[LadyButler]

Running XP Home on eMachines desktop

I have had no problems with my DVD+/-RW drive at all until earlier tonight when I wanted to burn 4 songs on a disc. I started out burning in Rhapsody. It got through the first song and somewhere in the middle of the second song it quit, ejected the disc, and told me (I hope I'm remembering right...) it couldn't continue at that compression or speed or something. I grabbed another disc, opened up Nero, and attempted to burn through Nero... I got to the "burn" button and for some reason the disc wasn't recognized at all. The drive was identified as empty.

No matter what disc I tried after that, the drive would repeatedly attempt to read the disc- without success.

After two restarts and another shut down restart... I was able to get the drive to recognize an enhanced CD (The Best of Led Zeppelin Volume One)... but when I removed it and tried a new blank CD, the drive just keeps trying to read the disc... over and over and over.

I opened Nero to try again and it took a good 10 minutes to open up. When I got up to the place where you'd click "burn", that option was grayed out... I'm assuming because it's still trying to read the CD in the drive.

I have checked the status on the Device Manager... no problems. As I'm typing this, the window popped up again saying

Sorry, your compilation cannot be written on this kind of disc. Please insert a disc of the correct type or modify the settings of your compilation to make it compatible with the current disc. Required for the compilation: CD-R/RW Disc in the recorder: (Empty)

Naturally, it's not empty.

Sorry so long. Just trying to give as many details as possible.

TIA!

Ad

ETA: The discs it kicks out are quite warm as well.

Edited by LadyButler, 22 April 2006 - 12:59 AM.

[Advertisements]

Hi and welcome to Geeks to Go. Here is a possible fix from M$:
http://support.micro...b;EN-US;Q316529 drive not recordable

[austin_o]

Hi and welcome to Geeks to Go. Here is a possible fix from M$:
http://support.micro...b;EN-US;Q316529 drive not recordable

[LadyButler]

OK... I just tried that... Still nothing. I put in blank CD and I can't even access the drive properties since the drive is still trying to read the disc. (And has been for 5 minutes.)

If it hadn't quit working in the middle of me burning something, I'd think the kids had broken it.

Any further suggestions? I'm still only able to read enhanced CDs... and even then it's after a 10 minute wait... no DVDs, no CD-ROMs, no blank discs.

Edited by LadyButler, 22 April 2006 - 05:11 PM.

[WinCrazy]

You may have tripped over a incompatibility with that particular type of CDs. Have you ever been able to sucessfully burn these CDs before ? You may have to try another brand.

Often optical drive manufacturers update the firmware in the drive itself to add more compatibility. Find out the brand and exact model number of your optical drive then go to the manufacturer's web site to see if they offer a firmware upgrade. If they do then follow their directions to download the update as well as the program to reprogram the drive with the firmware. Be very careful to follow the instructions to a 'T' to avoid turning the drive into a doorstop.

The make and model can be found by:
Start > Control Panel > System > Hardware tab > Device Manager button > expand the DVD/CD-ROM drives entry
The information may be a bit coded but you should be able to decipher it. Typical manufacturers are Lite-On, LG, Asus, NEC, Pioneer, Samsung and Sony.

If this fails you can get a top quality CD/DVD drive for less than $50 delivered here: black or beige.