I just purchased a new Samsung 40x CD burner (model number is SW-240). I have installed Easy CD Creator with the latest XP updates (I’m using Windows XP), and I’ve installed the latest cd drivers for the burner. I’ve updated Easy CD creator and it still can’t find my CD burner. I have also downloaded Nero, and the same thing happens. I’m almost (if not definately) positive that it is hooked up right, because I burned a CD using Windows Media Player, and it works, although I’d much rather use REAL burning software. So… im getting really pissed that I cant burn anything with my new CD burner, can someone please help me?
wenis -
it sounds like you installed the drivers correct…did you check the device manager?
i’m not real familiar with xp, but i’ll assume it’s similar enough to previous windows environments.
the first thing i would do is check the “device manager”. for most systems, you can right-click ‘my computer’ then go to the properties. it’ll display another window with several tabs. check out the “device manager” tab. if you don’t find it, do a help function. it’s probably also available via the control panel.
anyway, once you are there, you should see a list of all the components on your system. click the cd rom drives and check out the drivers. if you see an exclamation point, then your driver isn’t properly installed.
hope that helps some…sorry i’m not more familiar with xp. 
It sounds like you are short an interrupt. Check to see if there is a BIOS upgrade for your motherboard just on general principle.
Then go into BIOS setup and default the “Plug’n’play BIOS?” setting to “No”. Reboot and see if it finds the drive.
1: XP should not need any “drivers” installed to see the CDRW unless you are referring to the Roxio and Nero burning software. If you have installed other drivers remove them.
2: Make sure the CD is not set (via rear jumpers) to “cable select” but to either “master” or “slave” as necessary.
3: If the drive is set as a “slave” try re-arranging the cable and motherboard IDE bus connections to set it as a “master” if this is an option.
4: Per tcburnett it does sound as though this is potentially an IRQ/interrupt assignment issue, although normally XP handles these assignments fairly gracefully and the IRQ 14/15 interrrupts reserved for drive channels are not usually stepped on by other devices. You might also want to try the reverse and if the PnP BIOS setting is “NO” try setting it to “YES”.
It doesn’t sound like an IRQ conflict since Windows Media Player can see the thing.
One question: can Windows Explorer see the burner?
Are you sure its compatible with XP? Does it say so on the box? Get the latest Nero update,
free from nero.com that usually makes things work.
This might work: http://www.clonecd.net/aspi.htm
If you aren’t running XP as an administrator, programs may not be able to access the burner. Check the “User Accounts” control panel and make sure your user is an administrator.
Thanks for the help everyone. Astro , I will try to set the burner to Master and see if that works. My friend told me that for some reason Easy CD dosnt detect cd burners unless they are set to Master (I’m not sure how true this is, but I’ll give it a try). And, yes, my computer CAN see the CD burner. It shows up under the Device Manager. Again, thanks for the advice all.
My CD burner is set to slave and Nero has no problem with it. In the past, with another computer I had the same problem you are having and came to the conclusion that the device manager only sees the drive as a regular CDrom reader, but Nero can still be missing drivers or whatnot. The reader and the writer aspect seem to be separate. I remember specifically I was missing a file named ESDI_506.PDR and the drive would read but not burn. Do a search for this and you may find further info.