I'm going nuts over here trying to burn a CD. I've done it in the past with no problems what so ever. Here's how I used to do it on my old PC, and how I'm [i]trying[/i] to do it on my new PC.

1.Download MP3's from the net.

2.Save them to my "MP3" folder.

3.Convert a CD's worth of MP3's to Wave format.

4.Save converted .wav's to my "Wave's" folder.

5.Open Roxio's Easy CD Creator, and select the wave files to the "set list" to be burned.

6.Hit "Record" and everything appears to go fine, until one of two things happens.

A) The final product, the burned CD doesn't play in my car. No tunes at all. Never had that problem before, using the same exact procedure outlined above.

B) I get some sort of random error message indicating that there's something wrong with the disc I'm trying to record to. Which is always a brand new CD-R, freshly unwrapped.

What is the deal?!?

Is a conversion from MP3 to Wave always needed? Do some blank CD-R's need to be formatted in some way? I've run out of ideas and I, again, am about to put my foot through my new P4 2Ghz Dell. Please advise before I do something I'll regret.

Thanks a lot. I always get put back on track by someone here who isn't slightly retarded, like I find myself at times like this.

P.S.- My former successful CD burning was also done using Roxio's Easy CD Creator.

... yeah, unless your car stereo is an Mp3 player as well

Are you closing the session?  If you leave the disc open, it won't play in car or normal stereros.  Yes the conversion from mp3 to wav is nessesary.  They are making some car radios and other cd players that will play mp3's now.  Other then the session maybe not being closed it looks like your doing everything fine.

Hmmmm......wondering two things.

Is this version of Easy CD Creator able to convert "on the fly" like the others? But that shouldn't matter if they've already been converted to .wav's.

Also, closing the session, that is a must in order to create a disc that will play once it's been completed? Maybe I over looked that, but I could sware I've been closing the session....because once I have the songs I want to burn, I never have a need to add anything.

I'll keep trying.

No formatting is ever necessary with CD-R's...correct? They're all good to go out of the wrapper right?

Go to www.goldwave.com and download goldwave.  Also, get an MP3 converter on the same site, Lame or Blade.  I have the Lame MP3 converter.  Install all this as directed by the Readmes.

You can drag and drop an MP3 into the goldwave window.  You then do a Save As,and save as a wav file, and in file attributes, chose "16 bit stereo, signed."  Some MP3's are recorded as mono, but it must be stereo for a CD player.

Make sure you have turned off everything you don't need when creating the CD... turn off virus program, etc.  Don't do anything else while burning.  You need lots of RAM, no less than 128, preferably 192 or 256 Mb.  Or more.

Once you have all your wavs created, via goldwave, open Adaptec, and chose Create a Music CD.  Chose your wavs and let er rip.

If you still have problems, update your drivers.  I use CatchUp, http://catchup.cnet.com/ for this.  

Easy CD converts on the fly.You have to choose the audio option.Thats on version 4 and above.Not shure about the earlier ones.

Try burning the CDs at a lower speed.  Audio stuff seems to be intolerant of that type of stuff.  

Have you switched the brand/type of CDs since you have some that worked?  That can happen, your player and/or burner might not like the new discs as well...  Burning slower might help there too.

I just got off the phone with a guy @ Dell. I explained everything I said here, plus some "observations" that didn't agree with me.

He was very cool, and very helpful. I have since burned a CD successfully.

Here's what he told me, and AR-15Fan you were exactly right. He told me that burning CD's eats a LOT of your PC's resources. Shut down all unnecessary utilities and such, and attempt burning at a slower speed.

I said to him "What's the point of buying a P4 2 Ghz, with a ton of RAM if my burner can't manage to burn at 24x like it's "able" to do? He said that that's just what the deal is with burners.

He also recommended what Shadowblade recommended and that is to think about getting Nero as my burning software. He said he's had not a single problem burning with it, but has fielded MANY questions about Roxio's product.

Anyway, thanks fellas for the help, I really appreciate it.[beer]

I have one of HPs' external burners, and the only problem with it is that while it says it's 80-min compatible, it isn't. I have to leave at least 5 min off an 80-min CD for it to burn properly. Edited to add: If you are making a direct copy of a CD, a lot of them have a hidden track at the end of it that (I guess) is a command to scramble what just got burned, leaving you with a useless CD. I found this out using FreeRIPmp3, and it showed 20 tracks on a 19-song CD. I just ripped the first 19 tracks into the computer, and burned 'em onto the CD. Problem solved (after ruining 3 CDs).

Pretty incredible with the P4's out, and all the Gigs, Ghz and RAM available this burning CD stuff is so problematic.

I have a screamer system, and as far as I'm concerned a 24x burner should do just that, burn without bitching at 24x.

The CD I burned successfully was @ 4x. I'll give 8x a try next time and see if my "screamer" PC can handle it.

Mail checked.....reply sent. Thanks man.

Remember that when you are burning items to a CDR the data is being sent first, to the hard drive and then to the CDR. This whole process has to be flawless or the burn fails. I bought a 2 gig SCSI drive jsut for burning as I know the transfer rate will be great for burning. SOme older systems IDE drives will work terrible with a burner. HP does not support 80 min CDR's and that is straight from their own tech support.

May be a stupid q? but do you dissable your anti-virus when you burn a cd??? it helps prevent bad burns.

Does it really? I'll give it a try. Didn't turn it off for the last one, but maybe if I do I can get that elusive 8x burn I so crave![BD]

The files I burn are already on my hard drive. They're MP3's from the net, downloaded previously. Still, it sucks resources apparently. You can't f*ckin' sneeze without an error message.

I'd invest in some SCSI gear, as it takes considerably less CPU overhead.  It's expensive and some say it isnt worth the extra cost, but I've made very very few coasters since I made the switch...

You may need to run all of the transfer tests that come with your cd burner.  Helped me.



Make sure the cd is "closed".  

Keving67

Not to mention that downloading mp3s from the net is a [b]CRIME!!!!!!![/b]  [}:D]

Keving67

Just like a bayonet lug is illegal on a post-ban AR15...

What do you mean a crime? All the MP3's I download are from a friends band. I wouldn't dream of burning commercial music....that would be illegal.[%|]