CD burner problems

[scootwhen]

Recently I have been having a hard time with my CD writer/burner.  As it is now, I am not sure whether my problems are a result of software problems, or the CD writer itself.  I suspect that it may be a problem with the actual drive.

I have tried to burn some music recently.  I have been burning the discs at 1x speed to try and give them the best chance possible.  I have also stopped working with my computer while the burning is in process.  However, about 40% of the discs that I have burnt recently have had skipping and catching problems.

Also, before these recent audio CD's had failed, I had a few problems burning data CD's.  I was transferring some music of mine that I had put into mp3's by writing the data to CD's.  While reinstalling the mp3 data, I had trouble with some of the songs.  Some of those also could not be reinstalled on the computer.

In all cases, when the skipping/catching problem arises, whether data, or audio, it stalls the entire drive and I have to manually eject the disc to close the drive window.

I have a dell inspiron 600m purchased in January of 2004.  It runs on Windows XP.  The CD drive is the original one sent with the computer.

Is there a way to test where the problem lies?  What are my options?  I really appreciate any help that anyone can give.

Thanks,
willie

[GX1_Man]

The most helpful thing would be to try another drive in there and try that drive in another machine to see where the problem is. With a laptop this can be problematic. You didn't say if your warranty had expired, but especially if that drive has had some use it could be shot. They don't make 'em like they used to.  

[scootwhen]

Thanks for the reccomendation.  If I switch a cd drive, what things do I have to do?  If I borrow my friend's can I just insert it into my laptop?  Will I need different software for it to work?  Can I guarantee the safety of my friend's drive?

Also, I have had a thought that perhaps it was issues with buffer under run errors.  Perhaps my computer is not up to the task.  Perhaps too many programs are running on my computer.  I try to close down any other visable programs before I burn a disc, but maybe there are things running that I don't know about.  How can I find this out?

Lastly, it sounds like you think my cd drive might be shot.  If it is, is there a cd drive that you would reccomend for my system.  I wouldn't mind one that could write DVD's as well.

Most of all, thanks for the help and taking the time to read and respond to my post.  I appreciate it.

-willie

[GX1_Man]

If your friend has a similar model you can just pop the drives back and forth. Look how they connect internally. What model does the friend have?