I have a HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-4082B, running Windows XP SP1. Up until recently my DVDRW has been fine at both reading and writing to CDs and DVDs. But now, suddenly it’s decided that it doesn’t want to recognise blank DVDs or CDs. I’ve tried 2 different brands, both in CD and DVD form and it just will not read them. I’ve tried updating the drivers, and still no joy. I can’t pinpoint exactly when it failed because I don’t burn CDs all that often, but it’s definitely been within the last 6 months. In that time I’ve installed a few games, a new PnP monitor and iTunes but haven’t made any changes to windows or installed any other new hardware.
It’ll read music and data CDs fine, so I’m a bit confused as to where to go now. Any hints would be appreciated.
Funny you should mention that - Company Produced media, fine. Runs quickly, no problems. But what’s really got me baffled is that I’ve just managed to transfer the songs I wanted to burn to the other computer in here, and burn it on one of the very CDs that my machine refused to recognise. Now when I put it in the drive it whirs and clicks a bit (as opposed to spooling up smoothly like it does with a standard, mass-produced CD), but then it starts playing the music.
It could be the media, or bad digital rights installations,or…
Some of the problems are not the media’s fault. The rookit antipiracy software some companies have used is causing problems with DVD burners, and the rootkit stuff uses small incrementational head movements to varify you have their software cd in place to run the software. Sony did this with some music cd’s which now you can return for a non rootkit implementing cd. The sony cd’s left a user’s computer with a hack opening. The starforce rootkit has caused the read problems, and some game companies have dropped it. either of these can easily be research with google.
Any chance anything you installed turned off Autoplay on the CD Drive? Windows’ ability to detect an inserted, blank CD appears to be related to Autoplay.
You might also go into My Computer -> Properties -> Recording tab, and make sure that “Enable CD Recording on this drive” is selected. That can also get cleared by murky processes I’m not sure I understand, and will make Windows behave oddly in the face of blank disks.
The computer cd dvd drives need cleaning sometimes also. Use a cd made to brush off the len of these drives. It may help. It’s cleared up problems on some drives I had problems with. There are new colors of dyes all the time and some aren’t readable in some drives. The normal cds you buy are molded, and the most easily read medium by all drives. The early cds used a solid film attached to clear plastic and painted on the other side with the label to protect it. A scratch on the label side meant double death. Now it’s liquid film between clear plastic so a scratch on the label side doesn’t always mean data death. No standard has specified a certain wavelenth al manufactures have to use to insure compatability. It’s a short coming the standards burrow has with high tech these days. The raw cds for burning are made to optimise readability for their brand of recorder, and if it works with other players it’s a bonus for you. It tcks me off when I burn a vacation cd and I try it on 6 players and only two work, but a reburn on a new brand works on one of the first and a different two. The burrow of standards needs to get it’s shit together, because it’s a big problem.
Thanks for the tips, I’ve been madly trying things since I got home this afternoon. To address in order…
Sony Rootkit/Starforce - Haven’t run any Sony CDs/products since the whole rootkit debacle, and even before that so that’s unlikely (most of my music is purchased from iTunes or was torrented). I’m familiar with Starforce and the gubbins it gets up to, and I’ve never knowingly installed any game or program that it comes with. I can’t see it anywhere in my system, so that’s also highly unlikely.
Autorun - is enabled, double-checked that one.
My Computer -> Properties -> Recording - This was off, and I turned it on. That then let me open the drive with a blank CD in it, which I couldn’t do before. But none of my burning programs (Nero, B’s Recorder Gold Basic), or even the windows “Burn CD” function are recognising that there’s a disc in there. I go to click “burn” and they all come back asking me to insert a blank disc into the drive.
Cleaning the lens - Always a possibility. I’ll try that and report back. I’ll also try some different branded discs. I realised the DVDs and CDs aren’t different brands, they’re both TDK - but my drive is LG so I’ll see if there’s anything else I can use that might be a bit more compatible.
As an experiment, when it’s asking you to insert a blank disk, go to that same setting (Drive -> Properties -> Recording), turn it off, apply, turn it on, apply. See if it suddenly recognizes the disk and burns. I’ve encountered this once in the past, and nothing but a an XP re-install fixed it. But I could get disks to burn with this little on-off-on dance each time, which got me by for a while.
Try going into safe mode and seeing if it works. Some software can install “filter drivers” to your hardware. Those are disabled in safe mode, so if it works only in safe mode that could be your problem. Removing them is a pain, as you have to edit the registry.