Greetings everyone. I recently received a 25 pack spindle of 'genuine' Ritek G04 1x-4x DVD-R discs from meritline.com. My first two burns with these discs resulted in coasters. My hardware is the Liteon LDW-451S (GSB6 Firmware), and software being used is RecordNow DX 4.60.

At the end of each burn (movie backup), RecordNow failed and reported error codes. According to their help file and reported drive error codes, the translation was Session Fixation Error Writing Lead-out. The strange thing, however, is these disc still played in my standalone DVD player, but about half way through the movie the video was corrupted (intermittent freezing and skipping). K-probe also showed major PI/PO errors.

So, I thought, this could be (a) a media problem, (b) a hardware problem, or (c) a software problem. So I tried some Memorex DVD-R made by Prodisc under the same conditions and RecordNow closed out the disc without any problems. And these discs play flawlessly in my standalone, with acceptable error rates in K-Probe.

Bottom line question, has anyone else experienced Ritek G04 discs not closing out with similar hardware/software settings?

Sounds like a bad batch to me.

Should I send them back or wait for a firmware upgrade?

If the error scans are really bad (PI over 400 at 4x ECC8), and you are confident that the drive can do better, send them back.

Well, the error scans aren't too bad (86 PI, 5 PO), but I'm more concerned about the software not being able to write the Lead-Out and close the disc. I've never seen that happen before with other media.

Try different software.
What motherboard and IDE controller drivers?

Motherboard is an Asus P4B266-C with Intel 845 chipset. Using latest chipset drivers with standard Windows XP Pro IDE drivers, DMA mode on. I don't have a current version of Nero to try...my version is a very old 5.543.

You can update your Nero version to 5.5.10.54 and it should work if it's a retail or LiteOn OEM version.
you by any chance have Intel Application Accelerator installed?

Funny you should ask about IAA. When the 1st burn failed to close, I thought it could be IAA related so I uninstalled IAA. I then double checked to make sure the IDE drivers were properly loaded, ran a registry cleaner to clear out any remaining crap, rebooted, and tried again. On the 2nd burn, I got the same exact error code from RecordNow DX while trying to write the lead-out. So much for IAA getting in the way. I then put in a Memorex disc and it burned flawlessly. I was under the impression the LDW-451S would work with the G04's, but maybe not.

Let me load this old version of Nero and see if that works any better.

On a side note, the disc still worked in my standalone Denon progressive scan DVD player (even though the lead-out failed), but there was all kinds of video distortion and freezing througout the movie. So far, the Memorex disc is playing fine without any video errors (Spicoli is killing me from Fast Times At Ridgemont High). Weird.

DVD-R of any sort should work in your drive, this really sounds like a software/hardware issue so I think I'll move this to the hardware forum for you. Similar issue have been reported with VIA chipsets and IAA, so maybe you're on the right track.

OK, thanks for helping me troubleshoot.

Update: Just installed Nero 5.5.4.3 and upgraded to 5.5.10.54. I then set up DVD Shrink 3.1.2 to backup a DVD using the built-in Nero feature and the process worked all the way until the end.....Nero gave me the same Session Fixation Error while trying to write the Lead-Out on a blank Ritek G04. WTF is up with these discs? Can you say RETURN!

If anybody can interpret this garbage, here's some of the code from the Nero History Log towards the end of the burn:

10:32:48 PM #20 Text 0 File Cdrdrv.cpp, Line 7931
---- DVD Structure: Physical Format Information (00h) ----
Layer: 0, Address: 0 (0 h), AGID: 0; Length: 2050
Book Type: DVD-R (2), Part Version: 5
Disc Size: 120 mm, Maximum Rate: (F h)
Number of Layers: 1, Track Path: Parallel Track Path (PTP), Layer Type: recordable
Linear Density: 0,267 um/bit, Track Density: 0,74 um/track
Starting Physical Sector Number of Data Area: 30000 h (DVD-ROM, DVD-R/-RW, DVD+R/+RW)
End Physical Sector Number of Data Area: 0 h
End Sector Number in Layer 0: 0 h
Data in Burst Cutting Area (BCA) does not exist
Media Specific:
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................

