DVD burner gone rogue

[Steve]

Hi:

I'm running windows XP on a dell inspiron 710 M laptop.

All windows updates are current.

I've been burning DVDs on the laptop with no problem.....but suddenly the
DVD RW drive, when a blank DVD - R is inserted, changes its icon in "my
computer" to "CD" drive from "DVD RW" drive and flatly refuses to recognize
the disc.

I've updated, flashed, cursed at and magically gestured over the thing, but
to no avail.

I hooked up my good, dependable LG DVD burner (USB) and confidently slipped
in a DVD only to find the same behavior......icon changes and disks are
ignored.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

-Steve

 

[JS]

Open Device Manager, click the "+" to expand the DVD/CD-Rom drives option.
Next, right-click on the DVD Drive you are having problems with and select
Uninstall.
You will be prompted to reboot your computer,
Reboot and Windows XP will re-install the DVD Drivers.

 

[Steve]

Uninstalling the Drive and restarting didn't do the trick. Anyone have any
other suggestions? -Steve

 

[JS]

More tricks:
You can no longer access the CD drive or the DVD drive:
or you get an error code 31
See: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;314060
(Remove Upper and Lower filters)

CD-R drive or CD-RW drive is not recognized as a recordable device
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/316529

XP does not recognize a DVD-RW disc
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/818733/en-us

 

[Don Phillipson]

Uninstalling the Drive and restarting didn't do the trick. Anyone have any
other suggestions? -Steve

This is enough reason to suppose one of the two lasers in
the DVD RW drive has failed.

 

[Peter Foldes]

Use this to fix that No Disk issue with your CD\DVD-ROM
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/scripts_desc/xp_cd_dvd_fix.htm

Also see the following
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;Q316529

 

[thehman]

This is normal windows activity. if the disk is blank this is how windows
reads it.

If you go to your burning prog and select what you want to burn and insert
the disk it will burn fine.

If you want to drag and drop files in Windows Explorer you have to format it
first with some type of DLA program.

If you put in an already burn DVD you will find the data is read fine.

this is a common misconception.

 

[Jerry]

I hooked up my good, dependable LG DVD burner (USB) and confidently slipped
in a DVD only to find the same behavior......icon changes and disks are
ignored.

Are you using Memorex blanks by any chance?

Experiencing similar weirdness with my DVD burner. HP desktop running
XP. HP-branded DVD burner, think the model # is A420n. Just broke open
a new pack of Memorex DVD-R 16x. The burning program (RecordNow)
doesn't even start recording on the disc, just pops the disc tray out.
Tried burning the same files with an HP-branded DVD-R 16x disc, and it
worked just fine.

Have not had time to pursue this any further just yet.

Jerry

 

[Sheila]

Hi:

I'm running windows XP on a dell inspiron 710 M laptop.

All windows updates are current.

I've been burning DVDs on the laptop with no problem.....but suddenly the
DVD RW drive, when a blank DVD - R is inserted, changes its icon in "my
computer" to "CD" drive from "DVD RW" drive and flatly refuses to recognize
the disc.

I've updated, flashed, cursed at and magically gestured over the thing, but
to no avail.

I hooked up my good, dependable LG DVD burner (USB) and confidently slipped
in a DVD only to find the same behavior......icon changes and disks are
ignored.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

-Steve

 

[peter f]

I am having the same problem. I exchanged the first dvd drive for another
one and still am having the same problems. DVD+R is seen as a cd by XP.