CD Writer not recognised as recordable

  • Thread starter Thread starter Andrew McKechnie
  • Start date Start date
A

Andrew McKechnie

My CD writer works fine as a CD ROM, but won't write.
When I try to access a blank CD I get a message 'Drive
not accessible, Incorrect function', and when I look at
the Properties of the hardware device there is
no 'Recording' tab. Microsoft KB article 316529
describes the problem exactly, which it says can happen
if certain registry entries are wrong. However, in my
case they are as they should be. Can anyone suggest what
to try next, short of reloading Windows, which is what
the manufacturer's support desk is suggesting?
Andrew
 
My CD writer works fine as a CD ROM, but won't write.
When I try to access a blank CD I get a message 'Drive
not accessible, Incorrect function', and when I look at
the Properties of the hardware device there is
no 'Recording' tab. Microsoft KB article 316529
describes the problem exactly, which it says can happen
if certain registry entries are wrong. However, in my
case they are as they should be. Can anyone suggest what
to try next, short of reloading Windows, which is what
the manufacturer's support desk is suggesting?
Andrew
Click to expand...

Have you disabled any services? Particularly, the IMAPI service?
 
IMAPI starts up each time I try to use the writer, then
stops after a few seconds. If I start it manually it
does the same. It doesn't seem to be disabled - where
would it say?
-----Original Message-----
Click to expand...
 
IMAPI starts up each time I try to use the writer, then
stops after a few seconds. If I start it manually it
does the same. It doesn't seem to be disabled - where
would it say?
Click to expand...

In Administrative Tools> Services. If using XP's burning features it should
be set to Automatic start type.

You mentioned the manufacturer was suggesting a reload of Windows. Is this
recommendation coming from the drive manufacturer or the computer
manufacturer? Is this a new computer? Did the drive ship with it? Or was it
added later? Has the drive ever worked properly in XP or otherwise?

Reason: Not all burners are compatible with XP. A firmware update or the
use of third party burning software may get the drive burning again.
 
The drive is as shipped with the computer (a Samsung in
an Evesham computer), and it's Evesham who are suggesting
re-installing Windows. The system is >2yr old and the
drive regularly wrote CDs with XP, until a recent problem
resulted in a new hard disk and a reload by Evesham under
warranty. This is the first time I have tried the CD
writer since it came back, so I'm not certain it worked
then. I have done a System Restore to the earliest
restore point available, and it still won't work.

IMAPI shows up as Manual, but Event Viewer shows it
starting then stopping each time I try to access the
drive. Changing it to Automatic doesn't seem to make any
difference.
Andrew
 
Now this is weird!! Still get the error message, and
there is still no recording tab on the Properties viewed
from My Computer or Device Manager. However, Windows
Media Player is quite happy to write to the CD without
error, and I have just used it to copy an audio CD.
Looking at the properties of the device via Media Player
Options, and Lo! and Behold, there's a Recording tab. So
it seems it's not a problem with the device, but with
Explorer's view of it.
 
Now this is weird!! Still get the error message, and
there is still no recording tab on the Properties viewed
from My Computer or Device Manager. However, Windows
Media Player is quite happy to write to the CD without
error, and I have just used it to copy an audio CD.
Looking at the properties of the device via Media Player
Options, and Lo! and Behold, there's a Recording tab. So
it seems it's not a problem with the device, but with
Explorer's view of it.
Click to expand...

Maybe Media Player kicked Explorer in the ... backside? Very weird. I hope
this change holds for you. Are you able to burn CDs without Media Player
yet?
 
I have the exact same problem. Third party burning programs and media
player work fine. Just explorer does not see the CD-RW as a writable failing
with the invalid function message when you try to put a blank in the drive.
I have read all the kb articles included the one that discusses this
problem except all my settings in the registry are correct. Don't know if
its coincidence or related but it started when I used NTbackup.
If you find the problem please post the solution. :-)
 
Same problem here. It has been a few weeks since I used by burner. All of a sudden it has stopped working. It shows up as a CD-ROM but not as a CD-RW. Ntbackup has also stopped functioning. I cannot open the removable media folder in the manage mmc, it appears it cannot find anything to write to (I usually back up to a hard drive and then copy that file to a CD-R). I have a dual boot, Win98 and WinXP, the burner works fine on the Win98 side but I get the dreaded "incorrect function" on the XP side. So for sure it is an XP problem. My IMAP is in automatic but it will not stay running. This thing is driving me mad

Any help will be appreciate

Thank

Trevor
 
I still can't write to the Writable CD Folder - same
error message as before. Still no Recording tab in the
device properties viewed from My Computer or Device
Manager. It's not that Media Player changed anything, it
just seems that the problem doesn't affect Media Player
but does affect Explorer.
Andrew
-----Original Message-----
Click to expand...
 
Chris
I do use NTBackup on the system, but not to write to CD.
I run scheduled jobs to create backup sets on the C:
drive, which are then copied off to an external hard
drive. My system is XP Home, which doesn't install
NTBackup by default, and you need to go and look for it
on the installation disk. There is a note somewhere that
certain features of NTBackup aren't supported on XP Home,
but surely that doesn't mean it will trash your system
out of spite if you use it!!!
Andrew
 
I still can't write to the Writable CD Folder - same
error message as before. Still no Recording tab in the
device properties viewed from My Computer or Device
Manager. It's not that Media Player changed anything, it
just seems that the problem doesn't affect Media Player
but does affect Explorer.
Andrew
Click to expand...

I don't know what to suggest next, Andrew. The free tool in XP is very
basic and works with most mainstream burners. If it was my system, I
would download a free trial of Nero after checking their pages for
compatible drives.

When XP first came out, my burner worked with it. Then there were a
few updates and it would not interact with the builtin burning.
Installed Nero and it was fine. Eventually the drive was replaced. No
idea if they work with XP's burning options since I prefer using 3rd
party apps. Currently using Roxio because it's the only software that
works with the DVD+RW drive I currently have but I prefer Nero out of
the two.

Your drive works. Media Player proved that to you. For whatever reason
the builtin CD burning just isn't cutting it for you anymore.

There is a good web page by MVP Alex Nichols that's about XP's CD
burning. Besides covering the procedures this part of XP uses, it
covers some good troubleshooting suggestions. Perhaps something there
will help:
http://www.aumha.org/win5/a/xpcd.htm


Sharon F
MS MVP - Windows XP
 
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