could leave it at maybe running msconfig to disable the lot and then manually starting what he needs"

If you need further assistance with this, try googling it. Theres a lot of info about this sort of thing on the net. I also suggest you run a backup before making any changes, just in case!

[fleamailman]

Just a thought but do you have another computer to test it on since being hardware it might just be physical, and you did say that it was old.

[bloomcounty]

Can't check it in another machine.

How do I check the memory as suggested?

Thanks,

bloomcounty

[Samm]

You can download memtest86 from this link:
http://www.memtest.org/#downiso

select the pre-compiled package for floppy (dos-win). This downloads as a zip file so you need to extract it. Read the included text file for instructions. It will create a bootable floppy disk so you may need to alter the boot sequence in the bios so that floppy comes before hard disk