Burned DVDs have rings in them-need help

[quicky008]

I have been using a LG DVD burner on my pc for the past few years.Earlier it worked just fine but nowadays,whenever i use it for burning DVDs,weird shapes that look like concentric circles invariably appear on the reflective surface of the discs after the completion of the burning process.Sometimes when i burn 2 or 3 discs consecutively,burn rings appear on all of them at exactly the same position every time.I normally burn all my DVDs at 8X using Ashampoo burning studio and i didn't face such issues earlier when my drive was still quite new.However,it should be noted that despite containing these strange circular patterns,the discs are perfectly usable-i didn't get any read errors while copying data from them to my HDD.I use Sony's 16X DVD-Rs for backing up my data as they are generally considered reliable.Can anyone suggest why this is happening?Does it indicate that the drive has become faulty?

[tkin]

A pic would help.

[Sujeet]

In Case:
The disc you have burnt are reading perfectly ony your drive and on other systems
and
The rings you are talking about are dark dark are on the inner side of disc
then:
It is normal. You are simply noticing it now.

Everytime you(or anyone) burns data to a disc(cd/dvd) only a fixed tracks and sectors are utilized for writing data which gets changed(physically) and this causes appearance change of surface.
I dont know why did u find this as a problem cuz till date every dvd/cd i have burnt has these traits.
Maybe earlier you would be burning the complete space on disk due to which all changes occured upto the end of disc and you werent able to notice it but when you started burning discs partially the tracks gets burnt(written) upto to a fixed visible boundary.
IT AINT A PROBLEM!
Otherwise:
Wait for someone to Help.

[quicky008]

@Tkin:I don't have a camera with me right now,but i'll try to upload some pics later,if possible.

@Sujeet:I found it rather difficult to grasp what u were trying to suggest.I'm aware that a dark circular section(that resembles a ring)is present on the innermost portion of all burned dvds(i.e. towards the center) and that it is perfectly normal-this is not what i was talking about.Most of the DVDs that i have burned with my writer recently have concentric rings in them and they often vary in hue and shade i.e. some of them are noticeably darker than the others and these rings appear only in those areas where data has been written(the areas that haven't been used up for burning remain unaffected).I've heard that these ring like shapes may be generated when the burner changes its speed automatically while burning a blank media-is it normal for a DVD-RW drive to behave like this?I've burned a couple of hundred dvds with it before and had no problems with them whatsoever.Why is this problem occurring now?

[tkin]

If its a hollow ring(i.e a band) its abnormal, but if its a filled circle then its ok, a pic would really help, even with a crappy camera, just need to see the pattern.

[krishnandu.sarkar]

Are you talking about these??







Well in that case it's time to change the burner.

Same happened to me on Dec and I got it replaced last month.

Better avoid LG Burner. Nowadays they are no more good.

[quicky008]

@tkin:Thanks for your feedback,i will try to upload some pics of the affected DVDs tomorrow.

@Krishnendu:The DVDs that i have don't really look like the ones in the photograph-in your case,there are just too many of those rings which are clearly visible and so its pretty obvious that your burner was acting up.The rings I've observed in my DVDs were only visible when their reflective surfaces were examined closely and there are only about 2/3 of them in a single disc.Therefore i find it hard to understand what could have caused the formation of these rings-does the fault lie with the discs or the burner itself?If i decide to change my writer,which one should i go for?Can DVD burners from Asus and HP be considered reliable?

[Neuron]

@quicky008:Are they scratches?Can you feel these rings if you rub your fingers against them?
Also can you successfully read from these dvds?

[tkin]

Asus makes good burners, stay away from samsung, LG and sony.

[quicky008]

Originally Posted by Neuron

@quicky008:Are they scratches?Can you feel these rings if you rub your fingers against them?
Also can you successfully read from these dvds?

These aren't scratches-they can only be seen,not felt.
I didn't face any problems while copying data from these discs to my HDD.

@Tkin:And how about hp?

[Neuron]

Originally Posted by quicky008

These aren't scratches-they can only be seen,not felt.
I didn't face any problems while copying data from these discs to my HDD.

