[Channeal]

This is a follow-on from a topic in 'System Building and Upgrading'. Phillpower2 has been helping me and has asked me to create this new topic.......

I recently purchased a new Dell C1765nfw printer and have been trying to get my daughter's laptop to communicate with it via the wireless facility. My daughter does not live with me, but visits often and frequently uses our printer to print out exercise programs for a client, as she is a personal trainer.

When I inserted the Dell CD for our new printer into my daughter's CD/DVD drawer, it told me: 'The folder you specified doesn't contain driver software for your device. Select a folder that contains your driver software and try again. I could not understand why this might be, although my daughter tells me that she has not been able to burn disks recently, so I do not know if that might be related to why the disc is not working.

She is running Vista and has a Sony Vaio VGN-NS20E. The Disc Drive is a Matshita DVD-Ram UJ880AS. I looked at the CD/DVD drive in Device Manager and there was no exclamation mark by it and it said that the device was working okay. The Microsoft driver is dated 21/06/2006

Our daughter has gone home now until Thursday, but I spent some time on her laptop both yesterday and today, trying to get it to communicate with our printer.

It is not crucial that she can print directly from her laptop if it is not possible..... but I think she would like to be able to get the disc-burning function going again, if doing so does not cause too much trouble. I tried to find a new driver for it, but was not sure where to look. Can you help at all, please?

Thanks very much,
Chris

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Hello Chris,

 

It is possible that this is a problem with the burning software,  does the drive still play DVDs and can I ask what burning software is normally used. 

 

There is a firmware update for the drive which you should download and save to the desktop on the notebook, once saved, create a new restore point, restart the notebook in Safe Mode without Networking and install the update, restart and test, please see Super Multi Drive Firmware UJ880AD here

 

We can come back to connecting to the printer when you are both ready/available. 

[phillpower2]

Hello Chris,

 

It is possible that this is a problem with the burning software,  does the drive still play DVDs and can I ask what burning software is normally used. 

 

There is a firmware update for the drive which you should download and save to the desktop on the notebook, once saved, create a new restore point, restart the notebook in Safe Mode without Networking and install the update, restart and test, please see Super Multi Drive Firmware UJ880AD here

 

We can come back to connecting to the printer when you are both ready/available. 

[Channeal]

Hello Phill,

 

Thanks for your reply.

 

I tried playing a music CD yesterday and it played okay, although I do not know about DVDs. I am not sure which burning software she uses: I asked her, but all she said was that she was trying to burn CDs via iTunes, but that she had not been able to do so for some time. iTunes just tells her that 'The attempt to burn a disc failed. An unknown error occurred (4280)'

 

When I was trying to sort out the wireless thing, I had a problem with even getting into the disc drive F to search for where the Dell CD was.... but possibly that was just me not being familiar with either the laptop or Vista. We found it in 'Computer' later and - as I have already said - the Properties box told us there that everything was working okay

 

Thanks for the details of the Firmware update. I had seen that page already, but was not sure whether to download it. I will send details to my daughter and ask her to download it (although I might end up having to do it myself on Thursday afternoon, as she has not been too well this week). I have requested that she come round as early as possible on Thursday afternoon so we can look at this, as later on our son and his wife are coming for dinner - and as they are about to go off to Bulgaria for at least 3 months, we cannot really desert them for long to work on the laptop! Our daughter should be here on Friday morning as well though.

 

Bye for now,

Chris.

[phillpower2]

Hi Chris,

 

No rush on my behalf so Thursday after 8pm or anytime Friday morning is good for me 

 

Before installing the Firmware update ask your daughter if the iTunes CD/DVD diagnostic tools for Windows has been run, it will not automatically repair an issue only point you in the right direction, details here the error code is quite common with burners and iTunes apparently.

[Channeal]

Hello again Phill,

 

I will ask about the Diagnostics thing. I doubt that she has run it.

 

Thanks so much.... will be in touch again on Thursday or Friday.

 

Cheers,

Chris.

[phillpower2]

[Channeal]

Hello Phill,

I hope you have been enjoying a good week off work.

I spent some time on my daughter's laptop yesterday and have established that the disc drive problems  are not confined to iTunes, as the same problems existed when I tried to burn a disc in Windows Media Player and also in Roxio Easy Media Creator 10.