10:32:56 PM #21 Text 0 File Writer.cpp, Line 316
22:32:56.406 - LITE-ON DVDRW LDW-451S : Queue again later (Intervall : 11msec)

10:46:44 PM #22 Text 0 File WriterStatus.cpp, Line 115
start writing Lead-Out at LBA 2170864 (211FF0h), lenght 0 blocks

10:46:44 PM #23 Text 0 File ThreadedTransfer.cpp, Line 222
all writers idle, stopping conversion

10:47:11 PM #24 SCSI -1176 File Cdrdrv.cpp, Line 1241
SCSI Exec, HA 0, TA 0, LUN 0
Status: 0x04 (0x01, SCSI_ERR)
HA-Status 0x00 (0x00, OK)
TA-Status 0x02 (0x01, SCSI_TASTATUS_CHKCOND)
Sense Key: 0x05 (KEY_ILLEGAL_REQUEST)
Sense Code: 0x72
Sense Qual: 0x02
CDB Data: 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00
Sense Data: 0x71 0x00 0x05 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x0A
0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x72 0x02

10:47:11 PM #25 DVDR -1176 File ThreadedTransferInterface.cpp, Line 1468
Session fixation error

10:47:11 PM #26 TRANSFER -24 File ThreadedTransferInterface.cpp, Line 1468
Could not perform end of Disc-At-Once

10:47:11 PM #27 Phase 38 File APIProgress.cpp, Line 224
Burn process failed at 4x (5,540 KB/s)

Once again, the Memorex DVD-R burned and closed out with Nero 5.5.10.54. So, I'm concluding my LDW-451S does not like Ritek G04 discs and I'm sending them back. Talk about fickle hardware. Here's the log from the end of the Memorex burn:

11:38:40 PM #20 Text 0 File Cdrdrv.cpp, Line 7931
---- DVD Structure: Physical Format Information (00h) ----
Layer: 0, Address: 0 (0 h), AGID: 0; Length: 2050
Book Type: DVD-R (2), Part Version: 5
Disc Size: 120 mm, Maximum Rate: (F h)
Number of Layers: 1, Track Path: Parallel Track Path (PTP), Layer Type: recordable
Linear Density: 0,267 um/bit, Track Density: 0,74 um/track
Starting Physical Sector Number of Data Area: 30000 h (DVD-ROM, DVD-R/-RW, DVD+R/+RW)
End Physical Sector Number of Data Area: 0 h
End Sector Number in Layer 0: 0 h
Data in Burst Cutting Area (BCA) does not exist
Media Specific:
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................

11:38:47 PM #21 Text 0 File Writer.cpp, Line 316
23:38:47.359 - LITE-ON DVDRW LDW-451S : Queue again later (Intervall : 11msec)

11:52:35 PM #22 Text 0 File WriterStatus.cpp, Line 115
start writing Lead-Out at LBA 2170864 (211FF0h), lenght 0 blocks

11:52:35 PM #23 Text 0 File ThreadedTransfer.cpp, Line 222
all writers idle, stopping conversion

11:52:57 PM #24 Phase 37 File APIProgress.cpp, Line 224
Burn process completed successfully at 4x (5,540 KB/s)

11:52:58 PM #25 Text 0 File Scsicmd.cpp, Line 406
SCSI not using temporary buffers
20 out of 20 temporary buffers allocated

I heard about the 2mb buffer not being enabled for our burners in Nero as a default setting. I'm not sure where to check this, but you might want to take a look and make sure it's enabled. I too have ordered Ritek discs but have not gotten them yet. I am curious if they will work on my 451S. Memorex seems to give no one problems. I don't have any, but noticed that BestBuy has a stack of 50 DVD-R (4X) and DVD+R (2.4) for $49.99. I'm going to try to get some of these today if they aren't sold out.

I have a new computer I built during the holidays (has Radeon graphics card) running W2K. So far, I have no "end of the disc" problem with burning. With my old setup, with Nvidia graphics card and Via chipset (also W2K), I could not close discs, often getting the Blue Screen before the end of the process, or the same error described above. I had tried all types of drivers, but with no success. Some of these discs played in my stand-alone, but most often with high rate of errors (freezing/skipping) near the end of the movie.

I had the same problem with one of my burns using the DVD-R G04 as it couldn't finish the Disc-At-Once ending from my 411S. Yet, it played fine on both of my standalones. However, when I ran DVD Identifier, the media code and the 4x supported speed were gone. But the three successive burns turned out all fine.

I sent back the Ritek G04 discs today....perhaps I had a bad batch or perhaps something is wrong with my configuration (despite the fact other media is closing out just fine). I'm just going to stick with TY's from now on. None of this is worth the hassle.