DVD Burner will read DVDs but not CDs...

**ben14_01** · October 25th, 2004, 10:37 AM

I seem to have the opposite problem to most other people.

My Samsumg DVD-RW driver can only read and write DVDs. Stick a regular CD in there or a CD-R/RW and it doesn't want to know. It will either just spin the disk continuously until you eject it, or it will stop after 30 seconds and tell you the drive is empty.

The drive is only a couple of weeks old, and until Thursday it was fine, if a little slow.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

System Spec: AMD64 3200+, 1Gb PC3200, MSI Neo Platinum Mobo with nVidia 250Gb chipset

**ben14_01** · October 25th, 2004, 10:41 AM

I forgot to mention I'm running XP Pro with SP1, and the model of the drive is Samsung TSH-552B.

**Russ_1_4** · October 25th, 2004, 01:18 PM

I have exactly the same problem with the same DVD burner. I've been looking around for device driver updates but can't find one. I've updated the firmware from the samsung site but no joy.

Glad to hear it's the burner and not something i've done.

**wrxblaze** · October 28th, 2004, 05:06 AM

Originally Posted by Russ_1_4

I have exactly the same problem with the same DVD burner. I've been looking around for device driver updates but can't find one. I've updated the firmware from the samsung site but no joy.

Glad to hear it's the burner and not something i've done.

Hey guys I had a Toshiba DVDr/rw/CDrw and I had the same problem. It turned out that the DVD is controlled by a totally different optical line than the CDR. I'd say if you updated the firmware and made sure that the device was working properly in device manager then your SOL. I did try and delete all my drivers and let windows detect them back up, but when I rebooted I still had no luck.

If none of that works then hopefully its under warranty and ship the hunk of junk back. I also tried reformatting when I had the problem. All my roms now still freeze the odd time when I put a disk in. I don't know.

Good Luck blaze

**dj_2_left_ft** · November 16th, 2004, 06:47 PM

guys, I have exactly the same issue. drive worked fine for about a week . now I can't burn cdr's. v When placed in drive the drive just spins with the green light flashing, then stops and software says "no disc".

It does the same with nero 6601, latest cdmate and alcohol 120%. I have also upgraded to the latest ffirmware x.05 now on the samsung site. I have deleted the upper and lower filters for the Dvdr then uninstalled and reinstalled it. I have uninstalled and reinstalled nero. No change.

TS-H552B records dvd fine, plays dvd's svcd's. vcd's and cd audio fine - but will not recognize the CDR.

Ideas appreciated.

running xp sp2, all updates, soyo tisu 1.4gh tualtin

**confus-ed** · November 16th, 2004, 06:59 PM

Originally Posted by wrxblaze

Hey guys I had a Toshiba DVDr/rw/CDrw and I had the same problem. It turned out that the DVD is controlled by a totally different optical line than the CDR...

The nerd phrase is 'dual laser' & there's lots of units about like this, so its entirely possible for one bit to be working but the other not (its an alignment problem with the mechanisms)..

Originally Posted by dj_2_left_ft

Ideas appreciated.

A Samsung TS-H552B keeps turning up on my googling describing it as that (dual laser - but note manufacturers have now realised this is perceived as 'bad' due to the general returns rate on these designs & have started 'forgetting' to specify this anywhere accidently on purpose

, it used to be considered as a selling point !), so you may be SOL, send it back !

**snofius** · January 9th, 2005, 03:16 PM

I have the same problems with my DVD-burner.
Who can give me a solution for this?

Originally Posted by dj_2_left_ft

guys, I have exactly the same issue. drive worked fine for about a week . now I can't burn cdr's. v When placed in drive the drive just spins with the green light flashing, then stops and software says "no disc".

It does the same with nero 6601, latest cdmate and alcohol 120%. I have also upgraded to the latest ffirmware x.05 now on the samsung site. I have deleted the upper and lower filters for the Dvdr then uninstalled and reinstalled it. I have uninstalled and reinstalled nero. No change.

TS-H552B records dvd fine, plays dvd's svcd's. vcd's and cd audio fine - but will not recognize the CDR.

Ideas appreciated.

running xp sp2, all updates, soyo tisu 1.4gh tualtin

**dieselrunner** · January 9th, 2005, 08:39 PM

[QUOTE=ben14_01]I seem to have the opposite problem to most other people.

My Samsumg DVD-RW driver can only read and write DVDs.

2 HD Master and Slave config on IDE 0
TS-H522b and Liteon CDRW Master Slave config IDE 1

Same here too, drive worked super for a couple of weeks on cd-r audio burns and data burns.40x in nero. Tried to burn a dvd-r with ritek media and failed at the end.After that , this is when it started the greenlight disco mode when inserting a cd blank or backup game.Never finds it .So i played around ,removed nero (thinking was the culprit)v6.000 and ran nero cleaner tool too.Deleted nero from regedit and rebooted .No difference.Removed all traces of burner software on machine etc still no difference.Went to microsoft dloaded all updates for xp (not many i needed 5 ) still no better.

