Discs are rejected with burn or recording engine errors. I receive software error 101 or burned discs are rejected down the center chute (PTPublisher).

Before troubleshooting a burning problem consider the following questions:

When does the burn failure occur?  The PTPublisher software can reject the disc as bad at any time during a burn. It is often important to determine when the reject occurs.  If it occurs immediately at the beginning of a burn it could indicate there is a problem with the blank media. The media may not be blank or could be the wrong type of media. For example if you attempt to copy an audio CD onto a DVD the blank DVD will be rejected. See this troubleshooting RejectsFlowChart.pdf

What type of media is affected? If you are able to successfully burn to CDs but not DVDs it may indicate a problem with disc brand compatibility.

What type of projects are affected? If a data project will burn but an image project will not this may indicate a problem with the source material being copied.  Perhaps the master file is corrupted or incompatible with the media.

Has the Publisher successfully burned this or similar projects in the past using the same computer same media? If the answer to this question is "Yes", the drive in the publisher is probably starting to wear out.  Depending on the type of discs being burned and the amount of data being burned, the drives generally last between 5,000 - 10,000 burns for CDs and 3,000 - 5,000 burns for DVDs.  You may need to send in your Publisher for repair. You can also purchase a replacement drive from our spare parts store.  Please contact technical support so they can recommend the best course of action.

Have you tried burning to one drive or the other (if you have a two drive system)?  On the last step of the project you can choose to burn to the Top Drive, Bottom Drive or Both.  If your project works on one drive but not the other, this is a clear indication that the drive itself has failed.

Below are the top reasons for rejected discs.

1. Defective, Low Quality or Incompatible Blank Media.  Try New Media.

2. Check for Clear Disc.  See this article.

3. Burn Speed.  Try using a lower burn speed.  This is especially helpful for audio discs.  We don't recommend burning audio at higher than 16x.  Try burning other types of discs at 32x.  A 700 MB CD burned at 52x burns only 9 seconds faster than the same CD burned at 32x.  Click here for more information.

4. System Resources.  Make sure your computer is up to spec. and that you are not running other programs or using other peripherals while the unit is running.  It is very sensitive to system resources and uses them heavily, especially when burning and printing at the same time. Reboot the computer. Try burning the project with only PTPublisher running.

5. Hardware Issues.  (This step is especially necessary if the Disc Publisher is rejecting every blank CD or DVD)

A. Replace the USB cable.  The cable should be no longer than 6 feet.
B. Try a new USB port.  Try an integrated 2.0 port not on a card if possible.

C. Try a new USB 2.0 card.  Make sure you are using a brand name card. 
D. Do not plug the unit into a hub or a pass through port on an external drive.  It should be directly connected to the back of the Mac, without hubs or extender cables.

6. Put Master in Publisher Drive.  When doing a CD/DVD copy select the Drive in the Bravo as the Source and the Recorder.  When doing an Image job, create the Image using the drive in the Bravo. Creating the image of a known working master disc is the recommended job type for all CD/DVD types.

7. Update Software.  Make sure your PTPublisher version is the latest.  Within PTPublisher, go to Help – About to find the version.  Go to http://www.primera.com/software_upgrade.html to find out the latest version or contact Technical Support.

8. Drive Firmware.  Check this link to see if your drive has a firmware upgrade. Find the drive model by right clicking on Computer and select Manage.  Click on Device Manager on the left.  Click on DVD/CD-ROM drives.  Updating firmware can fix media compatibility issues.

9. Job type issues.  Try another job type.  If you are burning DVDs, refer to this article for job type recommendations.

10. Master Disc Quality.  If you are doing a copy project, check the master discs for scratches or fingerprints. Anything that interferes with the optical link from the disc to the laser can cause the disc to become unreadable. If there are any scratches, try a new master disc. Make sure the master disc files can be read using the operating system file browsing or played using iTunes or DVD Player.Check to see if the master disc has any unusually formatting such as a bootable disc or Mac/pc hybrid disc. Try a different reader drive. The drive in the Bravo is preferable but if other drives read the master and the drive in the Bravo does not, this could indicate a problem with the drive.  Try a different master disc. 

11. Verify.  If you are choosing to Record and Verify, try just Recording.  The unit will still reject bad discs.  Verify is an extremely high quality standard.  It compares the copy with the master bit for bit. If it finds a discrepancy it rejects the disc.  The disc is most likely still playable and the errors are not visually or audibly detectable.

12. Try burning other content.  The master disc or content you are trying to burn could be corrupted.  Try new content or recreate the content.

13. Files on the Network or an External hard drive.  Make sure any files you are referencing in your job reside locally on the computer's hard drive and not on the network or a USB 2.0 or Firewire external hard drive.

14. Software conflict.  Software such as Roxio EZ CD Creator and Sonic can conflict with PTPublisher.  Roxio and Sonic try to install their own drivers to run the CD or DVD drive.  Remove other burning software.

15. Auto Run/ Auto Play. Disable Autorun or AutoPlay.  Auto Play is the system where Windows/Mac is notified of a new media in the drive. If found, an appropriate program is launched. (The type of program would depend on whether it was an audio CD or installation CD, etc.) This is important because, CD/DVD recorders need a constant non-interrupted stream of data to burn on the blank CD/DVD. If that stream is interrupted, the burn fails and you end up with an unusable CD/DVD. When a program launches it steals precious computing power and the burn is interrupted enough to cause a failure. See article 45046

16. Log File.  You can create a log to send to Technical Support if the above suggestions don’t fix the problem.  Go to the PTPublisher Help and select Support Center – Create Support Report.  E-mail this report to Technical Support.