Odd DVD-RW Drive Failure

[Guest]

About a week ago, for no particular reason I can discern, my DVD drive
started acting odd. I was watching DVDs and I shut down my computer, and a
couple hours later came back, and it refused to play them or even recognize
them as DVDs (It seems to see them as data discs). Also, when I attempt to
play audio CDs it will recognize them, but will only play the first second or
so of the song, before making crackling noises and skipping to the next song.

Heres my system:
Intel Core2 Duo E6420 @2.13 Ghz
Fata1ity FP-IN9 Motherboard
2 Gb of Kingston 800mhz DDR2 Dual Channel Memory
NVidia GeFore 8600 GTS
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi sound card
600 Watt Thermaltake ATX12v 2.2 Power Supply

The problem drive is a: Pioneer DVR-111D with the latest firmware

Event Viewer has the following error come up both on use of the drive and
windows bootup:

Event Type: Error
Event Source: Cdrom
Event Category: None
Event ID: 11
Date: 7/2/2007
Time: 4:13:30 PM
User: N/A
Computer: MATT
Description:
The driver detected a controller error on \Device\CdRom0.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Data:
0000: 03 00 68 00 01 00 b8 00 ..h...¸.
0008: 00 00 00 00 0b 00 04 c0 .......À
0010: 01 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........
0018: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........
0020: 00 80 00 00 00 00 00 00 .€......
0028: 58 3f 00 00 00 00 00 00 X?......
0030: ff ff ff ff 02 00 00 00 ÿÿÿÿ....
0038: 40 00 00 c4 02 00 00 00 @..Ä....
0040: 00 20 0a 12 48 02 00 00 . ..H...
0048: 00 00 00 00 0a 00 00 00 ........
0050: 00 00 9d 87 a0 7b c3 89 ..‡ {É
0058: 00 00 00 00 f8 34 e2 89 ....ø4â‰
0060: 02 00 00 00 10 00 00 00 ........
0068: 28 00 00 00 00 10 00 00 (.......
0070: 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........
0078: 70 00 04 00 00 00 00 0e p.......
0080: 00 00 00 00 08 03 00 00 ........
0088: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........

Now I've tried a number of things: I've changed the cable, rotated through
various master/slave orders with my CD-ROM drive, run it solo as
master/slave/cable select, uninstalled the drivers (uses generic windows
drivers), uninstalled the IDE/ATA Controller drivers. I've also changed
motherboards (same model) and chips (used to run a E6320), and done a clean
windows install after formatting the disk. I also bought a new Sony DVD-RW
and put it in its place and still got the same symptoms, so I returned it.
It's running in IDE2 if that matters.

Don't know what else I can do.

 

[C J.]

Replaced the DVR drive yet?? Is it new, or still under warranty??

The key to your problem is in understanding "The driver detected a
controller error on \Device\CdRom0" - translated it means: the driver
detected a problem with the electronics on the drive itself.

 

[Guest]

I don't think so. I replaced it with a brand new fresh from the store DVR and
got the same error.

 

[Jim]

I don't think so. I replaced it with a brand new fresh from the store DVR
and
got the same error.

The controller that the message mentioned is usually the one located on the
motherboard.
Jim

 

[Guest]

...... You know, sometimes I really hate computers.

I seem to have fixed my problem. I switched the $5 ribbon cable that I had
hooked up to the DVD-ROM with the one I got when I bought my new motherboard,
and poof, it works.

I still don't really understand why. It was a 36" 40 PIN that I took off and
a who knows what type about 18" that I put on.

Oh and the drives that got the 36" seem just fine.

Anyone want to clue me in on why any of that should matter? Is it cable
quality/type/length?

 

[C J.]

Seems to me you went through a whole lot of trouble - for what ultimately
turned up being a cable length issue.

Maybe the cables weren't fully seated in the MB or drive, oriented correctly
(from mobo to drive), or old one was a bad cable. From your description
initially you stated the DVD drive worked, then started to act strangely --
then you found that error about the controller in Event viewer.

Well at least- you now have a spare mobo just in case something happens.