I currently have the Sony DVD ROM DDU 1613 and DVD RW DW-D26A drives. I have been having trouble ripping audio books (using either WMP 11 or Audiograbber) with these drives. I get ASPI errors on some tracks. Am considering new drives, and would like recommendations on brands that may work better. Also, is there a preference between EIDE and SATA drives? Thanks.

First off, I doubt the drives are at fault. Probably due to DRM. If you have installed multiple burning programs each of them install their own versions of ASPI Layer drivers. This in itself can cause issues but subsequent removal of a burning program may remove a needed ASPI Layer driver. The test would be to use the burners for other burning tasks. If no issues arise except with the audio books then I would say it is the DRM. IMO WMP11 isn't something I would even use to perform such a task. As far as the interface on an optical drive goes, none run faster than ATA66 anyway so from that standpoint it doesn't matter. However, from the standpoint of usability IMHO IDE/ATA is still more reliable.

I agree. If both drives are having the same weird problem, I seriously doubt that a new drive will help matters.

Thanks much for the input. I have heard others say they have no trouble ripping audio books. So if what you say is true, why me? ;) And is there a solution? I can rip a dozen cd’s before the trouble sets in. Other cd’s will usually become difficult in the last few tracks. I have not tried EAC yet, will it be any better? Sure would like to get my Harry Potters into mp3 for my portable player. ;)

Your last post gives different circumstances than your original. If the last tracks are the problem you may have an overheating issue. Try burning at a slower speed. If you have multiple drives in the case all next to each other you may need to get some separation. Check your system temps under load. Download SIW.exe free. Among all the other things SIW can do it will give you temperature readings off the MBoard. It is possible your laser lenses are getting dirty. There are lense cleaning kits available.

But its not consistent. I can power up in the morning and pop in a cd that was giving me trouble from the day before and it will do the same thing. Not all cd’s will do this. I have monitored the system temps too, but if that is it, any other programs running are not affected. When AG encounters an ASPI error, the program itself can run really slow. I will get that file anyway and see what it tells me. Thanks.

Are you using 80 wire cables on all your drives?