Gudmundur wrote:
Hi folks,

Problem is this, My old Panasonic CF-41 laptop works great with
my GPS/APRS goodies, but the internal cd drive doesn't seem to
want to read CDR's. This was a common problem with older 4x and
slower drives. I suspect the internal drive is a 4 speed and working
to original specs perfectly.

Have you found any CDR's that consistantly seem to work with old
drives?

I can't say 100%, but I've had good luck with the following techniques:

1. Use disks with a recording surface that looks yellow (aka "gold").
There are different dyes used and that seems to work the best.

2. Record at no faster than the read speed of the drive.

3. For some unexplained reason, the best luck I have had is with a DVD
burner (I've done it with 3 different ones, LG, Toshiba and NEC)
at single (CD 4x) speed.

4. Turn off any buffer overrun protection. It works by streching out the gap
between sectors and the new gap may be too big for older drives.

5. Always make sure you finalize the disk, close the sessions, fixate
(same thing different software).

6. A CD lens cleaning disk has saved many a drive for me. But I live in
the desert.

I've had great luck with TEAC blanks, they are marked 12x to 52x but they
do work at lower speeds.

Software issues:

I often burn my CDs and DVD roms using a combination of UDF and ISO
file systems. Older operating systems seem to have trouble with them,
limit them to ISO file systems. If you really get stuck, try turning off
rock-ridge and joliet extensions.

Good luck,

Geoff.

--
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel N3OWJ/4X1GM
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