DVD burner question

Factual Questions
1

I have a Windows 10 PC here that has an internal DVD-RW drive installed but for the past week or so, when I attempt to burn a disc, I get an error, “The write speed for the recordable disc is either too fast or too slow for your DVD or CD burner. Insert a recordable disc that has a different writing speed, then try again.”

But I was able to read a CD. So I’m wondering if these things use a different laser (or other hardware) to write than to read? I’ve already ordered a replacement DVD-RW drive, in case I’m correct that there is a hardware issue.

2

I don’t know the answer to your laser question but evidently this sort of thing has been happening since at least Windows 7.

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-hardware/the-medias-speed-is-incompatible-with-the-device/c5bd323e-f238-49b4-abc0-b4d1d83b485a

3

There is one laser for CDs and one laser for DVDs.

4

So the same laser both to read and write CDs and a different laser both to read and write DVDs? Looking more carefully, the thing I tried to read was a CD while I tried to write to a DVD+R disc. So perhaps it is a hardware issue? The replacement drive was under twenty bucks so I’m not too worried, although it will be annoying if replacing it doesn’t address the issue.

5

Exactamundo.

6

Maybe I’ll try reading a DVD with the drive. That will definitively prove whether the problem is with the DVD laser.

7

Maybe maybe not. Reading a disc is much less error-prone than writing. There’s also so many different speeds and types of media (4x, 8x, 12x, 16x, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW), and media that can handle a range of speeds, sometimes more elegantly than others, that it’s easy to get some that simply doesn’t work.

8

Has it worked before and now it doesn’t?

Are you using a different brand of writeable disc than before?

Did you try changing the write speed in the software you are using to burn the disc?

9

I think it worked previously but it’s used by others, not me, so I can’t say for sure. They’re using Staples DVD+R discs and they use the same ones on other computers of the same model with DVD burners of the same model elsewhere in the department.

As for the write speed, I was just testing using the Windows 10 feature to burn discs, which only has 4x or 8x as options. The discs say they’re capable of 1x-16x speed.

Really frustrating.

10

You could try downloading free burning software like ImgBurn and setting a lower burning speed than your drive’s maximum (e.g. 8x, x4, etc) to match the speed of the burnable DVD media.

Don’t let the price fool you; it’s actually great.

11

I have a windows 10 computer too. Mine has a CD player that stopped working. I got an external CD burner.
I bought it from Amazon.
It’s an “Amicool” type-C interface. It works great so far,

12

It also wouldn’t hurt to try a CD or DVD cleaner, to see if the laser is just dirty.

13

Thanks for the advice. I’d rather avoid suggesting they use another program like ImgBurn, as they already have a process in place. I’ve put an external drive in place as a workaround and it worked, so perhaps the replacement drive I ordered will work as well? (Still, I was able to read a movie DVD so I don’t understand why it won’t write a data DVD.)