Weird sh*t

Geoff_Wood wrote on 3/7/2004, 4:02 AM
An odd behaviour previously noted in CDA5, and now cropping up in V4.

In CDA5, with a LiteOn CD wrtier, the burn-progress meter only updates when the mouse is moved. With teh Plextor Premium writer installed instead, all works normal.

In V4, with the LiteOn installed (haven't tried with the Plextor), just noticed that when recording, the track window 'red waveform track -window-thingy' only updates when the mouse is moved !

Clearly this is an XP problem (oh yeah - this problem has spanned a VIA and IBM mobo swap !) , but what ?!!!?

geoff

Comments

tmrpro wrote on 3/7/2004, 7:33 AM
It's a liteon problem.

There DVD writers are even worse.

You can try to update your firmware, but there is a definate problem with liteon writers. I used their stuff without issues for quite some time. 3 cd burners, 2 cd burner dvd combos and a 4x DVD writer and an 8 times DVD writer.

I can not get the 4x DVD dual writer to burn what the sonic software considers a "successful" data dvd, although I can take the burned dvd to another computer and read the files off of it and they are fine. Also can not burn an acceptable "error free parameter" PMCD.

Even after updating the firmware I had the following problem:

The 8 x DVD went back. After booting up, with no disk in the drive, I'd put in a DVD movie and watch a trailer (I do this to show clients my 5.1 room .... "Triple X" trailer rocks in 5.1!). Anyway, I would then take out the disk and perhaps grab a data CD w/24 bit wav files and put it in the drive. When I'd go to "My Computer" the drive would show that it still had the DVD Trailer in it. I couldn't open the CD folders up because the drive thought that the DVD was in there. Then I'd try to open the drive from the button on the front panel and it wouldn't open. I'd go to reboot and it had such a bad "disk caching" issue that it would make the system blue screen on the shut down.

I replaced it with a Plextor 708A and have no problems at all.
Geoff_Wood wrote on 3/7/2004, 5:14 PM
But the Vegas track updating thing wasn't anything to do with CD writing but during audio recording - surely the idle driver or ATAPI interface couldn't be that bad that it stuffs up updating the recording audio track ?

geoff
filmy wrote on 3/8/2004, 2:10 PM
I am a bit confused -

>>> It's a liteon problem. There DVD writers are even worse. You can try to update your firmware, but there is a definate problem with liteon writers. <<<

But than you say:

>>>I used their stuff without issues for quite some time<<<

???

Anyhow - i just got a Liteon and have not had any issues with it yet. First thing I did was make sure I updated the firmware in it though. I don't have the 8x DVD, I have the 4x DVD +/- R/RW / CD-R/RW.

But aside from that I don't see that as a possible cause for what Geoff is saying. The screen refresh does not have to deal with the CD/DVD drives. It could be is that if you are
taking audio *from* the CD and into Vegas it could slow down the screen refresh. Sound cards and drivers could be the issue as well. Are you making sure all but the needed programs are running when you are recording? Maybe I am missing somehting in the quesiton but you are saying the update doesn't update unless you move the mouse - have you updated the mouse drivers? Changed the settings? Using another input device (Shuttle Pro? USB keyboard?)
PeterWright wrote on 3/25/2004, 2:31 AM
filmy,

I have the Lite On 411S burner,and it works fine, EXCEPT that DVDA can only find it if it contains a DVD+ disc. I am getting round this by using the software supplied with the burner - Record Now DX - but this situation is not really satisfactory.

So - I am wondering about conquering my phobia about updating firmware - I must have been told ages ago that this process was fraught with danger - at the time they were talking about bios updates, but the message remains.

So, could you please share the steps involved and what to be careful about ....

Thanks

Peter
filmy wrote on 3/25/2004, 8:41 AM
RE: Firmware - >>>could you please share the steps involved and what to be careful about <<<

1> Go to the LiteOn site and download the firmware.
2> Read how to do it
3> Do it.

it really is that simple.
Rednroll wrote on 3/25/2004, 9:28 AM
Firmware and bios upgrades are pretty simple, but you do need to read the instructions and precautions that the manufacturer gives and use the recommended flash software to do the update. The precausitions are because, what you're doing is updating the softare on the devices ROM. The Device uses this software to boot up on, and to start executing commands, so that the hardware knows what to do. So when you're updating the firmware or bios, and if anything goes wrong during that process, then the boot information for the device will be corrupt and therefore the device will sit there and do nothing, because it doesn't have any instructions to do so. The process of updating the software, initiates a write cycle command and then immediately starts a data stream that writes to the ROM. If anywhere that data stream gets interupted it will cause problems in the update and corrupt the data. So if there's precautions to make sure no other programs are running in the background, or to boot from a floppy and run the programs under DOS mode, then you need to do that.
PeterWright wrote on 3/25/2004, 5:12 PM
Thanks, filmy and Red.