iBook burning CDs at 4x speed only

durandal

Hey,



I've got an iBook (g3/800, 14,1") whose built-in CD burner is able to burn CD's at speeds up to 16x. But the actual burn speed tops out at 4x



Now, I remember reading somewhere that this is a known bug in the iBook's (resp. the CD drive's) firmware. But I never heard of any firmware update that would correct this problem. Is there one?



Greetings,

durandal

placebo

When you burn a CD, it gives you a choice of Burn Speed. Choose "maximum possible".



If your burning iTunes CDs, look in the iTunes prefs under "Burning."

durandal

Quote:

Originally posted by Placebo

When you burn a CD, it gives you a choice of Burn Speed. Choose "maximum possible".



If your burning iTunes CDs, look in the iTunes prefs under "Burning."

Well, thanks, but that's what I'm doing anyway (I'm not that much of a newbie - been using Macs since '95 ). As I said, this is a confirmed firmware bug, I wanted to know whether anyone's ever heard of a firmware patch to fix this.



Greetz

durandal

spike

No, there hasn't been a firmware update for this. Apple's never admitted that the problem is with the drive itself, their line is if you can't burn at greater than 4x you're using bad CD-R's.

luca

My iBook had problems with El Cheapo CD-Rs as well. I got an overall speed of 12x (8x for the first third, 12x the middle third, and 16x for the last third) with a 16x max burn rate when I used Verbatim CD-Rs bought from Apple. This is how the drive is supposed to operate - it's a 16x max drive so it only has to get to 16x at some point of the burn in order to be classified as 16x. My eMac has the same thing but it's a 32x burn so I don't really notice it. Judging by the rate at which Toast counts down, it's going 16x-24x-32x.



I don't like how Apple is not forthcoming about this. You should be able to send in your computer and get the drive replaced with a less picky one. I don't think you can... you'll just have to stick with Verbatim CD-Rs, which generally cost a bit more than generic ones. Various people have tried other fixes, like starting the burn immediately after waking from sleep, burning only when the iBook is very cold, turning the iBook vertically during the burn, starting the burn immediately after inserting the CD, reinstalling the system, and more. Nothing seems to work consistently though. I'd suggest looking for some Verbatims and using those.

murbot

Yes, it's insane how shitty this is. When I had my 800 I would watch the seconds tick down in Toast, and it was exactly one second off the clock for every 4 real seconds of elapsed time. Made no difference using Verbatims for me.



There were all kinds of little methods people supposedly used. Tilting the iBook to one side at the beginning of a burn, squeezing your left testicle while screaming the Mongolian War Cry through a toilet paper roll, inserting the CD at just the right time during the process... you name it. For each person that had a "solution", a dozen others would chime in that their method didn't work for them.



The Apple discussion boards were absolutely FLOODED with threads about this when the 800's came out. Many of those were deleted, causing quite the little riot over there too...

dmband0026

When I do a disc copy using toast it takes about 5 seconds to count down one second on the timer on screen. Not cool at all. It's much better with data CDs or anything off the hard drive. I know this isn't an iBook having the problem, I just thought I would add it. I use brand name CD Rs too. I'm gettin a G4 iBook in the very near future, I'll let ya'll know how it behaves with different kinds of CD Rs.

macaddict16

Quote:

Originally posted by murbot

There were all kinds of little methods people supposedly used..... squeezing your left testicle while screaming the Mongolian War Cry through a toilet paper roll... you name it.

This one worked for me!!



Macaddict16