As long as the burned discs can be read properly i wouldn't worry.

[tkin]

Originally Posted by quicky008

These aren't scratches-they can only be seen,not felt.
I didn't face any problems while copying data from these discs to my HDD.

@Tkin:And how about hp?

Never tried, Asus is rock solid though.

[Sujeet]

Originally Posted by Neuron

As long as the burned discs can be read properly i wouldn't worry.

Now thats something i can say yes to!

[quicky008]

here are the pics:

http://i.imgur.com/n2PpF.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/qOPxC.jpg

[krishnandu.sarkar]

The first image no longer exists.

Anyway, that's normal. Nothing wrong with your Drive.

[Neuron]

Originally Posted by quicky008

here are the pics:

http://i.imgur.com/n2PpF.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/qOPxC.jpg

I don't see anything abnormal in the pics.Your drive is totally alright.

[Sujeet]

as i was saying its normal.!

[tkin]

Originally Posted by quicky008

here are the pics:

http://i.imgur.com/n2PpF.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/qOPxC.jpg

Change the drive asap. Its done for. There should be a hollow band, not co-centric circles like that, never seen a pattern like that.

[quicky008]

@Krishnendu Sarkar:My apologies,the link that i posted earlier was invalid.To view this image,plz check the updated link now.

Originally Posted by Neuron

I don't see anything abnormal in the pics.Your drive is totally alright.

Are u sure my drive isn't acting up?Then why have these circular bands started appearing in most of my newly burned DVDs?

Originally Posted by Sujeet

as i was saying its normal.!

Have u experienced similar issues with your optical drive?Why do u think its normal?Did u notice the circular bands that are present in both of the DVDs-is it normal for burned discs to have such unusual patterns on them?

Originally Posted by tkin

Change the drive asap. Its done for. There should be a hollow band, not co-centric circles like that, never seen a pattern like that.

Thanks for your advice but i am totally perplexed about this situation because certain members of this forum have suggested that it is perfectly normal,as you may have noticed already.Please note that so far,i have faced no issues at all while copying data from these DVDs(including the ones in the pics)to my HDD.If the DVDs in question hadn't been burned properly,i think my drive would have given me a disc read error while copying data from each of them.What exactly are these hollow bands that you've referred to?Can u post a few pics to show us what they look like?Thanks.

I am using a molex to SATA power converter to power my DVD burner-can that somehow cause the drive to malfunction?

[Neuron]

Originally Posted by tkin

Change the drive asap. Its done for. There should be a hollow band, not co-centric circles like that, never seen a pattern like that.

Hmm,I'm not sure about what you said.Won't it be better to keep the drive for now since the written files are being read properly?Those circles looks to me as if the circles that usually appear when you burn files on to them but yes they look a bit shifted away from where they should actually start.

Originally Posted by quicky008

Are u sure my drive isn't acting up?Then why have these circular bands started appearing in most of my newly burned DVDs?

Were those pics you posted of DVD-Rs in which the files were burned as a new session or were they completely blank before burning them?Now to make sure your files are being written properly make a .rar or .zip file of about 4GB size(to almost perfectly fill a DVD) and burn it to a new disc.Now try extracting it to the HDD.If there are no checksum errors your DVD is fine,atleast for now.

[tkin]

Originally Posted by quicky008

@Krishnendu Sarkar:My apologies,the link that i posted earlier was invalid.To view this image,plz check the updated link now.



Are u sure my drive isn't acting up?Then why have these circular bands started appearing in most of my newly burned DVDs?



Have u experienced similar issues with your optical drive?Why do u think its normal?Did u notice the circular bands that are present in both of the DVDs-is it normal for burned discs to have such unusual patterns on them?



Thanks for your advice but i am totally perplexed about this situation because certain members of this forum have suggested that it is perfectly normal,as you may have noticed already.Please note that so far,i have faced no issues at all while copying data from these DVDs(including the ones in the pics)to my HDD.If the DVDs in question hadn't been burned properly,i think my drive would have given me a disc read error while copying data from each of them.What exactly are these hollow bands that you've referred to?Can u post a few pics to show us what they look like?Thanks.

