burning my burner

is there any software better than record now/nero/ easy creator?

I found with my HP burner, and W98, that I had to turn off ALL tray and background applications.

It also helps if the burner is on a seperate IDE channel from the source device.

Other hints:

Check with HP for a firmware upgrade for the drive.

Install the latest IDE driver for your system / motherboard / chipset.

Disable DMA mode for the IDE channel that the drive is connected to.
(try it both ways, as some systems work better with DMA enabled)

Are you using 700MB, or 650MB blanks?
Some of the older drives, (and yours is in the range) cannot write to the higher density 700MB disks.
If you search around, you can still find lower speed 650MB blanks. (Office Depot, Compgeeks)

How about system resources?
I recommend 256MB or more RAM for burning.
Also, if your CPU is less than 300MHZ, a faster CPU will make a big difference.
Don't forget free HDD space, and paging file size. Both should be a minimum of 700MB.

As to software packages, I use Roxio EasyCD Creatoron both my W98 and XP system.
I have read many posts here recommending Nero Burn from Ahead.
You can download trial versions of either.

There is a recent update to HP's own software too.

Chas

Are you sure it's w2k? It might be your burner. That burner is kinda old you know. Some burners dies out after it's been over used, and when it's over used it will only burn one or two time and can't burn anymore. Sometimes it will not even finish the process. I believe it's your burner. If I were you, I'll get a new burner. Good Luck

What speed is the computer it's running on? And how much is running in the background? I've seen many cases where those two were the main factors in burning. If experiencing problems burning I'd also shut off anything that has to do with file access (file-watchers, guardians, system scans, ...) while I was burning. And of course, a 4x2x8 could mean it's also time to invest in a new burner.

Look to see if there ia a firmware update for it. hjs