Question Audio CDs play fine only when burned with certain drives?

[THK]

First of all, I know audio CDs are long gone by now, but I've got six Verbatim CD-RW discs that I rewrite regularly with the new music for my car.

I've noticed something strange lately. When I burn them on my desktop computer (with ASUS DRW-24F1ST drive), they play just fine in my car. But if I burn them on my HP laptop (with HP DVDRW GUE1N drive), they either skip heavily, sound slightly distorted, or take forever to read. I've tried replicating the problem several times, and yes, those burned on PC sound fine and those burned on laptop crap out.

Every single burning setting is the same: 10x speed (the only available setting), write tracks to image before burning, normalization disabled. I'm using Ashampoo Free, on Windows 10, on both computers. So the only thing that's different is the drive, although AIDA64 says both drives have exact same feature set (except buffer size, 1.5 MB vs. 500 KB).

My question: is it possible that two different drives, with the same feature set, using the same software, write speed and settings, have different "burning routines" which result in different burn quality? Is it because of different firmware (note: no available updates for both drives)? Anyway, I've ordered an external ASUS drive (SDRW-08U9M-U) to see if it burns my discs fine, like its desktop ASUS fellow.

Thanks in advance.

 

[USAFRet]

My question: is it possible that two different drives, with the same feature set, using the same software, write speed and settings, have different "burning routines" which result in different burn quality?

Yes.

Very slightly different tolerances. Burned on Drive A does not read on Drive B.
That has been a thing since forever.

 

[dwd999]

First of all, I know audio CDs are long gone by now, but I've got six Verbatim CD-RW discs that I rewrite regularly with the new music for my car.

I've noticed something strange lately. When I burn them on my desktop computer (with ASUS DRW-24F1ST drive), they play just fine in my car. But if I burn them on my HP laptop (with HP DVDRW GUE1N drive), they either skip heavily, sound slightly distorted, or take forever to read. I've tried replicating the problem several times, and yes, those burned on PC sound fine and those burned on laptop crap out.

Every single burning setting is the same: 10x speed (the only available setting), write tracks to image before burning, normalization disabled. I'm using Ashampoo Free, on Windows 10, on both computers. So the only thing that's different is the drive, although AIDA64 says both drives have exact same feature set (except buffer size, 1.5 MB vs. 500 KB).

My question: is it possible that two different drives, with the same feature set, using the same software, write speed and settings, have different "burning routines" which result in different burn quality? Is it because of different firmware (note: no available updates for both drives)? Anyway, I've ordered an external ASUS drive (SDRW-08U9M-U) to see if it burns my discs fine, like its desktop ASUS fellow.

Thanks in advance.

If your buffer size readings are correct, the drives are obviously not the same so you should not expect the same results.

 

[Math Geek]

try burning at a slower speed on the laptop.

this has always been an issue and the usual first fix is to lower the speed on the offending drive.

i recall working with some drives that worked fine at high speeds and others that made nothing but coasters at anything above 2-4x.

 

[CelicaGT]

try burning at a slower speed on the laptop.

this has always been an issue and the usual first fix is to lower the speed on the offending drive.

i recall working with some drives that worked fine at high speeds and others that made nothing but coasters at anything above 2-4x.

This is the way, or find an old Pioneer head unit. Those would play anything (Unlike my Sony).

 

[THK]

try burning at a slower speed on the laptop.

The thing is, only 10x is available for selection on my CD-RW discs. My external drive arrives in a couple of days, until then I will test it on my brother's laptop (has the same drive, but just to be sure).

EDIT: Tested burning on brother's laptop, CD plays fine. Same drive, same firmware revision, same firmware date. It seems my laptop's drive is defective, but then again, it writes data discs fine? Hmm.