Why is DJ playing up now, when previously I had no problems?

[Skip_C]

Hi everyone, I'm a new poster to this forum, but I've been reading posts for a while.

Basically in the last week I've tried burning 4 games using DJ 3 (the latest version and the one just before). I get errors like "Illegal parameters.." and "buffer underrun or write error" when I try to burn the cdi. images. I get errors on the following games: Bounty Hunter Sara, Fire Pro Wrestling, Outrigger and MDK2. Until now I've had no problems whatsoever and have successfully burned about 20 games. I'm absolutely puzzeled as to what the problem(s) is/are.
I think all of the above games are bigger than 650mb, but just a fortnight ago I burned Vanishing Point (which is bigger than 650) using DJ and the same 700mb CDR's. I thought the "buffer underrun" could be due to a lack of space on my HD, so I made way for a spare 1gig, that didn't make any difference. My CD-writer doesn't seem to be the problem either as I've burned other things with since and I've been using it at the lowest speed.

If anyone has had a similar experience with these games (or with any games) and have solved the problem, could you please help me.
If anyone has any suggestion as to what I might be doing wrong, again please feel free to offer help.

[TheMaskedm0m0]

Generally BU (Buffer Underrun) errors are caused by several things:

1) Your CD-RW sits on the same channel (IDE cable) as your Hard Drive

2) The buffer size on your CD-RW is incredibly small

3) You have WAY too many programs running at the sametime when your trying to burn a CD

If by some act of God, and you swear by it, that none of these are the causes. Then use something like CDI2ISO or CDI2Nero and use Nero or Easy CD Creator, BU errors rarely occur in them.

~The Masked M0M0~

[Skip_C]

Cheers for replying.

My CD-RW drive shares the IDE cable with my DVD-ROM drive, I'm not sure which is master and which is slave (I wonder would that make any difference?). I've got two hard drives (both connected to the same IDE), I wonder would it matter which one the .cdi file is on?

I have no idea about the buffer size of the writer. This will most probably sound silly, do CD burners have onboard memory? I thought they used memory for the buffer from the hard
drive? (as you can tell, I'm not naturally gifted when it comes to computers!) Like I said I've got two hard drives, so maybe it would be best if I had the .cdi files on the primary one?

I've tried closing down practically all programs and still have the same problem and have had loads of programs running on different occasions when I've had success at burning a game.

It's not just the "buffer underrun" errors that are the problem, I'm also getting errors messages saying things like "illegal parameters.." etc which make me think that maybe there might be a problem with the actual .cdi files itself.

[wildthing]

Alright there buddy, Really you want 1 Hard Drive & 1 Reader/Writer on each IDE channel.Iv'e also had problems with Illegal Parameter errors, and I found that if you switch RAW mode off in the advanced menu these errors usually disappear.

[TheMaskedm0m0]

"I have no idea about the buffer size of the writer. This will most probably sound silly, do CD burners have onboard memory? I thought they used memory for the buffer from the hard
drive?"

- Yes CD burners have onboard memory, generaly 2 or 4 meg buffers, once that buffer is drained, which is caused by activity on a hard drive that is on the same channel as the burner, like if you have WinAmp running or Windows is trying to access some files during the burn, you have buffer underrun, which is when the laser is going faster than the data being given to it or vice versa. Sometimes, programs like Easy CD Creator slow down the laser and data to prevent buffer underrun from occuring, while others like DiscJuggler do not have that feature.

Another good feature to have is BurnProof, it's not a program, but is physically built into your CD burner, all Plextors come with this. PoweRec is another good feature, like BurnProof, it too is built into the CD burner, I have only seen this on Plextors thus far. It assures high quality and consistent burns at any speed.

"I've tried closing down practically all programs and still have the same problem and have had loads of programs running on different occasions when I've had success at burning a game."

Still, it is good to have ALL non-system critical programs shut down. So if your in Windows 95/98/98SE when you hit Ctrl+Alt+Del all you should see is Explorer and Systray and whatever burning software you are using, other than that, End Task to everything else.

Another thing I suggest is getting X-teq System's X-Setup, a free download from their website. Somewhere within X-Setup Default UI, you can set it so that Windows uses up all available RAM before using a page or swap file (Like that huge Win386 file you see on your hard drive) RAM is incredibly faster than a swap file, plus no hard drive access, so once again limiting buffer underrun. I suggest you only do that if you have at least 128megs of RAM or more, with me and my 640megs, it is a tremendous increase in overall OS speed.

~The Masked M0M0~

[BrAvO_BoY]

wildthing (30-07-2001 00:26):
Really you want 1 Hard Drive & 1 Reader/Writer on each IDE channel.

What a load of bollocks, you do not want a hard drive to share the same channel as a reader/writer, unless your mad of course, in which case go right ahead. There is nothing wrong with the setup Skip_C is running.

[BrAvO_BoY]

Opps IE is playing silly buggers

[Skip_C]

Cheers for your replies. I forgot to add that I'm only burning at the lowest speed (I've got the demo version of DJ and my writer is only 2x anyway), so I would imagine there would be less needed to buffer anyway?

I'm gonna try raw mode, see what happens.

[Skip_C]

[quote]
Still, it is good to have ALL non-system critical programs shut down. So if your in Windows 95/98/98SE when you hit Ctrl+Alt+Del all you should see is Explorer and Systray and whatever burning software you are using, other than that, End Task to everything else.
[quote]

I did the Ctrt Alt Del thing and closed all othe progs down