When burning audio files onto a CD-R disk the message ‘invalid alignment was specified’ appears and the CD becomes a drink coaster. Previously I made many copies of the same audio files without difficulty, and I can burn the same audio files onto CD-RW with no problem. The computer is 1.29GHz AMD processor with 1 GB RAM running Windows XP Home Edition. The CD writer is an ATAPI CD-RW 52XMAX.

This is an interesting problem, since other people are experiencing the same error when burning audio files onto a CD-R through Windows Media Player, but experience no problems when burning to a CD-RW. While I have not been able to find an in-depth explanation of this (rather cryptic) error message, the general idea seems to be this error occurs when there is a problem with the Windows CD burner driver. Most people who experience the problem have been referred to the following article www.nwlink.com/~zachd/pss/pss.html#xpcdburn which has a fantastic explanation of ways to avoid this error. If the website does not automatically scroll to the correct page, do a search for the terms ‘invalid alignment’ which will display 8 tips for avoiding this error. Please carefully read all the tips, as while some of these are relatively well-known (e.g. try different media) others are very useful (e.g. ensuring the IMAPI burning service is enabled and reducing the burn speed on your writer). Please let me know if you continue to have this error after following the tips.