I tried the iTunes troubleshooter, but that did not give me any useful information. I also downloaded the Firmware update, but when I tried to install it, I was told that everything was already up to date.

I ran Specccy and here is the resulting URL. Hopefully you can glean something useful from it: -

http://speccy.pirifo...5Qm28vsF7e0vgjR

Bye for now,
Chris

Edited by Channeal, 10 October 2014 - 01:23 AM.

[phillpower2]

Hello Chris,

 

Had a good week thanks, bit of diy and a little bit more of feet up time 

 

Thanks for the Speccy url which does report that the optical drive has burning capabilities, unfortunately that only suggests that the drive should burn data to disk not that it actually can, Speccy is not a diagnostic tool and so would not report a failed write laser for example, try the following please;

 

Try using ImgBurn to burn a DVD, you should also try turning the burner speed down to X2 or X4 + try a different brand of DVD - RW if one is available, some drives are picky about what brand of disk that they will work with, regardless of the cost of the brand of disk.

RE ImgBurn: please use the custom install and uncheck the attached foistware such as "Install Entrusted Toolbar etc

 

As an asides Chris, the amount of free storage space on the HDD is getting low and may begin to cause problems, 20 to 25% of the overall storage capacity of the drive being available as free space is advised to avoid Vista becoming corrupted.

[Channeal]

Hello Phill,

Thanks for your message. Pleased to hear you have had a good week (though the DIY bit doesn't sound so good!)

I spent quite a bit of time working on my daughter's laptop yesterday and I have actually had some measure of success!

 I ran Imgburn and it gave me the following error message: -


I/O Error!
Device: [0:1:0] MATSHITA DVD-RAM UJ880AS 1.22 (F:) (ATAPI)
Scsi Status: 0x02
Interpretation: Check Condition
CDB: 2A OO FF FF FF 6A OO OO 20 00
Interpretation: Write (10) - Sectors: - 150 -- 119
Sense Area 70 00 03 00 00 00 00 0A 00 00 15 12 73 03 00 00 00 00
SK Interpretation: Medium Error
ASC/ASCQ Interpretation: Power Calibration Area Error


I tried to find out some info. by googling the details of the error message and I learned that sometimes it can indicate that the disc drive needs cleaning.... so I had a little attempt at cleaning inside the drawer. When I subsequently attempted to burn a disc it still did not complete successfully, but went further than before and at least it acknowledged that the drive existed this time.

Not knowing what else to do to make the disc-burning work, I decided to have another go at installing my printer driver on the laptop. This time, the CD was recognised.... and I was able to proceed with the installation. I was very unsure about most of the steps along the way but somehow - to my complete amazement - I eventually managed to print from the laptop. So, that is really good news!

Our daughter has gone home now.... and I was not able to make any more progress with trying to get the disc-burning to work. (I had to leave the laptop alone after getting the printer to work, as my family always complain when I spend too much time on the computer! ). I have asked my daughter to confirm that the drive still does not work when she uses the original programs. I think it may well need a more thorough clean; are those cleaning discs you can buy any good?


Thanks for the advice about space getting low on the HDD. I have advised my daughter to delete some files asap.

Bye for now,
Chris.
 

Edited by Channeal, 11 October 2014 - 12:27 AM.

[phillpower2]

Hello Chris,

 

Good news on the printer and well done for your success 

 

Regarding disk cleaners, there are good ones and bad ones and the problem is where the good ones are concerned in the case of desktop computers they are actually more expensive than to replace the actual optical drive, notebook drives are also similarly priced, example here optical drives if not used regularly can attract dust to the laser lenses and the mechanisms become sticky, opening and closing them once in a while helps with this as does gently blowing out the caddy with compressed air, if the daughter plays some music CDs etc the burner issue may resolve itself.

[Channeal]

Hello Phill,

I think it was more down to luck than anything else that I got the printer working via my daughter's laptop, but it is nontheless great that it is working now. She had to print something out before she left here this morning.... and she was very happy that she was able to do it so easily!

Unfortunately though, she ran into some problems before being able to print, as the laptop took 3 or 4 attempts before it would work okay; it kept restarting just after being turned on. I was really worried that I had somehow messed things up with what I had done, but luckiy it did start up okay in the end! Phew! She says it is a bit temperamental sometimes though.

