I'm very concerned about my DVD drive.
It's going haywire. It can't write DVDs properly. When you insert a DVD in Nero, it goes through the writing procedure like normal. No errors, no prompts etc.
It writes the DVD as though it had done so successfully. But when you refresh, i.e. eject and reinsert the "written" DVD back inside, the display icon for the DVD drive simply changes to "CD drive", and it just doesn't detect a disc in there at all.
I've checked everything, including the following, all of which did not help at all: (NONE OF THE FOLLOWING HELPED) --
- Update firmware to latest
- Checked IDE/APATI devices status at DMA available.
- Fixed or changed ASPI layer (to ForceASPI 1.7)
- Used several versions of Nero (6 and 7)
- Scanned everything, spyware/adware, viruses etc.
- Reformatted entire system and reinstalled WinXP Pro
- Used two different DVDs; DVD+R and DVD+RW
The DVD+R is CopyMe, which was manufactured by Mitsubishi, and the DVD+RW is Packard Bell which was manufactured by Optodisc.
- Restarted the PC several times.
- Even tried cleaning the new blank DVDs
When it does work, it does so rarely! Even worse... when I insert a prewritten DVD that is fully functional, and then writing another session on it, after writing the disc, it renders it useless. Absolutely useless, as in the disc doesn't work anymore. I've already lost gigabytes of data due to this problem.
The thing is, it is really weird, because I have been using CopyMe DVDs for a long time. I bought two 25 pack spindles, and the first 25 pack I used were burned successfully, no errors.
But on the second pack, after a few DVDs or so, the drive just didn't write properly anymore.
So can it be the media's fault?
Also, I'm also getting "power calibration error" when I try to format a DVD+RW, the Packard Bell DVD+RWs. For those which I can write on (i.e. preformatted) it can write as though nothing is wrong, but when you eject and reinsert, the drive status changes to "CD drive" and nothing is detected.
I can't format DVD+/-RWs.
Everything else is fine though. I can read DVDs fine. Read blank DVDs fine, movie DVDs fine, prewritten DVDs fine (except for those which have been rendered useless by this problem).
I can write CDs fine too. I can erase CDs fine.
It's just the DVD writing is the problem.
Is this a drive failure? Is it dying?
My warranty had expired already. If this is a physical fault, how much would it cost to replace this DVD writer?
