Any PC being used for CD burning must run at its optimum efficiency.

Make sure the ScreenSaver is disabled, and disable all the energy savers.

Disable things like RealPlayer and WinAmp, uninstalling them if necessary.

If the achine has a modem, make sure it isn't set to dial up by itself!

Anything that can disrupt the CD writer will do, so get rid of them all!

I don't have any problems burning CD's, and I use the cheapest blanks I can get. But the PC is dedicated to CD writing, and is used for nothing else.

It's not a blisteringly fast machine - a Cyrix P200+ with 32Mb RAM, and the writer is IDE (not SCSI).

I believe in the KISS technique - Keep It Simple, Stupid!!