I wanted to mention to you though that I was concerned when playing around with the laptop yesterday, because it felt rather too hot to me.... and when I first ran Speccy, the temperatures were showing at around 80 degrees, although as I watched the temperatures came right down. Can you use Speedfan on a laptop? I think maybe she should download something like that once she has cleared some more space by deleting stuff and then monitor the temperatures for a while. I suspect the whole thing might need cleaning inside.

As far as the CD/DVD player goes, for the time being I will just ask my daughter to do what you suggest and see if she is eventually able to burn discs once again. Thanks for the link to the optical drive: I had no idea they were so inexpensive! Are they complicated to install though?

Thanks very much for your help,
Chris.
 

[phillpower2]

Hello Chris,

 

Speedfan can be used on notebooks but you do not get the same amount of information that you would with a desktop computer, this because notebook MBs do not have the same amount and type of thermal and power sensors that desktop MBs have.

 

It does sound like a spring clean is in order + worth a mention is that a HDD that is getting low on free storage space needs to work harder and so does create more heat, an example cleaning guide here

 

Notebook optical drives are generally easy to remove/replace as they are commonly held in place by a single screw or a quick release mechanism, hopefully though the drive does not need replacing, if you do use compressed air to clean the notebook you could actually remove the optical drive to give it a better clean.

 

Just a cautionary note - if you do use canned compressed air do not upend the can as it is possible for fluid to be emitted 

 

Let me know if you would like assistance with tidying up the remaining data on the HDD after some storage space has been freed up.

 

You are welcome btw 

[Channeal]

Hello Phill,

Yes, a spring clean certainly does seem to be needed; neither my daughter nor I are very confident about doing this though! Back in April, I sent her an email with a link to a video about cleaning inside a laptop but we both thought it looked a bit difficult. I might ask my husband's nephew if he could possibly help, as he works in the IT Department at a school and may have done this job before. I was going to try to see if I could remove the optical drive for cleaning this afternoon as daughter is back here today.... only to find that we do not have a suitable screwdriver! I think I need to order a set of small screwdrivers suitable for using on a computer, as we have encountered this problem before!

I did use compressed air to clean the optical drive.... but only very briefly as I do not like using it!

Thanks very much for offering to help with tidying up the remaining data on the HDD drive after some storage space has been freed up. This is probably a very silly question (you might remember that I specialise in those! ), but how can you help with that? Computer tidying makes me think of sorting everything into folders.... but you obviously have something else in mind!

Cheers,
Chris.
 

[phillpower2]

Good evening Chris,

 

If you follow the cleaning guide in my last reply you would be fine but always best to follow your instincts and if need be have the nephew do it 

 

Try the high street bargain stores for the small tool kits or Amazon with free postage from here

 

My canned text for tidying up a HDD is below   

 

The next suggestion is to tidy up the data on your HDD, please follow the directions provided below starting with Autoruns

1: Extract the Autoruns Zip file contents to a folder.

2: Double-click the "Autoruns.exe".

3: Click on the Filter out Microsoft & Windows results.

4: Go to File then to Export As or Save in some versions.

5: Save AutoRuns.txt file to known location like your Desktop.

6: Attach it to your next reply.

 

Autoruns Tutorial

 

2nd: Download and run TFC the computer should automatically re-boot on completion but if not do it manually.

 

3rd: Defrag your HDD with Auslogic (free) please note that I am not suggesting that you use any other product or service at the link.

Couple of other things to consider are what size HDD do you have and how much free storage space is available, you should always have between 15 and 20% of the overall capacity available, do not have more than 1 AV program running as it causes slowness as the programs fight for control of system resources, this can lead to instability and/or crashes.

What AV do you use, some use a lot more system resources than others Norton and AVG are excellent but very demanding.

 

To speed up your boot times find any unnecessary programs linked to start up "how to" below;

 

Go to Start, type MSCONFIG into the search field/box and then press Enter.

Click on the start-up Tab.

Look at each line that has a check in the box, these are start-up items, with the exception of Windows programs and your AV software uncheck the ones you do not want to run at start-up.

[Channeal]

Good Evening Phill,

 

Thanks very much for the link to the screwdriver set. Actually, looking again at the cleaning instructions you gave me they don't look half as complicated as the ones we looked at previously, so maybe I will give them a try once I have some suitable screwdrivers.

 

Thanks also for the tidying instructions.... and for all your help on both this and buying the printer.

 

I am still really loving this printer!!!

 

Take care,

Chris.