[jokarak]

I have a first generation G5 tower. It used to burn DVDs pretty well w/ a very low failure rate. I have noticed that recently, failure rates have increased a lot, about 25%. I was mostly using the disk utility to burn images, but after getting a lot of errors, I bought Toast to see if its buffer overrun protection would help - it did not make a difference.

The error that I get is buffer overrun. I'm wondering whether DVD burners start "going bad" after a while, because I had an older PC that used to burn well, but all of a sudden started making coasters. In case the burner has gone bad, how easy is it to replace it?

Thanks for the help.

[climber]

It is not hard to replace the DVD drive. It is a little harder to make sure the drive is compatible. If memory serves me well the early superdrives where made by Pioneer.

Check out the following web site for more info:

http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/

[Madrag]

did you change the DVD media brand that you used to record onto?

I get errors in some types of brands.

[jokarak]

Maldrac,

No, I've been using the same brand media (TDK). I think I'll definitely look into replacing the drive. Thanks for the link, climber.

[Mac Hammer Fan]

Originally Posted by jokarak

Maldrac,

No, I've been using the same brand media (TDK). I think I'll definitely look into replacing the drive. Thanks for the link, climber.

Is there a way to lower the burning speed of Apple' s DVD burner?
I know that Toast Titanium has a buffer underrun prevention.
Also, do you have enough free space on your startup disk and have you checked the energy saver settings? (disable disk sleep)