Problem with Plextor PX-716A

Have just built system as follows: Athlon 64 3500+, Gigabyte GA-K8NF-9
motherboard, 1 GB Corsair RAM, Gigabyte GV-NX66T128D PCI Express video card.
Running Windows XP Home, patched through SP2 and all subsequent patches.

Problem is with the Plextor PX-716A DVD-R drive.

Problem: When I burn an audio CD, the music is very faint, and I hear
mostly static and scratchy noise. Exists throughout length of CD, not just
at the beginning or end. Happens whether I burn with Nero, Musicmatch or
iTunes. Happens with MP3s or AAC files purchased from iTunes. The files
themselves are OK; they play on the computer fine. through Musicmatch, Nero
and iTunes.

However, when I burn a CD with the AudioCD burner included with PlexTools,
the CD sounds fine.

I have burned a DVD, going from an AVI file, using Nero, and the sound on
the DVD is fine.

What gives? Any help or suggestions you can give would be greatly
appreciated. Since the PlexTools burner works, I am relieved that it does
not seem that there's anything physically wrong with the drive.

The controller is set by BIOS to Ultra DMA 4 mode, Ultra 66 and the driver
is the standard Windows driver in XP. Firmware is patched to 1.03.

Thanks in advance.

TLA # of the drive?

"PJL" wrote in message
...
Have just built system as follows: Athlon 64 3500+, Gigabyte GA-K8NF-9
motherboard, 1 GB Corsair RAM, Gigabyte GV-NX66T128D PCI Express video
card. Running Windows XP Home, patched through SP2 and all subsequent
patches.

Problem is with the Plextor PX-716A DVD-R drive.

Problem: When I burn an audio CD, the music is very faint, and I hear
mostly static and scratchy noise. Exists throughout length of CD, not
just at the beginning or end. Happens whether I burn with Nero,
Musicmatch or iTunes. Happens with MP3s or AAC files purchased from
iTunes. The files themselves are OK; they play on the computer fine.
through Musicmatch, Nero and iTunes.

However, when I burn a CD with the AudioCD burner included with PlexTools,
the CD sounds fine.

I have burned a DVD, going from an AVI file, using Nero, and the sound on
the DVD is fine.

What gives? Any help or suggestions you can give would be greatly
appreciated. Since the PlexTools burner works, I am relieved that it does
not seem that there's anything physically wrong with the drive.

The controller is set by BIOS to Ultra DMA 4 mode, Ultra 66 and the driver
is the standard Windows driver in XP. Firmware is patched to 1.03.

Thanks in advance.

TLA #0203 (from label on outside of box)

Forgive my asking; what is the TLA # and what is its significance?

Thanks

"Richard Dower" wrote in message
...
TLA # of the drive?

"PJL" wrote in message
...
Have just built system as follows: Athlon 64 3500+, Gigabyte GA-K8NF-9
motherboard, 1 GB Corsair RAM, Gigabyte GV-NX66T128D PCI Express video
card. Running Windows XP Home, patched through SP2 and all subsequent
patches.

Problem is with the Plextor PX-716A DVD-R drive.

Problem: When I burn an audio CD, the music is very faint, and I hear
mostly static and scratchy noise. Exists throughout length of CD, not
just at the beginning or end. Happens whether I burn with Nero,
Musicmatch or iTunes. Happens with MP3s or AAC files purchased from
iTunes. The files themselves are OK; they play on the computer fine.
through Musicmatch, Nero and iTunes.

However, when I burn a CD with the AudioCD burner included with
PlexTools, the CD sounds fine.

I have burned a DVD, going from an AVI file, using Nero, and the sound on
the DVD is fine.

What gives? Any help or suggestions you can give would be greatly
appreciated. Since the PlexTools burner works, I am relieved that it
does not seem that there's anything physically wrong with the drive.

The controller is set by BIOS to Ultra DMA 4 mode, Ultra 66 and the
driver is the standard Windows driver in XP. Firmware is patched to
1.03.

Thanks in advance.

"PJL" harvard75atdiespammercomcast.net wrote in message
...
TLA #0203 (from label on outside of box)

Forgive my asking; what is the TLA # and what is its significance?

TLA is the hardware revision, first two numbers is the hardware revision
"02", second ones is the firmware "03", you've got the latest model
available.

Your problem is vey strange i must say, have you tried to eliminate your
operating system and soundcard as the possible problem?

What speed are you burning the CD at in Nero and the PlexTools? If you
burn too fast, the disc may not 'catch' the data properly and have poor
playback etc.

It's not likely that you would get this problem, as all modern CD-R
drives (especially Plextor...) would have logic in them that picks the
right speed for the media, but it is possible. If you don't get an
accurate report (or don't trust the readout), time how long it takes for
the same CD to burn in both programs.

I am burning at 8X, to eliminate the "burning too fast" variable. Any more
thoughts? Thanks


"BananaOfTheNight" wrote in
message ...
What speed are you burning the CD at in Nero and the PlexTools? If you
burn too fast, the disc may not 'catch' the data properly and have poor
playback etc.

It's not likely that you would get this problem, as all modern CD-R drives
(especially Plextor...) would have logic in them that picks the right
speed for the media, but it is possible. If you don't get an accurate
report (or don't trust the readout), time how long it takes for the same
CD to burn in both programs.

Well, problem solved (mostly)

Finally got through to Plextor TechSupport after long wait on hold. Nice
person said that they had heard of this happening in a few instances, and
that it is related to the chipset. In my case Nvidia nForce4. Suggested
that I look for a chipset driver update (there isn't one, it's too new.) If
not, change burner to UDMA 2 from UDMA 4. She suggested that I do it with a
jumper on the back of the drive; I have done it with Device Manager, that
seems to have fixed it, and XP isn't trying to change it back. So things
seem OK now, and if it acts up, I at least know what to fiddle with. Thank
you Richard and Banana for your help! Cheers


"PJL" wrote in message
...
Have just built system as follows: Athlon 64 3500+, Gigabyte GA-K8NF-9
motherboard, 1 GB Corsair RAM, Gigabyte GV-NX66T128D PCI Express video
card. Running Windows XP Home, patched through SP2 and all subsequent
patches.

Problem is with the Plextor PX-716A DVD-R drive.

Problem: When I burn an audio CD, the music is very faint, and I hear
mostly static and scratchy noise. Exists throughout length of CD, not
just at the beginning or end. Happens whether I burn with Nero,
Musicmatch or iTunes. Happens with MP3s or AAC files purchased from
iTunes. The files themselves are OK; they play on the computer fine.
through Musicmatch, Nero and iTunes.

However, when I burn a CD with the AudioCD burner included with PlexTools,
the CD sounds fine.

I have burned a DVD, going from an AVI file, using Nero, and the sound on
the DVD is fine.

What gives? Any help or suggestions you can give would be greatly
appreciated. Since the PlexTools burner works, I am relieved that it does
not seem that there's anything physically wrong with the drive.

The controller is set by BIOS to Ultra DMA 4 mode, Ultra 66 and the driver
is the standard Windows driver in XP. Firmware is patched to 1.03.

Thanks in advance.