LightScribe Forum : Open Topic - General Questions : Excess blank margin around inner ring w/LightScribe!!! LightScribe CD label on my new external drive, the first since I had to do some fiddling with the CD burning software (not the LightScribe part).

The last Memorex LS CD I had remaining burned its label fine when I first tested the burner. I burned my first Verbatim one using the same program (SureThing CD Labeler 4 SE) and it looks great except it left a much more noticeable blank ring about 3/16" wide (maybe 1/4" in total) out from the inside.

All the others I have done on my daughter's laptop along with my first and third ones on here just leave a little 1/16" blank 'ring' beyond the center hole. They basically fill up almost all of the printable area as they should. The other two left that excess unprinted area. The blank area had no partial scribing attempts visible. It just looks like it didn't extend as far as it should.

The preview for my previous successful ones match what printed. The two funky ones did not. My daughter's laptop has Roxio Express Labeler. I never had to tweak any settings on it and none of the CD's ever had this problem.

I see no settings to compensate for or to cause this.

I reinstalled the latest LightScribe update the other day on my PC and told it to 'repair' and the next label printed A-OK. That was the SAME label and I always check settings before I burn.

Then yesterday I did a new label using SureThing and got the excess inner blank ring again. Am I not setting something right or what?

I run XP and the LightScribe burner is a Samsung SE-S164L external DVD-Rom. The PC is less than two years old.

I have not changed any settings that I am aware of. Why haven't they all printed the same way...properly or with the excess margin? I REALLY don't understand that.

Once again today I have asked it to 'repair' the LS software since I had installed EAC and FLAC Frontend prior to this last bungled label. They shouldn't (in theory) have anything to do with LightScribe.

I was going to try another one, but just realized I'd better move the text since it is close to the center hole and it would look bad if it left off part of it.

Update- I reinstalled the Samsung firmware update and then tried a new CD using LightScribe Template Labeler instead of SureThing.  Same excess blank margin!!!

I already checked the Troubleshooting section here.  Below is a link to a scan of an afflicted CD and one with the same background image I burned on my daughter's laptop:

http://imagehost.epier.com/14614/CDs.JPG


]]> Wed, 07 May 2008 22:40:29 GMT LightScribe Diagnostic Utility today and it only turned the autorun back on.  I did save the detailed log and sent it to LightScribe.

]]> Wed, 07 May 2008 00:49:17 GMT think the first label (which printed OK) was done before I downloaded that update. I can't swear it, but I think so. Maybe it is conflicting with my hardware since it says it is a universal version and something from my hardware provider might be better. I'll try one with just what came with the burner.

I hope LightScribe has some recommendations based on the info I sent them and that Diagnostic log...and that they tell me something fairly soon. I don't think this has anything to do with me messing up any template settings.

I know the first CD burned fine and that's what gave me a false sense of security. Never had a bum one with my daughter's laptop and I always had to hurry to burn stuff on there while I could. Everything seemed pretty simple.

UPDATE! OK...based on what was on the Samsung installation CD I felt like I pretty much needed to reinstall Nero since LightScribe was a part of it. I also downloaded the LS update from the Nero site this time. It kind of worried me when I looked in the LightScribe Control Panel before burning and it now showed the same version # as before.

I tried fiddling with Nero Cover Designer to do a label, but it was frustrating. I reverted back to SureThing and.......the first CD printed A-OK! It was a Verbatim CD-R.

Now, I've been through this before, so I don't want to get too excited, but it's promising. Maybe this will do it!

I did a label that if it had had the excess blank ring problem it wouldn't have bugged me as much. I probably wouldn't have done a LightScribe CD for that audio CD, but now it has a cool label and I'm encouraged.

I'll keep my fingers crossed and update this after a few more attempts. I don't know if I'll have to keep Nero on my PC, but I am not going to alter anything for now...that's for sure.



]]> Thu, 08 May 2008 19:02:44 GMT I was able to duplicate the problem on my test computer. I installed a SH-162L drive and installed firmware version TS05. The image was printed with a gap on the inside similar to the problem you experienced.

I installed the new firmware TS08 and the same image was printed correctly.


]]> Thu, 29 May 2008 18:59:49 GMT TS08.

Now, I have gotten three labels to burn correctly since then, but I find I sometimes have to unplug my drive and then plug it back in. After a successful burn sometimes the PC does not recognize that drive.

And I have also learned the trouble signs for when NOT to attempt a LightScribe label:

The LightScribe Control Panel finds no LS drive.
The LS Diagnostic Utility finds it, but not the media (when you definitely have a LS CD-R in it).
When I do Print Preview with SureThing the excess image is not masked out/blank. If I were to proceed like that, it will freeze up.

But, so far, uplugging the Samsung drive and then plugging back in seems to be the fix along with those updates. This time I plugged it into the front of my PC to see if it makes any difference, but have no label to burn yet. I mainly use my internal drive for most other CD stuff, so I didn't notice till yesterday that the external drive wasn't being recognized again.

So, if unplugging now and then is the price I pay for my LightScribe drive, it's still a bargain. I ALWAYS check in advance with the Control Panel and Diagnostic Utility now and then Print Preview.

Did one more today correctly, but once again had to unplug the drive in advance.

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