Is my cd burner dead?

[Guy Berger]

Hey all,

I was trying to burn an audio CD using itunes 9 and all of a sudden my burner started creating coasters after no problems previously. The initial error I kept getting was "4251".

I tried several fixes - rebooting, reinstalling itunes, slowing my burning speed, I also tried installing an alternate program and burning with it (cdburnerxp). None of them worked - I'm still generating coasters (though the errors have changed somewhat - most recently I got a 4260).

I assume this is a hardware problem - I've been using my burner a lot recently, and maybe it just crapped out (though for goodness sake - this computer is less than 2 years old!).

If this IS a hardware problem - should I send the computer for a replacement burner drive, or buy an external?

Thanks for any and all advice.

Guy

[Spontooneous]

The burner included in my HP computer was a piece of crap. I'd recommend buying a cheap external burner and not worrying about it anymore.

[Dave Garrett]

It could very well have died. My (home-built) computer is 9 1/2 years old, and it's on either its third or fourth optical drive. Typically the laser pickups start to crap out, resulting in the inability to read/burn certain kinds of discs, but I've had one that was a mechanical failure - the internal drive belt broke.

You could always get a replacement internal drive; they're not that hard to install, and the data transfer rate will most likely be higher than that of an external drive.

[BERIGAN]

Guy, I have only opened my computer up for 2 things. Add memory, and put in a cd burner.

It was years ago(it my have been my first computer, and only came with a cd player?) but it was extremely straightforward. Unplug old one(after turning off power to computer!) unscrew 4 screws to remove old unit, reverse order. Really just that simple. Oh yeah, you would have to remove case of course and install software.