Toshiba TEAC DV-28E-A DVD-ROM wont read Data DVDs

[djalecc01]

Hello everyone, and a Happy new Year to you all.

I came to this forum when at first my DVD-ROM stopped reading DVD's, but worked on normal CD's... After a few days of trying different things that people mentioned I got it to work (tho I cant remember how!... I think it was a simple cleaning of the lens issue).

So the good news is its all working fine, it reads DVD's (Bought ones)
It reads normal CD, Games or Data ones that I've burnt.

However...

It will not read Data DVD's that I have burnt on a different PC.

I have tried buring the DVD's in every possible way (option) using Nero, but with no luck.

My other DVD player reads them all (A different PC yet again (we have 3 in the house see!)

And I was wondering if anyone out there had a cure for this problem?

Many thanks in Advance!

[Platypus]

Hi there, happy New Year to you also.

Reading a commercial disk but not a burned disk is usually due to the fact that far more laser light is reflected from the shiny silver commercial disk than the burned one.

This could mean another cleaning issue if that solved your problem previously (either just needs cleaning again, or the previous clean, whatever method you used, was only partial), or it may indicate the laser is getting weak.

Most drives (the ones that can read all kinds of disks) use a "2-in-1" dual wavelength laser, one for CD, one for DVD, and problems with one category only often means one laser chip is on its way out.

[djalecc01]

I double cleaned the lense, still no luck...

I've got this idea that it might be becuase the data disk I have burnt is one of them blue ones... And my laser is blue...

I'm going to buy some silver ones and try that...

I'll let you know the outcome!

Best Regards
Al

[djalecc01]

It seems I'm unable to buy silver blank DVD's ????

I've been to a few shops and they all seem to be Blue ones in the DVD world!!!

If anyone knows where I can buy Blank Silver DVD's in the UK, I would really like to know!

Many thanks if you can help

Alec

[CeeBee]

Silver DVD's are stamped.

[djalecc01]

Originally Posted by CeeBee

Silver DVD's are stamped.

Hi

Can you explain what you mean by this?... Or point me to some products on-line that state they are silver coated DVD's and not the Blue ones?

Many thanks

[CeeBee]

Most likely you won't find recordable silver DVD's. Those are manufactured the same way as audio CD's - by stamping - and are read-only. As a matter of fact it doesn't even make sense to make a very reflective surface for a recordable disc, as it would reflect the laser beam during recording rather than absorbing it to heat and burn the recordable layer...
If your drive refuses to burn just get a new one, prices have dropped very much...

[djalecc01]

Hi Again

Thanks for the input, the problem I'm having is not in the burning of DVD's, its a Brand New Phillips 16x DVD burner (Bought last week)

My problem is that I'm burning the Data DVD's on one PC, however I am unable to read the Disks on my Laptop (Which is what I've Backed up on to the DVD in the first place!)

This is sort of not a problem at the moment, as I have all my computers networked, and I can read the disk from any of the other DVD drives on the network.

But there will be times when I'm away with my Laptop and will need this data on some of the DVD's I've burnt, at the moment this is now useless to me as my DVD player on my Lappy wont read them (Windows just keeps asking "Please insert a disk into drive D")

I've just been talking to someone in the UK, and they say there is no such thing (Yet!!!) as a Silver recording sided DVD on the market, they are coming soon.

I dont think my DVD on my laptop has a problem as it plays normal DVD's (films etc) and it reads the Microsoft Works Suite DVD no problem at all. (all of which are silver by the way)

Its just these Blue/Purple DVDs it seems to be having the problem reading.

Any ideas welcome! )

[CeeBee]

If cleaning the lenses of your laptop's drive doesn't help then it means it's laser is either very weak or about to die. Manufactured DVD's are (as said) silver and therefore very reflective, so even a weaker laser reads them. Drives are more or less compatible with recordable DVD media (or viceversa) so sometimes it can be just a matter of finding the right brand of recordable DVD. But if you have problems with all recordable DVD's then the culprit is the reader.