PC won't detect certain discs

northern_munky

I have a new Liteon LH-20A1S DVD writer on my PC. It seemed to work fine, it will play CD ROMS it will detect DVD films. But when I try to use CD RW or DVD RW discs, it won't detect them. I backed up all my data onto a new Verbatim DVD RW disc and it took 15 mins to burn using Nero. When I put the disc back in, nothing, Windows won't detect it. Any ideas please?

PS Also, when I try to play a DVD film, even though Windows detects the disc and displays the name of the film, Windows Media Player will not play it.

totalsolutions

Thats CDR for you. Some are brands better than others, Verbatim disc should be fine though. Burn them at max X4 speed (more time for the laser to burn in the material). I would have thought that the Liteon would read its own disc burnt on it. Did you do a verify after burning, its good to do that for the first few disc you write. It a matter of finding a disc brand that suits the writer, I only use TDK.
Lets see what other members say about this. Is it a laptop?

northern_munky

No, it's a desktop, I did burn the disc at 4X speed. Not sure about the verify after burning, I left it to do it's stuff and when I came back the disc had been ejected automatically. I'll give it another go.

totalsolutions

Thanks, NM
I use high end writers (read expensive compared to todays all in device for £18) and noted that when servicing other peoples pc's sometimes their readers cannot see my discs. One way round this is to MAP my cd drive and linkup two pc's on the LAN. The other option is to swop out the Liteon drive for something better at reading backup material. You see pressed cd's reflect say 80% of the laser beam but cdr's only about 40% of the beam, hence they cannot see the data stream correctly and fail.

northern_munky

This is really odd, I put the DVD I had burned yesterday into the drive and it was detected and I was able to open up files etc. I have tried another CD RW disc and it detected that also. Could it be because the PC was shut down yesterday and now been restarted, could rebooting have had an effect? Thanks for your help TS.

totalsolutions

Odd but it does happen. Maybe the drive/drivers went to sleep or were left "inuse" by Nero. Sometimes the drive don't boot quickly at startup, was a problem years ago as pc's got quicker and components failed to load being to slow...