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EasyCD 5.0 & "Unreadable" CD's (1 Viewer)

Mike Grell

Agent
Joined
Jul 20, 1999
Messages
37
Hi All; I've just installed EasyCD 5.0x on my machine at home, and spent a late night creating shiny new coasters for my coffee table.

I've created a "Data-CD Project" containing a number of MP3 files (some in the root directory, and some in a folder). The disc itself is a 700MB disc, like I've been using all along without any problems. This particular project has 650MB of space taken up, so I'm not (?) going over the max size of the disc.

Anyways - Burning occurs at 12x / 124 files total, and completes without error.

However, when I try to read the disc afterwards, I get "Disc is unreadable" / "Invalid function" error message from Windows Explorer.

I have 4 discs now on my coffee table - each with slightly different settings (Disc at Once vs Track at Once, etc... etc...).

Previous to using EasyCD 5.0, I had the "demo" version of EasyCD in the machine, and it worked fine (teach me for upgrading!!!)

If anyone has any suggestions / or solutions (!), please let me know!

Thanks very much.....
Mike
 

John_Berger

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Nov 1, 2001
Messages
2,489
I have had problems like that as well, but the problem might not be Easy CD Creator.

(A) I have had problems where one of my older drives (a CD-R/DVD-ROM combo) drive would not accept true silver discs even though it would appear to write properly. Try a different brand of CD-R.

(B) Try a different product, preferably Nero (Ahead Software). I've found that when Easy CD Creator fails, Nero succeeds.
 

Mike Grell

Agent
Joined
Jul 20, 1999
Messages
37
Hi John; Thanks for the reply - Nero is next on my list to try.

I'm curious though why a demo copy of EasyCD would work fine, but not the full-blown version. A lesson in "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" I suppose.

Thanks again!

Mike
 

Kevin P

Screenwriter
Joined
Jan 18, 1999
Messages
1,439
Try completely uninstalling EZ CD Creator, and reinstalling it. Sometimes it doesn't like being installed over itself, so perhaps the drivers didn't get installed properly. Otherwise, just get Nero.

KJP
 

Chris Bardon

Senior HTF Member
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Jul 4, 2000
Messages
2,059
Mike, are you burning with Disc at Once? I've found that trying a Track at once burn with EasyCD 5 gives me a similar result, but DAO works fine.
 

Mike Grell

Agent
Joined
Jul 20, 1999
Messages
37
Thanks for the replies guys...

Kevin; Good idea about the uninstalling - I read that somewhere else now too that things go berzerk if you don't de-install any previous versions first... that EasyCD 5.x doesn't "upgrade" per say... will give it a shot.

Chris; I've tried both Track-at-once (which I believe is the default setting) and Disc-at-once, but with the same coaster results.

When I get home, I will try the de-install/install - will post results later...

Mike
 

John_Berger

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Nov 1, 2001
Messages
2,489
Also !!!! (Hopefully you'll get this before you go home...)
When you reinstall the software, DO NOT INSTALL DIRECT CD! Every system that I've worked on that has Direct CD installed, whether mine, friends', or families PCs, have experienced problems when Direct CD is installed. I cannot recommend enough that you install using the Custom configuration and remove Direct CD from the installation.
 

Mike Grell

Agent
Joined
Jul 20, 1999
Messages
37
Hi John; What exactly is "Direct CD" ?

When I installed EasyCD 5.0, during the install, it says that a "newer version" was already installed. Not sure if that's from the demo copy, or what. I assumed it was from Windows 2000, like DirectX or something funky...

Mike
 

John_Berger

Senior HTF Member
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Nov 1, 2001
Messages
2,489
Direct CD is part of the Easy CD Creator package - or at least the platinum version, anyway - that makes the CD-R drive act as a regular drive. You can drag-and-drop files to it and so forth. You know, it's technology that Microsoft stole (more than likely) for Windows XP.

I have yet to hear of anyone who has not had a problem with installing Direct CD.

As I said, I don't know if it's only with EZCDC 5.0 **Platinum** or not. Just to be safe, see if it's there in a "Custom" install. If it is, I strongly recommend NOT installing it.
 

Ted Lee

Senior HTF Member
Joined
May 8, 2001
Messages
8,390
i'm sure the last thing you want to do is upgrade, but they're up to v5.1:
http://support.roxio.com/roxio_suppo...pdatesv5.jhtml
perhaps you need to go that route?
also, i think i did the standard install (which included directcd)...luckily that didn't appear to affect me.
also, you're burning at 12x correct? did you try burning at a slower speed?
that's all i can think of...
 

Todd Stout

Screenwriter
Joined
Jul 13, 1999
Messages
1,044
What operating system are you running? I have read about (and experienced) problems with burning CD-Rs after upgrading to Windows XP. Microsoft has issued at least two patches that address this issue but neither has fixed my problem (I think the LG Electonics OEM drive that came with my Dell is just not XP compatible).
Check out the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article and the links on that page for more info:
HOW TO: Troubleshoot Issues That Occur When You Write Data to a CD-R or CD-RW Optical Disc in Windows XP
You may be interested in this article in particular (copy and paste the entire URL into your browser):
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;[LN];Q320174
 

Mike Grell

Agent
Joined
Jul 20, 1999
Messages
37
Thanks everyone for your replies - a lot of good information, but unfortunately, EasyCD Creator refuses to cooperate.
I uninstalled the 5.0 version, and then the older demo version.
With a clean setup, I then installed 5.0. During the install, ECDC said that DirectCD was not compatible with my drive, so it wouldn't be installed. Fine! Finished the install, rebooted...
Ran ECDC, no problems. Started a new Data CD Project, dragged a few files to test, clicked on Record, and ... "Sorry, but there are no drives capable of burning". Huh?? It was busy ruining CD's just yesterday! Ok...
Internet Upgrade... got the 5.1 version, which claims to fix a whack of problems and increase it's compatible drive library.
Still no good... says I don't have a compatible CD burner.
Downloaded the 2nd upgrade, which claims to further increase the compatible drive list...
This program said I didn't have ECDC installed!
ARGH!
Uninstalled the whole damn thing.
Installed Nero.
Created a new Data CD with some test data.
Clicked Burn.
PERFECT!
After all that trouble - NO MORE "Easy"CD...
Now that I have Nero in there, I feel like watching Gladiator... ;)
Thanks again for all your help and suggestions. Hope others with similar problems find this thread useful.
(Nero! Nero!)
Mike
 

Eric Gan

Agent
Joined
Nov 30, 1997
Messages
37
Funny I never really had problems with EasyCD Creator. Nevertheless, I switched to Nero because it is a better program.

On another note, does anybody here use InCD (Nero's version of DirectCD)? There's an annoying problem that InCD won't let you use the eject button on your writer when in use. I have to right-click the drive or the InCD icon and choose eject to pop-out the disc. Is this a safety feature or a bug? It's probably documented somewhere, but I'm too lazy to look it up.

Eric
 

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