Buffer Underrun with Nero 5.5

[eoin_ie]

I have an oldish computer with a burner (AMD K6-2 ~300MHz, Win98, 160MB RAM, 6GB HDD) and I recently installed Nero 5.5 from the pcmech CD. I had a serial number and I entered it and I was able to burn some audio CDs. On the 3rd CD, it got about 45% of the way, then the file read buffer dropped and it gave me a buffer underrun error. So I did what it told me, cleaned up my C drive, scandisked, defragged, deleted older info from my TEMP folder etc, took about a day in total. Then I went to try to burn the CD again. Except this time, the options to test and test & burn were greyed out. Only burn was available. So I did that and it gave me a buffer underrun error again. Is there anyway around this? Could I have entered the wrong serial number because when it is starting up, it says "Nero 5.5.10.54 Mitsumi" even though my burner is a HP...

Also, could it be that because I have selected mp3s from different areas, some from a CD, some from my HDD, could that have an adverse effect on the burning process? Thanks in advance!

Eoin

[TwoRails]

When was the last time you checked for updates / patches? If you're offline and not running other programs, you should not have a problem...

[bailey]

you must make sure that you have a steady flow of data to the burner, have everything in one location, don't let the byffer get under 80%.
ver 5.5 and above has buffer underrun protection, do you have it enabled or disabled ?

[eoin_ie]

Well I went to the Nero site and couldn't find any better upgrade than that to upgrade to 5.5.10.54

I re-entered the serial number and thats when the problems started. i.e. options greyed out etc

[bailey]

ok, why did you have to reinter the serial number,
maybe you need to unstall it and then reinstall it and then do the upgrade, I just did that and it worked ok for me.

[eoin_ie]

well the original copy i had was off the pcmech CD but it didn't have a WMA plug-in which i needed. so i went to the nero site and downloaded the upgrade and it asked me to re-enter the serial number then. ill give the uninstall and reinstall a try. i read on this site that if you have your source files in different areas like i do, that it can cause problems. is this true?

[bailey]

I belive that is true
wait what do uou mean in a differant location,
things I burn are usaly in a folder or cd

heck no, that is not true, I can burn a cd from another folder on another computer on my network with no problem

[Floppyman]

Make sure DMA is enabled on your cd burner. HTH

[pillainp]

Here's a few things you can try:
1. Ensure that your CD-Writer is on a separate IDE channel (secondary) than your hard disk and is set as the master device on your secondry IDE channel.
2. Ensure that DMA is enabled for your writer in the device manager, and disable Sync. Data Transfer and Autorun.
3. Ensure that you have your CD-Writer selected as your recorder and not Nero's Image Recorder (check under Recorder>Choose Recorder and select your writer rather than the Image Recorder). This is the usual reason why Nero only gives you options to write and finalise a disk and not to simulate.
4. Enable Buffer Under-Run Protection on the above page if your writer supports it.
5. Increase the amount of buffer that Nero uses (File>Preferences>Ultrabuffer). Check the value and increase it if it looks too low. Set a maximum of 80 MB.
6. Download the latest available cdrom.cfg file from Nero's website and copy it to Nero's install folder.
7. Set read optimisation to full (Quad speed or greater) for Writer.
8. Burn at a lower speed than that supported by your writer, since your system is somewhat slow and may not be able to manage sustained high data transfer rates.

NPP

[eoin_ie]

1. Ensure that your CD-Writer is on a separate IDE channel (secondary) than your hard disk and is set as the master device on your secondry IDE channel.

OK I checked this today, my burner is my secondary slave. Now, the last time I opened up my computer, there was smoke and sparks so I'm not in a major hurry to open it up again. Surely if I was able to burn 2 CDs already, the problem wouldn't be there?

2. Ensure that DMA is enabled for your writer in the device manager, and disable Sync. Data Transfer and Autorun.

Enabled DMA and disabled Sync Data Transfer but there was no option for Autorun

3. Ensure that you have your CD-Writer selected as your recorder and not Nero's Image Recorder (check under Recorder>Choose Recorder and select your writer rather than the Image Recorder). This is the usual reason why Nero only gives you options to write and finalise a disk and not to simulate.

Checked this. Uninstalled and re-installed the program from the CD, updated it to 5.5.10.54 and entered the original serial number, all is back to normal, I can run simulations again!

4. Enable Buffer Under-Run Protection on the above page if your writer supports it.

Writer doesn't support it...

5. Increase the amount of buffer that Nero uses (File>Preferences>Ultrabuffer). Check the value and increase it if it looks too low. Set a maximum of 80 MB.

Done, had to put it at 79MB, gave me an error at 80MB

6. Download the latest available cdrom.cfg file from Nero's website and copy it to Nero's install folder.

Done...

7. Set read optimisation to full (Quad speed or greater) for Writer.

Also done...

8. Burn at a lower speed than that supported by your writer, since your system is somewhat slow and may not be able to manage sustained high data transfer rates.

Ran simulation at 2x instead of 4x.

Unfortunately, there is still a problem. I tried moving all the mp3s and wmas into one location but still nothing...any other suggestions?