More Common Disc-Burning Errors
4. The firmware's gone soft: With the intense pressure to get products out the door in a competitive market, your burner's firmware or software bundle may not have been exactly perfect when you bought it. Shocking, I know, but the point is that the firmware or software has almost certainly been updated (or soon will be), and if you're not happy with your burner's performance, you should avail yourself of those updates, which you'll find on the vendor's Web site. Still, there's a heap of truth to the old saying "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Updates all too often cause problems of their own. If your discs are burning fine, let your burner be. (Even drive vendors will tell you that.) But if your drive habitually stutters when you switch to a new brand of disc, for example, a firmware or software update will likely help.
5. You're cruisin' for a bruisin': Today's PCs are more than fast enough to juggle other tasks while burning discs. But as I hinted above, programmers sometimes have bad days, and software does crash--taking your nearly completed burn with it. You'll increase your chances for success if you minimize the number of apps running while you burn your discs. I'm not saying that you should avoid multitasking or burning in the background altogether, but I am saying that you ought to be careful. If you're down to your last disc and you have time for only one go, shut down all your other apps, set the disc to burning, get a cup of your favorite beverage, contemplate the universe for a few minutes--and don't mess with your computer until the job is finished.
PC World contributor Jon L. Jacobi says he can give you a great deal on shiny coasters.
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