mysterious problem CD/DVD drives

[Linea Recta]

Recently my father (no internet) has a mysterious problem with his DVD
burner. While burning an audio CD (from his own WAV files) he got an error
in Nero 'operation aborted' or something of the likes.
After rebooting computer and trying again, the Sony DVD writer doesn't seem
to burn, nor recognize media (blanks nor with content) anymore.
The other drive, a Liteon CD player also doesn't recognize media anymore.
Looking under devices in Windows 2000 there are no warning icons, and both
drives show up. Under properties the text indicates that the devices are
working properly.
During boot up of the computer, both drives are still recognized in the
BIOS.
I'm at a loss...

Any ideas what's going on?


--

|\ /|
| \/ |@rk
\../
\/os

mccm dot vos at hccnet dot nl

 

[Gary Chanson]

Recently my father (no internet) has a mysterious problem with his DVD
burner. While burning an audio CD (from his own WAV files) he got an error
in Nero 'operation aborted' or something of the likes.
After rebooting computer and trying again, the Sony DVD writer doesn't seem
to burn, nor recognize media (blanks nor with content) anymore.
The other drive, a Liteon CD player also doesn't recognize media anymore.
Looking under devices in Windows 2000 there are no warning icons, and both
drives show up. Under properties the text indicates that the devices are
working properly.
During boot up of the computer, both drives are still recognized in the
BIOS.
I'm at a loss...

Any ideas what's going on?

There's a good chance that the drives have simply failed. If you can boot
the computer from a DOS floppy, test the drives in that environment to see if
they still work.

--

-GJC [MS Windows SDK MVP]
-Software Consultant (Embedded systems and Real Time Controls)
- http://www.mvps.org/ArcaneIncantations/consulting.htm
(e-mail address removed)

 

[Linea Recta]

There's a good chance that the drives have simply failed.

I think it is very unlikely for two drives to break down simultaneously...

If you can boot
the computer from a DOS floppy, test the drives in that environment to see if
they still work.

That's another idea I'm going to try.



--
regards,

|\ /|
| \/ |@rk
\../
\/os

mccm dot vos at hccnet dot nl

 

[William Asher]

Recently my father (no internet) has a mysterious problem with his DVD
burner. While burning an audio CD (from his own WAV files) he got an
error in Nero 'operation aborted' or something of the likes.
After rebooting computer and trying again, the Sony DVD writer doesn't
seem to burn, nor recognize media (blanks nor with content) anymore.
The other drive, a Liteon CD player also doesn't recognize media
anymore. Looking under devices in Windows 2000 there are no warning
icons, and both drives show up. Under properties the text indicates
that the devices are working properly.
During boot up of the computer, both drives are still recognized in
the BIOS.
I'm at a loss...

Any ideas what's going on?

This is a WAG. Have you gone into Task Manager after rebooting and made
sure Nero wasn't running in the background in some sort of weird hung state
due to the original error? Maybe if it is, it is stopping other programs
from accessing the CD's. Killing it in Task Manager may solve the problem,
or may not.

Like I said, it's a WAG but easy to check and likely won't harm anything.

 

[Linea Recta]

This is a WAG. Have you gone into Task Manager after rebooting and made
sure Nero wasn't running in the background in some sort of weird hung state
due to the original error? Maybe if it is, it is stopping other programs
from accessing the CD's. Killing it in Task Manager may solve the problem,
or may not.

Like I said, it's a WAG but easy to check and likely won't harm anything.

I wouldn't know what WAG stands for, but I did have a look in task manager.
There were no programs running.
I also tried booting from a DOS diskette with CD support, but could not
access the DVD burner.
The CD drive however seems to work again in Windows, but playing an audio CD
doesn't sound good (stuttering).
Also had a look in the computer case, but al cables seemed firmly in place.



--
regards,

|\ /|
| \/ |@rk
\../
\/os

mccm dot vos at hccnet dot nl

 

[William Asher]

I wouldn't know what WAG stands for, but I did have a look in task
manager. There were no programs running.
I also tried booting from a DOS diskette with CD support, but could
not access the DVD burner.
The CD drive however seems to work again in Windows, but playing an
audio CD doesn't sound good (stuttering).
Also had a look in the computer case, but al cables seemed firmly in
place.

WAG = wild-assed guess

Do you mean there are no processes showing up that might have something to
do with the cd/dvd drives or there are no applications running? If it's
the latter you might look under the processes tab and see if anything is
showing up there. If you've already done that I apologize for being
pedantic.

The stuttering sound kinda suggests that something else is happening in the
background that is slowing down data transfer from the cd. Have you tried
booting with only the minimal drivers installed to see if things run
cleanly then? I think you do that by hitting F8 or something right as Win
2k is booting (there is a little message at the bottom of the screen about
what key to hit). It should then give you the option of booting a minimal
system. It's been a while since I've done this under Win 2k and I don't
remember if the dvd drivers are something it loads anyway as part of the
stripped-down system, but the cd drivers are and you should be able to tell
if the sound is still stuttering.

