Combo cdrw/dvd stopped writing

[Paul Heslop]

I have a new machine, (running xp home sp1a) inside of which is a
combo-52X16C (that's all the info there is on it, no brand or
anything) the first week it was writing fine but on high speeds could
wreck discs so I set it to 16x and it seemed okay. then it stopped
burning cheap silver discs, but that's also fine... I didn't use it
for a few weeks due to the machine itself being very unstable and
while I was checking through some error logs I noticed a small mention
of a bad block on cdr... i hadn't used the drive for a while so I put
in a blank and tried... nothing... then I put in a used cdrw...
nothing. Basically it will read any disc which already has content
but not blanks. If I try to burn it waits until i say burn then says
the drive is empty.

The recording tab is present and I'm at a loss. I've uninstalled and
allowed windows to install drivers again, nothing.

I also tried looking at the registry entry

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\CD
Burning\Drives

which i spotted on the net but when I get to the last part there is no
'drives' part.

I'm pretty much at a loss after attempting many things, including
using nero, inbuilt windows burner and mediaplayer (which I've never
used before so i may have done that one wrong, but anyway it failed)

 

[Guest]

Hi,

If you see bad block inside the drive, that is hardware problems.
Try go to the PC manufacturer's website and download the firmware of the
combo drive. Or, simply return the PC and ask the vendor to fix it as it
should be still in the warranty period.

Care: if you know nothing about how to upgrade firmware, don't try it as it
would permanently damage the drive for an imporper ungrading of firmware.

Peter

 

[Paul Heslop]

Hi,

If you see bad block inside the drive, that is hardware problems.
Try go to the PC manufacturer's website and download the firmware of the
combo drive. Or, simply return the PC and ask the vendor to fix it as it
should be still in the warranty period.

Care: if you know nothing about how to upgrade firmware, don't try it as it
would permanently damage the drive for an imporper ungrading of firmware.

Peter

Thanks peter. As it is I've been trying to get everything back up
without involving the manufacturer. They slightly damaged the fascia
on delivery and I've been waiting ever since for a promised
replacement, despite two phone calls to them. Their website is thin on
details, seems they'd prefer you to ring them, which of course costs
money, and if they decide it's a software problem, which I'm sure
they'll try to do, then they charge a premium rate.

I'm told a cdrw drive can't have a bad block, it would have been the
actual cd disc which was faulty, which I can live with.