unable to burn cds/dvds

[Mattk]

a few days back i lost the ability to burn discs.i normally use nero.i uninstalled it and reinstalled it,i have tried new burning software,i have bought a new hdd,i took out the current drive and put back in the old one but all of these things do nothing.each and every time i burn it fails at approx 5-7% and sometimes even hangs requiring the pc to be rebooted.i cant think of anything else that i havent tried.can anyone offer any other assistance ?hellllllp

[Hippy]

The CD R/W drive may be faulty. The write lasers do not last for ever. It could just need cleaning, but I suspect you will need an new unit.

I had one that semed ok and produced copies, but they lasted about a month before all data vanished from the discs. The unit eventually refused to burn more that a small part of a disc then when phut completely. It was only 18 months old.

[Gandy]

1) Never attempt to clean a CD-R laser - then it will be useless. 2) It may be the media that you are using - do you normally use other brand CD-R's with success? 3) A long shot - right click my computer icon, click manage, select device manager from the list. click the little cross next to IDE Ata/Atapi Contollers in the right hand window. Right click Secondary IDE channel and click properties. Click advanded settings and change device channel 0 to PIO Only in transfer mode settings. If your CD-R is for some reason connected to Device 1 then that could also cause the problem

[Mattk]

i took out my current drive and put back in my old one which didnt change anything but confirmed that its not the drive the media i am using has remained unchanged - so its not that ! im totally stumped as i have tried everything i can think of