Can't Burn CD/DVD Laptop Pioneer DVD-RW Drive

**willycash** · October 4th, 2004, 10:46 PM

I have an Acer TM 800, Intel centrino 1.6ghz, Windows XP Pro, Pioneer DVD-RW DVR-K11. Recently installed windows SP2. Use Nero 6 Ultra.

I have had this laptop for a year now, happily burning cd's and dvd's, then a few weeks ago i found i couldn't read "backed-up" DVD movies (burning software; DVDXCopy and Dvd Shrink). Some dvd copies could be read but some couldn't, it was almost like the drive was degrading in what it could read, one day i could read a copied movie, the next day it didn't recognise a disk. Now i'm in a position that my dvd-rw/cd-rw drive can read cd's that has had files burnt on, but not dvd's with files burnt on. It CAN read shop bought dvd's and audio cd's.

I've since found out that i can't burn onto either media (cd's or dvd's) at all, it doesn't recognise a disk in the drive (when there is one in there). I have tried various media types, no joy.

Reading previous threads i tried some things:

downloaded (http://www.adaptec.com/worldwide/sup...aspi_471a2.exe) and installed....... no joy

Downloaded and installed the latest Intel(R) Chipset Software from the Acer manufacturer...... no joy

Downloaded, installed & ran the WinFlash Bios program from the manufacturer....... again no joy.

Any assistance to get my reading blank dvd's and burning cd's and dvd's again would be greatly appreciated, Thanks.

**AlienDyne** · October 6th, 2004, 06:47 AM

Seems like the drive is dying. A firmware update might help. I found one here: http://forum.rpc1.org/dl_firmware.ph...&manufactor=25 , but this is used to make the drive region free.

**confus-ed** · October 6th, 2004, 07:04 AM

Originally Posted by Alien Dyne, former mod of this parish who hasn't been here for ages ! ;)

Seems like the drive is dying...

Good gravy .. where have you been hiding yourself !? very nice to see you 'back'

Yup that (I can find it described as 'dual laser' a few places & they generally go sooner than single ones) or sp2 is creating havoc again ?

Did this happen immediately after installing sp2 ?

**AlienDyne** · October 6th, 2004, 07:21 AM

Originally Posted by confus-ed

Good gravy .. where have you been hiding yourself !? very nice to see you 'back'

Well, I was busy most of the times..
Nice to see you too!

**Atodini** · October 6th, 2004, 07:25 AM

An interesting take on this concerns the Pioneer A05 installed in this machine. A couple of months ago, like yours, it started to display all the symptoms of a dying laser, and I was resigned to replacing it, but I thought I would play a bit first.

After a lot of Googling I eventually found a free firmware update which promised to make it region free amongst other things, downloaded & installed it and the drive's worked perfectly ever since!!

Just shows you never can tell........

So I'll just have to wait a bit longer before "testing" one of the latest batch of 16X dual layer drives we've recently got in.......

John

**willycash** · October 6th, 2004, 01:03 PM

Ahhh, this is very annoying. 1 yr and it looks like the drive is dead.

I already have DVD Region installed on my laptop, so i don't think that will help.

As for the SP2 yes, i noticed i couldn't play copied dvd's after it was installed, but i was able to burn stuf to dvd & cd. Now 2-3 weeks after the sp2 installation and there's no burning at all.

Anyone have the name of a decent laptop drive supplier? (annoyingly 1 year warranty ran out 2 weeks ago)

Thanks for your help.

**confus-ed** · October 6th, 2004, 01:19 PM

Originally Posted by willycash

..As for the SP2 yes, i noticed i couldn't play copied dvd's after it was installed, but i was able to burn stuf to dvd & cd. Now 2-3 weeks after the sp2 installation and there's no burning at all..

Well since your warranty just bit the dust, lets cover some of the obvious before getting you to lash some cash as laptop slot-in units aren't cheap generally ..

So maybe remove sp2 ? (there's a topic on it somewhere here if you are uncertain how). At the moment also its worth appreciating lots of apps, that worked pre sp2, might not work after (or 'strangely') & you need program updates, lots of stuff currently affected by that.

Clean it ? that often has remarkable effect & its easy to forget & if you suspect its broken, you can maybe be a bit more adventureous & open it up - fluff has been at the bottom of many a false alert

Then if its really 'busted' maybe consider an external DVD ? they come in handy for other things too being portable etc & will probably work out cheaper than a laptop unit.

If you want 'recommends' tell us what country so we can be sure they ship there, carriage often makes a big difference

**3fingersalute** · October 6th, 2004, 02:09 PM

Great to see you again Aliendyne!

**AlienDyne** · October 7th, 2004, 01:42 AM

Originally Posted by 3fingersalute

Great to see you again Aliendyne!

Thank you. Great to see you too, 3fingersalute!

**willycash** · October 7th, 2004, 01:15 PM

Confuzed,

At teh moment i'm running a full defrag, man alive my hdd was in a mess, paging files all over the shop! I don't know of this will help my particular situation but i'm sure it can't hurt.

If that still doesn't work, i'll give the remove sp2 a bash and let you know how it goes.

Anothing thing, last night i played what looks like a very dodgy Far east dvd copy, and that worked fine, just not blank dvd-r's that i have copied things on (these copies do work in stand alone dvd players).

Really appreciating this help, will report back.

**willycash** · October 8th, 2004, 01:23 PM

Ok interesting turn of events.

After a full defrag of my hdd i also ran a "pre-boot defrag" using disk-keeper. The pre-boot defrag was reccommended by the disk-keeper software itself.

My dvd drive now plays th copied dvd's it even recognises blank cd's and dvd's in the drive. However it starts to burn them (with Nero) and fails halfway through.

I have a sneaky suspision this my have something to do with all the tinkering around i did prior to the defrag, i will try to download a nero update, or uninstall and reinstall the whole program.

Will let you know what happens.

**NooNoo** · October 16th, 2004, 10:13 AM

And?

**willycash** · October 16th, 2004, 10:21 AM

Sorry for lack of update, kinda busy.

I uninstalled Nero and reinstalled my original burning software (CDI) which came withe the laptop. Now everything burns sweetly, dvd's and cd's

It seems like that pre-boot defrag did the trick, but warning it did take 16+ hours.

Cheers