Thanks for the replies, although if you go through my last couple of posts you'll see that it now appears that my 2500 is burning OK, and that it was rather that my usually reliable Liteon 163 is having severe problems reading my DVD+R burns from my 2500 - this is what I've been testing my discs with. I have NO CLUE why... if anyone has any suggestions (wrong firmware, drive dying?) let me know. Thanks again