I dunno though, this is all straight from the hip and are the sort of bone-
head things I would do to sort out the problem. I should confess I really
suck at sorting out these sorts of problems.

 

[Gary Chanson]

I wouldn't know what WAG stands for,

WAG = "wild ass guess".

but I did have a look in task manager.
There were no programs running.

Your probably looking at the "Applications" tab which will only show the
visible applications running. Look at the "Processes" tab (probably
irrelevant based on the next paragraph).

I also tried booting from a DOS diskette with CD support, but could not
access the DVD burner.
The CD drive however seems to work again in Windows, but playing an audio CD
doesn't sound good (stuttering).
Also had a look in the computer case, but al cables seemed firmly in place.

Almost definitely, this means that the DVD drive has failed.

--

-GJC [MS Windows SDK MVP]
-Software Consultant (Embedded systems and Real Time Controls)
- http://www.mvps.org/ArcaneIncantations/consulting.htm
(e-mail address removed)

 

[Linea Recta]

WAG = "wild ass guess".

I'll add that one to my ever growing list of abbreviations.

Your probably looking at the "Applications" tab which will only show

the


That's right.

visible applications running. Look at the "Processes" tab (probably
irrelevant based on the next paragraph).

I didn't look there. Of course there are always processes in that list, but
I'll have a look at the processes window when I'm at the location.

place.


Almost definitely, this means that the DVD drive has failed.

--
thanks,

|\ /|
| \/ |@rk
\../
\/os

mccm dot vos at hccnet dot nl

 

[Linea Recta]

WAG = wild-assed guess

OK I'll try to remember that one

Do you mean there are no processes showing up that might have something to
do with the cd/dvd drives or there are no applications running? If it's
the latter you might look under the processes tab and see if anything is
showing up there. If you've already done that I apologize for being
pedantic.

Your input is appreciated. I had only looked under running programs, not the
list of processes. When I go there again, I'll examine the process list,
although many of those items names are often meaningless to me.

The stuttering sound kinda suggests that something else is happening in the
background that is slowing down data transfer from the cd. Have you tried
booting with only the minimal drivers installed to see if things run
cleanly then?

I did remove the CD/DVD devices in Windows and rebooted. After this they
were both detected again (though not functional) by Windows.

I think you do that by hitting F8 or something right as Win
2k is booting (there is a little message at the bottom of the screen about
what key to hit). It should then give you the option of booting a minimal
system. It's been a while since I've done this under Win 2k and I don't
remember if the dvd drivers are something it loads anyway as part of the
stripped-down system, but the cd drivers are and you should be able to tell
if the sound is still stuttering.

I'll give it a go when I'm there. Mostly I'm only there an hour or so, and
that's not a lot of time for in depth research...

I dunno though, this is all straight from the hip and are the sort of bone-
head things I would do to sort out the problem. I should confess I really
suck at sorting out these sorts of problems.

Thanks a lot, all help appreciated.



--
regards,

|\ /|
| \/ |@rk
\../
\/os

mccm dot vos at hccnet dot nl

 

[Linea Recta]

WAG = wild-assed guess

Do you mean there are no processes showing up that might have something to
do with the cd/dvd drives or there are no applications running? If it's
the latter you might look under the processes tab and see if anything is
showing up there. If you've already done that I apologize for being
pedantic.

The stuttering sound kinda suggests that something else is happening in the
background that is slowing down data transfer from the cd. Have you tried
booting with only the minimal drivers installed to see if things run
cleanly then? I think you do that by hitting F8 or something right as Win
2k is booting (there is a little message at the bottom of the screen about
what key to hit). It should then give you the option of booting a minimal
system. It's been a while since I've done this under Win 2k and I don't
remember if the dvd drivers are something it loads anyway as part of the
stripped-down system, but the cd drivers are and you should be able to tell
if the sound is still stuttering.

I dunno though, this is all straight from the hip and are the sort of bone-
head things I would do to sort out the problem. I should confess I really
suck at sorting out these sorts of problems.

I have been looking into the task manager today (processes) and I found
nothing unusual.
However, it seems the Sony DVD writer CAN play video DVD's and DVD-ROM's. It
cannot read (audio, ISO) CD's anymore. Also, the failure first occurred
during writing an audio CD.
Is it possible only the CD part is broken while the DVD part still works? Do
they use different lasers?




--
regards,

|\ /|
| \/ |@rk
\../
\/os

mccm dot vos at hccnet dot nl

 

[Gary Chanson]

I have been looking into the task manager today (processes) and I found
nothing unusual.
However, it seems the Sony DVD writer CAN play video DVD's and DVD-ROM's. It
cannot read (audio, ISO) CD's anymore. Also, the failure first occurred
during writing an audio CD.
Is it possible only the CD part is broken while the DVD part still works? Do
they use different lasers?

Yes, they do.

--

-GJC [MS Windows SDK MVP]
-Software Consultant (Embedded systems and Real Time Controls)
- http://www.mvps.org/ArcaneIncantations/consulting.htm
(e-mail address removed)