DVD-RW 8165 problems

**Inspiron83** · January 19th, 2005, 04:35 PM

I recently bought a laptop (Fujitsu Siemens Amilo D 7830) that has a DVD-RW/CD-RW combo drive. It can read CD's, DVD's fine and can even burn CD-R's with no problem. But it refuses to burn DVD's. I use Nero Express 6 for all my burning processes. I either get 30-40% done with a DVD and it says "illegal disk" and stops the burning. I am burning a extracted movie and it plays the burned parts just fine. So i tried burning data and got the same thing, either go about half through and stop or stop at the very begining. Any idea as to what might be the problem? I do belive the drives brand is Ricoh, not sure though Thanks!

**hudsonsmith** · January 19th, 2005, 04:56 PM

Have you tried another brand of media?
Do you have DMA activated?

**Inspiron83** · January 19th, 2005, 05:12 PM

Originally Posted by hudsonsmith

Have you tried another brand of media?
Do you have DMA activated?

I am planning on returning the current media and exchange it for another brand tomorrow when the stores open. As for DMA, i am not exactly sure how to check if it is active or not, although i do think i saw it was not (HDD was and optical drive wasn't but im not sure). How can one check of DMA is activated or not? Thanks!

**hudsonsmith** · January 19th, 2005, 11:18 PM

Open device management. In XP its under the advanced settings tab for the secondary (or primary) ide controller properties.

**Inspiron83** · January 20th, 2005, 07:23 AM

Originally Posted by hudsonsmith

Open device management. In XP its under the advanced settings tab for the secondary (or primary) ide controller properties.

Thank you, i checked both (primary and secondary) and they are both running on DMA (Primary on DMA mode 5) and secondary in DMA mode 2. So yes, they are active. As for the different media, in a few hours i'll hop over to the store and see if i can return/exchange these disks for a different type. I'll post an update once i do, thank you very much!

**Update**

I exchanged the DVD-R's for a different brand (Imation) and they still give the same error. Tried two disks and decided i should probably take the system to the dealers workshop when they open in a few days, unless anyone has any ideas? Thanks

**idclifford** · May 28th, 2005, 05:43 AM

I had exactly the same problem you describe. Nero gives an error half way through writing the dvd. I solved it, eventually, after months of arguing with the guys at Siemens by installing extra RAM. The 256MB standard with the 7830 seems to give problems for full length dvds. Seems so simple, doesn't it. You can try all the different media you like, won't make much difference.

Good luck, Ivor