DVD/CD Ram probs

[boiss]

The DVD/CD unit packed up on my laptop some time back and I used an external one up until yesterday when the external one stopped working. Opening it produced the normal burnt smell and there was a tiny SMD electrolytic burnt out. 47uFd.
I removed the drive and fitted it into my laptop, the drivers self installed. However while it reads it will not write to discs, It does not recognize blank disks at all. The description under hardware is DVD/CD RAM drive but the driver is DVD/CD ROM. This is the problem but I cannot find a different driver. PC is Aspire 5100 and the drive is HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-T20N ATA. This now shows under hardware as DVD/CD-ROM drives.
Any suggestions?
Mike

[Eddystonepete]

Hi Mike, hard to diagnose what might be be wrong with your drive but do you realize that the internal drive can be replaced easily? Most laptop drives use the same mini ide connector, with an adaptor to suit the particular laptop, thus a drive from another laptop can be fitted by changing over the adaptor. Its not always obvious that there is an adaptor, they usually look like a small pcb fitted over the ide connector.

Hope this helps

Peter

[ed731pdh]

There seems to be a lot of this as of late, equipment failing due to the use of sub standard parts from the far east. Favourite top of the list fault is capacitors, some just barely over a year old, doming off and blowing their bottoms off, and if you are really unlucky the muck in the can burns through the PCB rendering the unit useless.

Obsolescence built in by the looks of it.

[boiss]

Hi Mike, hard to diagnose what might be be wrong with your drive but do you realize that the internal drive can be replaced easily? Most laptop drives use the same mini ide connector, with an adaptor to suit the particular laptop, thus a drive from another laptop can be fitted by changing over the adaptor. Its not always obvious that there is an adaptor, they usually look like a small pcb fitted over the ide connector.

Hope this helps

Peter

Hi Peter,
That's what I did, took the drive out of the external unit, removed the little PCB with the power and USB connector (and burnt cap). Took out the screw in the bottom of the laptop, slid out the old unit and slid in the "New one" etc. Turned on the PC and drivers were installed automatically inserted a blank CD, not recognized, tried another 2, same result. Inserted recorded CD and DVD no problem, they play OK and can be copied from. Uninstalled CD/DVD, reinstalled, same problem, rebooted PC no change??????????????????
Mike

[boiss]

An update;-
2 different laptops ACER/DELL
3 different DVD/CD drives Masushita/LG/HL
In the Acer the Matsushita doesn't R/RW, The LG and HL are read only.
In the Dell the Matsushita and HL are read only and the LG reads only DVDs
Does it make sense to anyone. These devices have all been uninstalled and automatically reinstalled on reboot.
Mike

[Skywave]

This all sounds very similar to several sessions of total madness that I went through about a year ago. No laptops were used, though - just 3 'ordinary' desktop PCs, all running Win 2k + SP4, plus 3 different makes of R/W DVD drives and about 4 different makes of DVDs: all 700 MB type. So the number of possible permutations was substantial! But despite trying - and trying very hard - to see some sort of pattern as to what would - and wouldn't - work, with what, and under what conditions, I could not come to any definite conclusions. On two PCs, I even updated the flash BIOS: but to no avail.

In the end, I simply ran out of time and patience and gave up. I realised that although it would have been 'nice to know', (read: overdose of enthusiasm and inquisitiveness), the wick simply wasn't worth the candle, so to speak, since all the PCs here are networked and connected to a central data server anyway: the backups that I do are hard disk-to-hard disk 'copies', using Drive Image ghosting software. The rare occasion when I do need to write to a DVD / RW is the odd 'one-off instant backup / copy' and the odd music compilation, so one PC with one working / compatible DVD / RW drive is quite adequate for my needs - which is what I finally settled for.

About six months ago, I did re-visit this 'testing scenario' using Win XP + SP3: I'm a glutton for punishment. The problems were even worse with Win XP than Win 2K (not that I was surprised by that): total inconsistency within just that one PC!

I suspect that substantial causes of the problems are incompatibilities amongst the s/w on the drives; the BIOSes in the PC; the formatting of the disks; what s/w is being used to read and write; and the particular O/S in use. In other words, too many 'unknown variables', some of which I had (& have) no control over.

Al. / Sept. 29, '13 //

[boiss]

The Acer was running Win7 Ultimate and XP SP3, all genuine.
The Dell had 2K and XP. I changed the HD yesterday to a tiny one
1.4GB with Win 98 from 1999 had a few probs getting it to run as the HD was from an old Toshiba from 1993. There were driver probs and the screen is still only 640x480 instead of 1600x1200. The DVD/CD drive now reads only CDs so obviously it isn't a laser prob, before in this machine only the DVD worked.
I'm waiting for the noisy fan to pack up and then I'll buy a new Laptop. Not Acer !!!!
Mike