Desperate! Still can't burn CDs

I had planned on burning discs of my favorite music for friends and family as xmas gifts, but If I can't get this fixed soon, everyone's getting canned fish...

Here's a brief recap: I'm using an iMac 750 G3 400 mhz - System 10.3.6, latest version of itunes and recently upgraded from 192 mgs of RAM to 640. I'm using an iomega 650 Zip CD burner -- USB -- running at 4x.

I was able to burn discs right out of itunes at first (i think i burned 4 or 5). Then one day i started getting the "buffer size, underrun protection" message.

I've adjusted the buffer size in itunes, made sure iTunes wasn't trying to burn at too high a speed ran a repair permissions session, I've copied the songs from my external drive (a LaCie 160 gig firewire drive where i store all my mp3s) to the desktop and tried to burn from iTunes and from Toast 6 (titanium, no less). Toast just got hung up during the process and I've had force quit several times. iTunes still gives me the "buffer size, underrun protection" deal.

thanks in advance for your input!

are you trying to burn mp3 discs or audio discs? use mac3dec or something to convert mp3s to .aiff files, then burn in toast under the audio tab as an audio cd. you cant fit as many songs, but it should work.

thanks

Macman said:

are you trying to burn mp3 discs or audio discs? use mac3dec or something to convert mp3s to .aiff files, then burn in toast under the audio tab as an audio cd. you cant fit as many songs, but it should work.

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I've been trying to burn them as audio discs. Do you know if Toast has a function that converts mp3s to aiffs? Is mac3dec a freeware or shareware program? I have a version of Audacity as well. Do you know if Audacity will convert mp3 to aiff?

thanks

iTunes will convert mp3's to aiff.
Have you tried to do a simulation burn prior to an actual burn?
Do you have anything running in the background?
Have you set the hd not to go to sleep?

badwims67 said:

…made sure iTunes wasn't trying to burn at too high a speed …

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I always burn in Toast, so I don't even know if you can do this in iTunes…
tried burning at 2x and 1x?

toast will automatically convert mp3s into aiffs if you add mp3s under the audio tab to an audio disc.

a simulation burn?

immdb said:

iTunes will convert mp3's to aiff.
Have you tried to do a simulation burn prior to an actual burn?
Do you have anything running in the background?
Have you set the hd not to go to sleep?

Click to expand...

What's a simulation burn?

I don't run any other programs in the background and I do have the hard drive set to sleep after 90 min. But the problems show up in the first 10 minutes of trying to burn a disk. After i click 'Burn disk' in itunes and it starts preparing the files (i assume its then converting the mp3s to aiffs) it gets stuck as soon as it starts trying to burn the first song. It just sits there for about 5 minutes. then it spits out the disc and gives me the error message.

speed

immdb said:

I always burn in Toast, so I don't even know if you can do this in iTunes…
tried burning at 2x and 1x?

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I haven't tried burning at slower speeds. I'll give it a try.

badwims67 said:

What's a simulation burn?….

Click to expand...

This is from Toast 5 help…

Using Check Speed Before Your First Recording

If you've had limited experience working with your CD-Recorder, you may want to use Toast's Check Speed or Simulation Mode features the first time you record a CD in an unfamiliar format. The objective of both features is to make sure that the write speed defined in Toast for you CD-Recorder is not too fast for the speed of your source device.


I'm using toast 5, but I believe that it is similar in 6.

After you hit the record button you are prompted by a record window. There is a box that you can check for simulation mode. In Toast 5 you have to deselect "buffer underrun prevention" in order to access the simulation mode checkbox.

Is the ejected disc ruined? (was anything ever written to it)
Since it sits for 5 minutes, I would suggest trying different brand of media.

Other things to consider…

If you are on a usb hub, try conecting directly to the computer?

Try a different usb cable?

Clean the laser lens.

other things...

immdb said:

Other things to consider…

If you are on a usb hub, try conecting directly to the computer?

Try a different usb cable?

Clean the laser lens.

Click to expand...

I'm connected directly to the computer.

How do you clean the laser lens?

buy a cd/dvd laser lens cleaner, its a disc with small brushes on it, it guides you through the process, etc.

Macman said:

buy a cd/dvd laser lens cleaner, its a disc with small brushes on it, it guides you through the process, etc.

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I haven't tried the lens cleaner yet, but here's what i have tried:
I've switched the brand of discs,
I tried to burn from System 9 but the version of toast i had couldn't find my burner for some reason,
tried burning an mp3 disk from iTunes and in Toast Titanium,
tried slower speeds,
converted the mp3s to aiffs using a different program and then tried to burn disc in Toast Titanium,
turned off all the fancy desktop pics and set the screen saver to never come on -- ALL TO NO AVAIL

Great Googly Moogly!!! - is this what it feels like to be a Windows-user?

no, windows users still have it much, much worse. definitely sounds like your lens needs cleaning. ideally, and for maintenance, the lens should be cleaned after approximately every 10 hours of use.

Macman said:

no, windows users still have it much, much worse. definitely sounds like your lens needs cleaning. ideally, and for maintenance, the lens should be cleaned after approximately every 10 hours of use.

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Tried lens cleaner and still no luck -- I even tried the Iomega website to see if there are any new drivers or firmware or anything for the burner and apparently there aren't any...

This is just plain weird. I've never had this much trouble getting a Mac to do a simple function. What else should I try?????

itunes doesnt support external cd burners by iomega, how were you trying this??are you using patchburn?

Macman said:

itunes doesnt support external cd burners by iomega, how were you trying this??are you using patchburn?

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itunes must support Iomega because it was working fine at first. iTunes didn't support the same drive when i was using system 9 and iTunes 2.0. And it recognizes the drive when I open up the burning preferences. I would think if it didn't support the drive it wouldn't show up in preferences.

Macman said:

itunes doesnt support external cd burners by iomega, how were you trying this??are you using patchburn?

Click to expand...

...and i forgot - what's patch burn?

another question

Macman said:

itunes doesnt support external cd burners by iomega, how were you trying this??are you using patchburn?

Click to expand...

I've been looking all over for some kind of patch or driver or update that perhaps I'm missing. The Iomega support page recommends this:

"DiskRecording Update 1.3.5 -- The Disc Recording Update delivers additional iTunes and Finder support for a number of LaCie, EZquest, and Iomega CD-R devices."

AHA! maybe this is just what I need. But when I downloaded it and tried to install it. the OSX installer said there's no drive where it can be installed!

#@$%@!

badwims67 said:

…"DiskRecording Update 1.3.5 -- The Disc Recording Update delivers additional iTunes and Finder support for a number of LaCie, EZquest, and Iomega CD-R devices."…

Click to expand...

This update became available on 8/9/02 (OS version 10.1.5), I doubt that it will help you. The drivers in this update would be included in 10.3.6.