[BertNoir]

Hello, I have an Aopen DUW 1608/12x DVD/RW drive. It has always been slow to start, which seems like a motherboard problem because my CD drive is the same but was ok in another computer. But now, sometimes, the drive doesn't find the disk. It asks for the disk to be inserted. When I click on the DVD/RW drive symbol in My Computer and click on explore, for example, the symbol now says the drive is a CD Drive and explore shows that the DVD is empty. If I restart the computer it may correct the problem or if I put another DVD or CD in the drive and open it and then replace the DVD that didn't work it may now work. Is this part of a motherboard problem. I don't what technical info is relevant but the system has an AMD XP Athlon 2800+ with 512 RAM an Abit NF7S2 Motherboard. Windows XP SP2.Thanks for your help. Bert

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Welcome to G2G BertNoir

From what you've told us so far, I would suspect the problem may well with the IDE cable to the drive. Have you tried using a different IDE cable at all? Also, what power supply (make & power rating in watts) do you have?

[Samm]

Welcome to G2G BertNoir

From what you've told us so far, I would suspect the problem may well with the IDE cable to the drive. Have you tried using a different IDE cable at all? Also, what power supply (make & power rating in watts) do you have?

[BertNoir]

Samm, Sorry it took a long time to reply,I have been trying other things. I have tried a different IDE cable but no luck. The power supply is a PC Power & Cooling, Inc. ATX 360. Thanks, Bert.

[Samm]

Hi Bert

Can you tell the following :

1. Am I correct in thinking that you have a DVD drive AND a CDROM drive in your system?

2. If so, do you get the same problems with the CDROM drive as well or just the DVD drive?

3. Are both of these drives connected to the same IDE cable?

4. How is each drive configured (i.e Master/Slave/CS)?

5. Have the problems with the DVD drive started suddenly, if so, did you change any hardware, install any software (eg SP2) or make any bios changes just before the problems started? Or has the DVD drive never worked properly?

6. What othe hardware do you have in the computer (e.g Network card/modem/hard drives/USB devices etc)

7. Have you tried a number of different CDs in the drive & made sure that each one was clean & free from scratches?

[BertNoir]

Hallo Samm, I'll answer your questions in the same numerical order.

1. Yes.

2. No. The CDROM reads CDRWs but the DVD drive doesn't. The DVD drive thinks that CDRWs are blank or else it doesn't recognise that there is a disk in the drive. And sometimes it doesn't recognise DVDs either but it is not consisitent.

3. Yes.

4. The DVD drive is set as the master and the CD drive as the slave.

5. The DVD drive worked at first although it always took a long time for windows to find it and start it up. I thought this was maybe a motherboard problem because the CDROM had the same problem but it worked fine in the computer in which it was previously installed. The version of XP Pro came with sp2. The only hardware change was the CDROM which I put in after running the computer with the DVD drive. No BIOS changes.

6. I have an Epson CX 5400 printer on one USB 2.0 socket and a cable modem on another. The hard drive is a Seagate ST 380013 AS SATA 80GB.

7. I have tried different CDRs in the DVD drive and it seems to read those but it doesn't recognise DVDs and CDRWs. Although it isn't consistent with DVDs. (Please see first post.)

I hope this doesn't give you a headache. Thanks, Bert

[Samm]

Hi Bert

Thank you for the comprehensive replies you gave to my questions, its very helpful.

To be honest, I'm not 100% certain I know whats causing the problem but I've got a few ideas about it :

1. CDRWs - all I know is that they have a tendency to be a bit twitchy when it comes to being used in different drives or by different software (depending on how the disc is formatted). For example, I've written data to a CDRW before on one system, placed the disc in a different CDRW drive on another system, and its refused to read it. In your case, it may also be a limitation of the DVD-RW drive itself.

2. Normal DVD discs. The fact that your DVD-RW is fussy over which DVDs it will play & which it won't, suggests that this may be either a driver or a firmware issue.

I apologise for being so vague but DVD drives are not my strong point I'm afraid. I have however had a look on Aopens website & it seems that this type of problem is not that uncommon. If you go to the support section in their site, and look under FAQs or knowledge base for DVD & DVD-RW drives, you should find some useful info. There's also utilities you can download from them that claim to improve the drive's compatibility with certain DVDs, as well as firmware updates which may prove useful.

One other thing you could try, if nothing I've suggested above works, is to go into Device manager, locate the DVD-RW drive & click on Properties. In the properties window, you should have the ability to enable or disable the use of DMA for that drive. Whichever mode the drive is currently using (i.e DMA or PIO), try using the other instead.

If changing this setting however doesn't seem to make any difference or makes the drive's stability worse, then obviously change it back to the original setting.

Let me know how you get on.

Samm

[BertNoir]

Hello Samm,

I went to the Aopen website and looked at the forums. As you said, it was interesting. A lot of problems with this drive. In fact I found some nearly identical to mine. Anyway. I downloaded the firmware and flashed it to the drive and I think that cleared up the problem I'd been having with playing some particular DVDs. What you said about writing to a CD on one sysytem and then being unable to play it on another also struck a chord. I have this problem with a Princo CDRW which my DVD drive supposedly supports but not with a Samsung CDRW which isn't on the support list. As some americans say; "go figure".

I tried changing the drive mode to PIO but that didn't change anything. I also tried changing the IDE/ATAPI drivers from the Nvidia drivers to the default Windows drivers but no luck with that either.

I think I've covered everything that you mentioned and seem to have cleared up the most important problems. I suppose I made a bad choice with the drive. I feel as if I've learnt something. Let me know if there is anything to do.Thanks again for all your help. Regards, Bert.