Buffer Underruns

[jaws]

I have a fairly decent computer with a Philips CDD 4801/82 IDE/CD R/RW 8x4x32 writer/burner that according to clonecd's supported writers page does not have Underrun Technology. [My CD rom is a quit a bit faster Mitsumi.] My question is what does that mean exactly. That there is some other softwear I need or I just burn at a slower speed or that my burner is a piece of crap? Can I make this writer work with clone or do I need some other program like Alcohol or Blind?

My goal is to back up some games and make an occational MP3.
My machine is a Gateway w/
Intel 1Ghz pent. 3
Sound Blaster Live 34 MB
Nvidia GF 2 MX/MX 400 32 MB
512 Crucial RAM
WD 40 GB 7200 rpm hard drive

Would one of you wise old members please give some direction to this cd copying newby? Thank you in advance!!

By the way what the heck is that black dot on my envelope??

[RincewindTheWiz]

CD Writers need a continuous stream of data while writing, if the data doesn't get fast enough at some point, you'll get an error and the writing will stop. You just burned a coaster. Now, the faster you write, the more data has to be fed to the writer and the higher the chance that at some point the writer runs out of data. Buffer underrun is a technology where the writer writes the data in blocks of a certain size. These blocks are measured so that even if the buffer gets empty, the writer knows where to start writing again when it has enough data in its buffer to continue. It's an almost 100% protection against the buffer getting empty during the write. So when you write a cd, just don't do anything at the same time on the same pc and you'll probably finish without an error.

Oh, and as far as I know the black point on the envelope indicates a thread where you made a post in.