CD music CD failed? :(

[cheapie]

Originally Posted by lexwalker

As for the latter, could either be drive firmware issue (to support newer or unknown CD/DVD media) and/or simply bad laser.

A firmware update was available, but installing it didn't help. It would burn brand new DVDs perfect every time, but wouldn't burn ANY CDs properly.

[lexwalker]

Originally Posted by eccerr0r

I had a bunch of Verbatim CDRs (Azo/silvery colored reflector) that the top metal layer started rusting for whatever reason... some dark spots started going inwards from the edges. The inside tracks still read but the outside was no longer readable. Probably because the edge seal failed...

Just that I had several of them die this way, but not all of them suffered this fate.

Not all Verbatim discs are using original Mitsubishi AZO dye. Many are from OEMs like Prodisc, Daxon, CMC Magnetics, etc. Its easy recognize AZO discs as the dye color is blue, rather than greenish silver. Referring to the attachments, out of those 3 models of the same brand, only two are using original Mitsubishi AZO dye which are Blue Platinum Super AZO HG and Crystal Black Sonic AZO. The first one is ordinary run-of-the-mill CDR whose OEM was Daxon, which is much cheaper as well.

Originally Posted by cheapie

A firmware update was available, but installing it didn't help. It would burn brand new DVDs perfect every time, but wouldn't burn ANY CDs properly.

Could be a problematic or defective drive. In other words, the CD burning side is malfunctioning...

[eccerr0r]

Yes these failed Verbatim discs were deeply blue dyed. Will try to get a photo if I still have any. I threw most of the bad ones out. I do recall in the header it saying "Mitsubishi Chemical" on these discs.

The light green newer Verbatim stuff hasn't failed me yet but they're a LOT newer... I think the newer stuff had ATIP data that was pointing to some Indian company or something rather.

[lexwalker]

Originally Posted by eccerr0r

Yes these failed Verbatim discs were deeply blue dyed. Will try to get a photo if I still have any. I threw most of the bad ones out. I do recall in the header it saying "Mitsubishi Chemical" on these discs.

Mitsubishi Chemical is just a brand name, and is the same company as Verbatim. Besides, Prodisc is the only other OEM that has used AZO dye (for CDRs). Another blue color dye is cyanine, which can degrade easily. Some early CDRs uses cyanine (includes those from Verbatim, Taiyo Yuden, Sony, etc). The AZO dye based discs that failed me were those Metal AZO ones. These Metal AZO were deep blue in color. However those Super AZO HG and Sonic AZO discs which were lighter blue in color has been solid, retaining data over the years with hardly any degradation at all. Anyway, I don't buy Verbatim as its too generic (like Sony, TDK, etc), and usually prefer to stick to original Mitsubishi brand and model instead (that way I know which were the ones using original Mitsubishi dye)...

Originally Posted by eccerr0r

The light green newer Verbatim stuff hasn't failed me yet but they're a LOT newer... I think the newer stuff had ATIP data that was pointing to some Indian company or something rather.

That sounds like Moser Baer...