Laptop DVD rewriter suggestions?

onzey

Hi

I have an HP laptop with a Sony DVD+RW DW-P50A drive with the latest (1.8f) firmware. I recently bought some Datawrite 4x DVD+RW discs which are not recognised by the drive. I then tried a Datawrite 4x DVD+R from a batch I've used before and that won't load either so I'm wondering if the drive is on the way out. Can anyone suggest a suitable replacement.

Thanks.

clint1974

Liteon mate cant go wrong. Sony's are fussy about what discs they write too as Sony also make discs.

Sweetchuck

I've got a Sony DVD-RW in my laptop and have never had an issue with non-Sony DVDs not being recognised.

It sounds more like an issue with your drive than the discs. Is your drive definitely +R/RW compatible?

onzey

Yes, definately +R/RW

spacker_2

clint1974 wrote:

Liteon mate cant go wrong. Sony's are fussy about what discs they write too as Sony also make discs.

That was true with DRM but not anymore well at least in the last 12mths or so.

yep sounds like the drive itself maybe kapput or just a bug, Open my Computer and see if its their also is recording enabled? did the frimware update cause a problem or was the firmware update ok beforehand?

Sweetchuck

If it's rejecting the discs you've used successfully in the past, it definitely sounds like a hardware problem. You could try troubleshooting it from Device Mangager. If that still doesn;t show anything, you could try to roll back your driver (but do a System Restore point beforehand).

If you roll back your driver and still get problems, I'd suggest looking into a new drive.

Is it still reading other discs, like CDs and movie DVDs?

onzey

I haven't actually done a firmware upgrade. Everything, as far as DVD drive goes, is as it was when I bought the laptop over 2 years ago I think. It already had the latest firmware.

It still reads/plays movies/Cds and I just tried one of a set of backup discs I made ages ago (a DVD+R disc) and that registered ok.

With a new blank +R disc in, if I go to My Computer and right click the drive (which doesn't show a disc inserted) and choose Explore it comes back with

\ is not accessible. Incorrect function.


If I try a blank +RW and do the same it says

Disk is not formatted. Windows cannot read from this disk. The disk might be corrupted, or it could be using a format that is not compatible with Windows.

onzey

Hi again

Before I go buying a new drive, I'm starting to wonder if somethings "up the creek" on my laptop, perhaps due to installation of software, thats causing my problems.

I've looked around the net a bit and seen some comments about programs that create virtual drives sometimes cause problems with physical drives. I installed Acronis True Image recently which creates virtual drives when you examine an image. I've uninstalled Acronis now but my problems still remain.

However after a failed attempt just now to burn some files to a DVD+RW using Nero 6, while I continue to investigate the problem, I looked at the log file and have copied a bit towards the end here:

22:02:44 #19 Phase 98 File dlgbrnst.cpp, Line 1855
Start formatting disc before burning

22:03:14 #20 Phase 100 File dlgbrnst.cpp, Line 1855
Formatting disc was successful

22:03:15 #21 Text 0 File DVDPlusRW.cpp, Line 628
Start write address at LBA 0
DVD high compatibility mode: No

22:03:36 #22 SCSI -1046 File Cdrdrv.cpp, Line 1442
SCSI Exec, HA 1, TA 0, LUN 0, buffer 0x061C0000
Status: 0x04 (0x01, SCSI_ERR)
HA-Status 0x00 (0x00, OK)
TA-Status 0x02 (0x01, SCSI_TASTATUS_CHKCOND)
Sense Key: 0x05 (KEY_ILLEGAL_REQUEST)
Sense Code: 0x30
Sense Qual: 0x10
CDB Data: 0x2A 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x20 0x00 0x00 0x00
Sense Data: 0x70 0x00 0x05 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x12
0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x30 0x10

22:03:36 #23 CDR -1046 File Writer.cpp, Line 304
Illegal disc


Is there a problem here with Nero thinking I have a SCSI drive (see at time 22:03:36 and in the following lines)? Or am I barking up the wrong tree completely (perhaps it always has those lines in)?

If so, anyone know how to correct it. (I have tried a few things like uninstalling/reinstalling Nero, and removing the drive in device manager and letting it be redetected).

Thanks

onzey

I just put the line #22 SCSI -1046 File Cdrdrv.cpp into Google and looked at a few results but can't see anyone making any particular comments so perhaps it's normal,