V2M DVD Drive Problem

[Exinferis]

It's finally happened! I've got a problem with my V2M!

Basicly, it'll recognise and read a commercial DVD, but it can't see a blank DVD. Just tried a blank CD and it's seeing that, so not really sure what's going on...

I noticed the problem last night; I tried a standard Mitsubishi blank DVD and Nero told me there was no disk, so I used an HP DVD-RW, which worked fine (so the drive's seeing RW's!). So, tried again with a Mitsubishi today, but still nothing. Also tried a Fujifilm one, but the same results.

I've just moved and was wondering if a jolt or something could have caused this as both the makes above worked fine before I moved!

Anyone got any ideas?

[Exinferis]

No one have any ideas? Someone must have encountered this kind of thing at some time!

Please, I really need some advice with this before I give in and do a clean re-install!

[rich912]

This model usually has the DW-D56A optical drive fitted. The DW-D56A is a real donkey and this forum is littered with posts describing exactly the problem that you are experiencing.

There is a firmware update available on Vaio-Link but I doubt that this will make a jot of difference, neither will a system recovery. Best contact support tomorrow and arrange for it to be collected and repaired.:smileysad:

[Exinferis]

Thanks for the reply. I've just checked the drive and it's fitted with a Pioneer DVR-K14L. Which would probably explain why no one else's problems have been quite like the one I have right now; hence a new topic!

I've tried Vaio-Link and it's next to useless as far as I can see; it has no support for the Pioneer drive, only the DW-D56A which you mentioned. All other drivers are from November 2004!

I've been to Pioneer's website and they have a host of drivers, so I might try that before contacting Sony; I really can't afford for them to do to my computer what they did to another forum users!

Wish me luck!

[rich912]

I certainly wish you luck!

Unfortunately most drives fitted in Vaio’s are not supported by the original manufacturer…. But you never know:smileygood_luck:

[Exinferis]

Nope, no good; all the Pioneer drivers are DOS and I don't fancy trying them.

Guess I'll e-mail Sony to see if they can help. What's the betting I clearly tell them what I've already done and they reply telling me to do those same things!

[Exinferis]

Oh, here's an interesting thing: I've just tried uninstalling and reinstalling the Primary and Secondary IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers and, although it's still telling me I've got 0 bytes on the disk, instead of switiching from DVD-RW Drive to CD-ROM Drive in My Computer, it's sticking with DVD-RW. I wonder what that's about?

I know it should say DVD-RW Drive, but it's been changing to CD-ROM since this problem occured... Now I'm even more confused!

[rich912]

I have a feeling that this is just one more indication that the firmware or hardware is the problem. There is one last thing that you could try, and this procedure is really only applicable to drives that are throwing up error codes 19, 31, 32 or 39 but will cause no further harm to your system.

The following involves changes to the registry and I recommend that you make a backup of your system settings before proceeding.

1.Click Start > Run and type: REGEDIT , and hit enter.

2. Navigate to - HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318} and locate UpperFilters, right click on this and select Delete and then OK.

3. Under the same Registry Key locate LowerFilters, right click on this and select Delete and then OK.

4. Quit Registry Editor and re-boot the computer, new registry values will be created.

After you remove the Upperfilters value and the Lowerfilters value, you may possibly need to re-install you burning software – but not necessarily.

I doubt somehow that this will solve your problem, but it is worth a try.

[Exinferis]

It's sorted! Yay!

Don't know how it happened, but I updated the Bios through Vaio-Zone and it seemed to fix the problem. The drive's still reading as CD when I insert a blank DVD, but at least it's regestering in Nero, which it wasn't doing before.

I've managed to burn a data DVD full of .Avi's, so I'm not bothered about the My Computer icon lieing to me!

Thanks Rich for all your help; glad I've not had to waste time with Sony Customer "Support"! :smileygrin:

[spumphrey]

Rich912 - you're a legend. I was having a problem on my Vaio TX1XP/B with the Matshita UJ-832D DVD-R DL drive not being recognised in windows, throwing up a yellow-exclamation device not working with an error 37 in device manager - presumably the drive firmware update/burning software/system updates stopped it being recognised at some point recently.

Nothing I tried fixed it, however after trying your delete the upper/lower filters registry key fix it appeared again immediately upon reboot!

Fantastic, now I don't need to reinstall windows from scratch again - thanks for your post, very much appreciated!

Cheers! :smileygrin: