The four most common reasons for CD drive issues are:
- Low quality CD-R/RW discs
- Incorrect power supply
- Hard-drive fragmentation
- A malfunctioning CD/DVD drive
The following information may help you pinpoint and resolve your problem.
LOW QUALITY CD-R/RW DISCS
Failed burns can be due to error-prone CD-R media. Because we insist our products create pressing plant-ready CD masters, only specific CD-R brands have a satisfactorily low error rate to burn properly. Note that years ago, many CD manufacturers began outsourcing their CDs to different countries and quality control went down. While certain CD brands have worked well in the past, this is no longer the case unfortunately.
- Below are a few brands that worked well in past years:
Taiyo Yuden, Discmakers, Microboards, Plextor, Apogee, BASF, HHB, and Mitsui Gold. - Avoid common off the shelf, low quality and error prone CDs such as Memorex, TDK, Maxell, Sony, Imation and Verbatum.
- Note that due to the age of the product (released in 2002), we no longer have a resource for where to acquire compatible CDs.
POWER SUPPLY
Be sure that you're using a BOSS PSB-3U or PSB-7U power supply only--3rd party power supplies can cause the unit to not operate properly.
HARD DRIVE FRAGMENTATION
Hard drive fragmentation can prevent devices (such as a computers or digital recorders) from operating properly. The only way to defragment the BR-1180's hard drive is to re-format the drive. This erases all of its data, and returns the drive to its original, non-fragmented state. The following article will guide you through formatting the hard drive: BR-1180, BR-1180CD: Formatting the Internal Hard Drive
CAUTION: Formatting a hard drive erases ALL of the data/recordings on the drive.
MALFUNCTION CD-DRIVE
Try playing a commercially produced CD (not a CD burned from the unit) using the recorder's CD Player feature. You can view the steps for playing an audio CD on page 105 of the owner's manual:
BR-1180 Owner's Manual
If that works but you are unable to burn a CD, the recorder may need service.
Due to the age of the product and the fact that parts are no longer available for the BR-1180CD, our service department no longer services these. You may try contacting a local service center and ask if they can service the product--even though parts are no longer available:
https://www.roland.com/us/support/service_repair/service_centers/