GT said:
Anyone any idea why my DVD writer isn't recognised by anything in Windows
XP. Its an SH-S203B DVD writer and windows device manager lists it
correctly, but there are no DVD writing options in any software - Nero can't
find the writer. Adobe CS4 can't find the writer. It appears to be
recognised as a DVD reader, but not writer (which it definitely is).
Any pointers appreciated as Google doesn't bring up anything useful.
Thanks
Nero comes with InfoTool, which will list the capabilities of the drive.
http://images.techtree.com/ttimages/story/79403_infotool.jpg
Infotool is also available as a separate download, so if you don't
like the look of the current one, older ones are available.
If the Infotool can see the various flags presented by the drive,
then chances are the rest of the software can see it.
These are the topics affecting optical drives:
1) "Upperfilter/Lowerfilter" - registry entries defining software
shims that intercept commands to the drive. One piece of software,
shooting down another piece of software. Microsoft even has a
FixIt, which attempts some house cleaning. I don't know what the
side effects are, of removing those entries.
2) ASPI layer. Infotool lists the ASPI layer drivers. I haven't heard
of ASPI problems mentioned as part of debugging drive problems in
some time. So perhaps this was more of a problem for OSes before
WinXP ? At one time, you downloaded the latest ASPI from some site
like Adaptec.
3) Virtual CD/DVD software. If you have a piece of software that mounts
an ISO9660 and makes it look like an optical drive to the OS, the
writer software can get tripped up on it. I had symptoms of that
back home, on a machine - you'd get part way into a burn, and things
would freeze. Disabling the virtual CD (it has a control panel entry)
stopped the problem.
So Upperfilter/Lowerfilter is where I'd start. There is an example
of an article here, discussing where to look.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314060
When Nero is bundled with an optical drive, it may be keyed to that
drive, and ignore other drives. I have two opticals here, and the
Nero that came with one of them, won't touch the other drive.
Paul
