Hi!
I'm trying to use k3b for writing a CD, which I've done many times on my laptop (this is a desktop. If it weren't a different burner, I'd probably post this on the software forum), and generally, until a blank CD is detected, k3b refuses to even *try* to burn.

My computer has 2 sata and 2 IDE hard drives, and 2 IDE cd-rom drives, they are
/dev/sca, /dev/scb, /dev/hda, /dev/hdb -- hard drives
and /dev/hdc -- CD-RW/DVD-ROM drive
and /dev/hdd -- DVD-ROM

K3b detects /dev/hdc as a writeable device, "HL-DT-ST RW/DVD GCC-4482B" (admittedly, I haven't got a clue what most of this string means), and claims it can write CD-Rs and CD-RWs. I'm burning to a CD-R.

The thing is, while the burner is detected, and if I insert a pre-burned CD, it detects it as usual, if I insert a blank CD, nothing happens. K3b just keeps asking me to "please insert a blank writeable medium...".

Does anyone have an idea how to solve this?

Thanks!

have u tried changing the blank cd media.

Media would be the first thing to check(try a different brand).

Another may be that the write laser is dead. I have two drives that read fine but they do not write anymore.

I have several brands; none detect.

If the laser were dead, I wouldn't be able to read pre-burned cd's, which I can do. (Correct me if i'm mistaken; but the read and write lasers are the same laser at different intensities.)
Also, it was only a couple days ago that this same burner worked just fine in a windows box.

It is only not detecting blank cd's -- whether it can burn them is another issue.

Thank you for the reply!

There are two separate lasers in most units. One for writing and one for reading. Units die when they die. Moving things from box to box does seem to be a common time for it to happen.

Even so, if that is the case, why couldn't it at least detect blank cd's? I don't see how detecting them would require the write laser...

Put the media in the optical drive. Reboot. See if it will mount, if blank or read if files available.

Rebooting had no effect (can't mount... how do you go about mounting media without a filesystem?). It still reads files just fine.

I *was* going to try a liveCD. The only one I had around is gNewSense, but it couldn't figure out my system well enough to boot.

So... I guess I'll just have to eat the cost of a new cd burner. drat.

Try telling k3b to blank the CD.

Nope. Still wants me to insert media.