Hello!!
I'm writing here because I've a big trouble with my new Philips DVDR 1640P.
Ah,please forgive me if my English is not very good and please don't say
"You have to buy a new PC",because now I've no money!!

With my 1640P I can write only DVD+R,it writes them even at 16X speed but
it doesn't write DVD-R (and DVD-RW).
Even if I try to write a DVD-R at 4X I only got a failure.
I tryed to write 5-6 of them but the result was the same.
I tryed Verbatim,TDK,Sony and Mmore.
It' never writed succesfully a DVD-R!!
NEVER! N-E-V-E-R!!!

My PC is a Pentium 3 450 (running at 504 or 558MHz...),384MB PC133.
MoBo is an old Luckystar 6ABX2V,chipset is Intel 440BX.
My OS is Windows XP.
I upgraded ASPI driver from 4.60 to the 4.71 version.
I also upgraded Nero from version 6.3.1.25 (bundle with 1640P) to the version 6.6.0.6,but nothing has changed.
Philips DVDR 1640P firmware is 3.4

Can somebody help me?

Will be useful if I post here a log from a failure of Nero?

Thanks

Error during burn or during verification? I'm going to venture a guess that maybe this error occurred at a recalibration point...?

Can you see the media code with these -s?

I have no problem burning DVD-R discs with my Philips 1640P..

1. MCC02RG20 @ 8x with P3.2
2. TTH01 @8x with P3.2
3. SONY08D1 @8x with P3.2

Even my Nec 3500 couldn't burned them better... =)

IMO, the specs doens't look that good for burning DVD at 16x...
You should wipe ASPI 4.71 also and use 4.60 instead (do it by using ForceASPI).
Maybe the problem is just the bundled Nero version...

There is NO WAY you can run a 450MHZ/440BX with WXP AND burn at 16X. The drive's buffer underrun must be operating ALL the time, resulting in 15 min burns.

If the drive can burn DVD+R, then it will also work with DVD-R. Try the drive in a more powerful PC. You're putting 2004 technology in a system built in 1998. Be happy you can burn DVD+R.

I wouldn't go by the scans only. I did three burns on my Philips 8631 (which is the same basic drive), and got pif scans of ".12", but they wouldn't play back worth a crap on either of my standalones.

The error is during the writing, 13%-60% about.But is not a buffer underrun error because driver buffer and software buffer are 100% full.
I know that mine is a very old PC but even 4X or 8X will be good for me.
I succesfully writed DVD+R at 8X in 6-7 minutes about.So...why I can't write DVD-R at 4X?
I started with ASPI 4.60 but I changed them to 4.71,but even this time it didn't work.
And it's not a problem with Nero because I also tryed to upgrade it from 6.3.1.25 to 6.6.0.6.
Before I try to use my DVD writer in a more powerful PC....there's something I can do?

I'll take your word that you can write a full DVD in 6 min on a 450/BX system (that's 16X burn speed). Note that your motherboard cannot run at 133MHz FSB speed. I have a 600 MHz PIII with 133 FSB, 384MB PC133, and W2K Pro. The CPU load maxed out at 14X burn speed. If I switch to the WXP partition, then the CPU load tops out around 12X (WXP requires more clock time from the CPU). All tests were performed with a clean install of windows.

My motherboard can run at 133MHz,but WXP sometimes crash with CPU running at 598,5 MHz (4.5 x 133),so I keep the bus at 124MHz (software,because MoBo is only 100,103,112 and 133).

But the question is:why I can't write DVD-R?
I repeat:my DVD writer works well with DVD+R.

If someone knows where the trouble may be,plese help me!

Thanks!

How many software programs have you used besides Nero to burn to -?

When I remember right, the BX chipset couples the PCI bus clock the CPU bus speed, IDE is coupled to the PCI bus (running at PCI/3 for UDMA2). A CPU bus speed of 124 MHz will overclock your IDE bus, which is a very bad idea.

Yeah I'd say that could be a possible source of the problem, there is no way of locking the AGP bus at 66Mhz and the PCI at 33Mhz with that motherboard so you should stop overclocking & set everything back to its default settings & try burning a DVD-R again.

Interesting to see if that's it.

I'll buy some new DVD-R and I'll try to burn one of them with the bus at 100MHz...But if my trouble is from 124MHz bus why I've no trouble with DVD+R?
My PC should handle DVD+R and DVD-R in the same way if the DVD writer is +/- R!!