I am using a molex to SATA power converter to power my DVD burner-can that somehow cause the drive to malfunction?

If you are writing a single session disc this should be the pattern, all my discs have this exact pattern, the lighter band means the drive can't sustain the speed, its gonna fail soon enough, try writing an ISO file(4GB) to it using nero express and check Verify data, see if it passes.

[quicky008]

@Neuron:I burn all my dvds in a single session,i seldom create multi-session discs to avoid compatibility issues with other optical drives.I have recently burned a 4 GB video file to a sony DVD-R;although these ring like structures were also present in it ,i could copy the file to my HDD in one go and got a read speed of around 7 MB/s constantly.


@Tkin:You are probably right,although the drive looks okay now,its quite possible that it will start malfunctioning in the foreseeable future and so i have decided to go for a ASUS dvd burner shortly.Will ASUS be better than HP?Whats the make and model of your burner?

I'd be grateful if someone could answer this question of mine:Can using a molex to SATA power converter to power a SATA optical drive or HDD cause the drive to malfunction?

[tkin]

Originally Posted by quicky008

@Neuron:I burn all my dvds in a single session,i seldom create multi-session discs to avoid compatibility issues with other optical drives.I have recently burned a 4 GB video file to a sony DVD-R;although these ring like structures were also present in it ,i could copy the file to my HDD in one go and got a read speed of around 7 MB/s constantly.


@Tkin:You are probably right,although the drive looks okay now,its quite possible that it will start malfunctioning in the foreseeable future and so i have decided to go for a ASUS dvd burner shortly.Will ASUS be better than HP?Whats the make and model of your burner?

I'd be grateful if someone could answer this question of mine:Can using a molex to SATA power converter to power a SATA optical drive or HDD cause the drive to malfunction?

This one: Flipkart: Asus DRW-24B3ST DVD Burner Internal Optical Drive (Black): Internal Optical Drive

And also, just change the converter to make sure it isn't the culprit, although problems are not caused by converters, it either works or fails, nor banding like this.

BTW: Just use Nero Express to burn a disc, is the pattern same? And try some moserbare dvds(the ones with moserbare written on top, not the white ones).

[quicky008]

@Tkin:Thanks for the prompt response.I've decided to go for a ASUS drive just to be on the safer side,i think it won't be a good idea to continue using the LG drive for backing up my valuable data.

As a matter fact,i have tested the drive by using moser Baer discs as well and the results were pretty much the same-the circular bands were present in them too and therefore i strongly suspect that something is wrong with the drive.

[tkin]

Originally Posted by quicky008

@Tkin:Thanks for the prompt response.I've decided to go for a ASUS drive just to be on the safer side,i think it won't be a good idea to continue using the LG drive for backing up my valuable data.

As a matter fact,i have tested the drive by using moser Baer discs to burn my data and the results were pretty much the same-the circular bands were present in them too and therefore i strongly suspect that something is wrong with the drive.

Its a good drive, check this, it has 2.8k reviews averaging 5 stars, something almost no other product has(its the old model there, new model is available here).

Newegg.com - CD Burners, DVD Burners

[quicky008]

I don't think the newer model is available at any of the computer shops in my town.Is the newer model different from the one that's available on flipkart in any way?

[tkin]

Originally Posted by quicky008

I don't think the newer model is available at any of the computer shops in my town.Is the newer model different from the one that's available on flipkart in any way?

Flipkart sells the latest model.

[aloodum]

IF you can source one get a Lite-On. Asus drives have a kind of patchy reputation.
Early on they got recommended because
1. It was Pionner rebranded
2, Their SATA models flooded the market in their initial launch and were not too costly over IDE drives from the KOREANS.

I suggest you read about the H/w to avoid thread here..

[whitestar_999]

just my opinion but i think all this fuss is over nothing.use any drive with a decent brand dvd like moser baer using nero & check the verify option.after burning if verification completes successfully take out dvd & keep it inside a cd/dvd carry pouch.end of story.once a dvd is burned & successfully verified it does not matter what drive you used.it is not like hard disk which can fail suddenly.only factor is wear & tear which is independent of drive used once a dvd is burned successfully.