Reading 700 MB CD-R's

My regular CD-ROM doesn't read most 700MB CD-R's. It doesn't have as much trouble with the 650's. I know it's because it's an old drive that was made before CD-R's was the big thing, so it doesn't support it very well. This I can live with.

My question is this--> My CD-RW drive has troubles reading most 700MB CD-R's too. (One's that have already been burned.) It's a 4x4x24 IDE drive. Is this problem derived from the fact that it's fairly old too? It was purchased when 4X's were the top of the line. I seem to remember that 700MB disks are fairly new...

It's not a big issue, just an annoyance. Kind of odd that it will read SOME 700MB disks perfectly, while others it has difficulties with. Oh...and it will eventually read some 700's that it initially has problems with. :confused:

Any answers are appreciated. I assume it's the age of the hardware, but it can't hurt to ask.

You could be right as far as the cd rom drive. I would a new one LG Electronics make a very good one. That won't break your wallet.
Can you narrow down maybe the brand of media that it works with and doesn't work with.
Just an idea.

it might be a firmware issue. I have a Phillips 2x2x6 that could not read or burn over 500MB. After reading around on the net I found a guy that discovered that Phillips knew about this prob and would not fix it so he created a "unsupported" firmware upgrade for it. i used it and now it has been burning and reading 700MB fine for over 3yrs..

are you burning the cd's and then it's not seeing them or is someone else's pc making them? are they data or music? :p

They are all data CD's. All are pre-burned by someone else. (Mostly picture CD's) Whenever I burn, I use a 650 and everything works fine. Can't narrow it down on brand. I use 700's so rarely, that by the next time it happens, I've forgotten many of the specifics. I just remember that it's a problem.

However, I'm getting a feeling that your replies are leaning to my hypothesis anyway. Thanks for the input everyone. I think I'll just stick to my 650's.

It might just be firmware because I have a Pacific Digital 4x4x24 in my P166 and I had to update the firmware before I could use it to read 700 discs (I wanted the burner to read 700 because I spend like 200 bucks on a bunch of 700 MB discs!). You should be able to find a firmware update at your cd-rw drive's manufacturer website. Good luck I hope this helps!

-aa