Question Burning a 4x CD-RW on a modern optical burner ?

THK

Distinguished
Nov 1, 2012
29
0
18,540
Hello, can someone tell me whether it's possible to burn an old "2x-4x compatible" CD-RW disc on a modern optical drive, such as ASUS ZenDrive U9M?
Is the minimum possible burn speed mandated by the drive's firmware, so the discs below that minimum fail to burn? Thanks in advance.
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
Hello, can someone tell me whether it's possible to burn an old "2x-4x compatible" CD-RW disc on a modern optical drive, such as ASUS ZenDrive U9M?
Is the minimum possible burn speed mandated by the drive's firmware, so the discs below that minimum fail to burn? Thanks in advance.

Specs do not say a 'minimum' write speed.
But probably.

Try it. All you have to lose is one blank CD-RW.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Phillip Corcoran

THK

Distinguished
Nov 1, 2012
29
0
18,540
But probably.
I'm asking because I've found some on eBay, and plan to use them for the car CD player. These often don't like CDs burned at high speeds, currently using RWs written at 10x - most of the time they work fine. But even they are pretty hard to find these days.
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
I'm asking because I've found some on eBay, and plan to use them for the car CD player. These often don't like CDs burned at high speeds, currently using RWs written at 10x - most of the time they work fine. But even they are pretty hard to find these days.
Do you already have that optical drive?
Any blank CDs around?

If so, try it at 4x.
 

THK

Distinguished
Nov 1, 2012
29
0
18,540
If so, try it at 4x.
Yes, I have that drive but I can't, my current RWs are all labeled "8x-12x speed". Software won't allow for any speed other than 10x for some reason. I ordered a 2x-4x RW and will test when it arrives.
 
If the particular disc model isn't listed in the drive's firmware, it will be burned using the burner's generic default burning algorithm. There's no way to tell what speed with that will produce the best results, short of trying each speed and checking the burns for errors using software (and often the lowest burning speed will actually produce more errors). Note this error checking may not be possible on some drives depending on their error correction mechanisms, so you may have to check the discs using a different drive.

If your drive will not allow selecting lower speeds on your current discs, this may be because those discs are recognized by its firmware, so only those speeds used to develop the burning algorithm for those will be listed.

This is why back in their heyday, optical burners had frequent firmware updates.