Ok now put my old dvdrom back in place of TS-h552b reboot to win xp hoping to read all the normal cd-r media.Guess what it decides it doesnt want to now.Browsed around net and rebooted around 5 or 6 times.Kept trying CDR backups in the DVD rom.Next thing its reading them again.So powered down , swapped back for the TS-H552b and rebooted .Tried a cd-r in it and to my amazement it decides to read a cd-r again and anything you wanna put in the tray.Next i decided to try installing alcohol 120 demo with a patch to full version lol. Ok this is where it becomes weird again.Alcohol starts its quick install like a 6 second blue bar and 3/4 way through install crashes and reboots.Win xp reboots as usual and guess what? TS-H 552 aint reading cd-r again .

Samsung ,we need some explanations fast and remedies here .Also firmware to TS06 does not do anything to rectify the situation. I tried about 15 different media types in it as well from Kodak (best quality) to Datawrite( very good quality ) and even no namers and none of them have worked since nero gave the failed dvd-r back to me.Nero gave me an error i cant remember the actual error name.

Also not sure if nero 6.0.0.0. is sp2 compatible without an update to 6.0.0.3.

This is getting changed for a pioneer wich i wanted originally.

HTH all

**Russ_1_4** · January 11th, 2005, 01:57 PM

I sent my Samsung drive back and got it replaced. The new one now works with both CDs and DVDs. So far!!!

**dieselrunner** · January 11th, 2005, 08:10 PM

hey russ , what is your master slave settings for your system

do you have a dvdrom or another writer running too?

i would like to try and clear up this problem as much as anyone else and more info on these samsungs is needed .I personally took mine back and am thinking of a pioneer or benq but dontknow yet. Seems like all the burners are going down the dual burn road sometime in the near future and maybe theres something drastically wrong with the technology.

Up to now critical symptoms can be 1 of the following for not reading blanks and other kinds of media errors .

IDE settings wrong
Virus in system
writing software version not up to date for service pack 2 etc
incompatible drive with pc spec(rare)
lazer damage
corrupt files transferred (CRC)
Bad media cd-r dvd-r

From experience like the rest of you with this drive im narrowing it down to 3 things now.

1- Either Nero couldnt communicate with service pack 2 and stopped the drive from being functional from a bad dvd-r burn.Somehow wixp stopped dvd writing after one attempt.

2- ide setup is wrong

3- lazer is damaged .

keep us posted russ as you go with the new burner please ,on the whole i like this drive but there is a flaw in it somewhere.

1 eg was a simple iso file i burned when i had the burner.it was a vcd file.the burn was successful and i just tried it in a couple of standalone dvd players.To my surprise it freezes on the load screen .DVD player says theres 10 tracks but is stuck.Ok i tried it in the pc and the disk reads in an LG writer(excellent btw) i noticed the folder layout to be usual apart from 1 file wich was outside the folder structure.Never seen a vcd file structure with an avi outside the folders.Something went wrong here and it was the samsung that burned it.Maybe the guy who created the iso got it wrong.Anyway mpegav folder was all in tack,10 files and all the rest of the folders ok .Thing is i could copy every file back to the desktop apart from the mpegav files.I have burned a fair few vcds and never known this to occur ever.Maybe it was a bad disk but i cant see it as nero was successful.

cheers

**Russ_1_4** · January 12th, 2005, 01:25 PM

I'm running the Samsung as a slave drive. I've also got a DVD-ROM installed. I mailed Samsung about the problem initially and they tried to blame XP-SP2. I didn't buy this so spoke to the place I got it from who asked me to return it, they confirmed it was a hardware problem and replaced it.

As far as I can work out, the Samsung must run 2 lasers, one for CDs, one for DVDs and on the one I had replaced the CD laser wasn't working. Might be talking crap there but that's how it seems.

**blominator** · April 10th, 2005, 05:23 PM

Just wanted to say that the CD part of my Samsung TS-H552B also died - plays and recognizes all DVD's, but no CD-media. Updated firmware, uninstalled InCD (has given me trouble in the past), but all to no avail . . . wake up Samsung!

**Nastykiller** · May 6th, 2005, 07:37 AM

Having the same problem here, we're contacting DELL. If we get any good answers (which don't include changing the drive) I'll let you know! Funny how everyone seems to complain about the same drive, and Samsung haven't done anything to fix it, yet...or so it seems

**tsands54** · June 2nd, 2005, 05:06 PM

I am having the same problem with the dvd burner not reading cds but will now read dvds. I'm using a Sony DRU-710A double layer burner with nero 6. The burner worked fine for 3 wks then stop reading everything. Then I took it out looked at it and put it back in. Now it reads dvds but still won't play or recogzine cds. I have also upgraded the firmware. To me this is when my problems started. IS THERE A SOLUTION TO THIS PROBLEM?

**confus-ed** · June 3rd, 2005, 03:04 AM

Welcome to Wd forums tsands54.

Have you tried the 'cd boot test' detailed in this forums sticky here ? That ought to let you test your unit for cd 'workingness' with the least amount of software interferance that might otherwise cause issue...