Other responses expected of me: My drive is internal. I did install my own drive and without sounding vain I can say I have prior experience in the matter. I am using the secondary IDE cable with the problematic MicroAdvantage drive set as master and the working IOMega drive set as slave. I even tried it out with just the MicroAdvantage drive alone. I am using a 40 pin jumper. As for drivers being out of date or up to date let me say I did not have to do anything special when I bought either drive. I have used whatever drivers came with Windows XP Service Pack 2. MicroAdvantage does not provide any drivers with the burner anyway. As for analyzing the DVD, I mean I could do that for you guys but I feel it makes no sense since not a single DVD disk works on the MicroAdvantage drive. So I feel it is not the disk but the drive that is the focus of the problem. [maskosant]
maskosant, It is so very nice when you give us the information to solve your problem ) You need to use an 80-pin cable and then all will be well in Whoville - Change the cable, that's the ticket - It should make all the difference - Pete
Salutations Brother Scuba Pete, Would you please explain why an 80-pin cable would work in place of a 40 pin one? Because if I am not mistaken the cable that came with the drive was also 40 pin. And in fact I used to run a CDROM Drive and DVD-RW in tandem on this same cable. I removed the CDROM drive and put the MicroAdvantage drive in its place. So this is news to me about needing an 80-pin cable. But I am always keen on new info... Thanks [maskofsanto]
Better Data transfer - Try it you'll like it. All you do is buy the cable, the pin configuration remains, you are using 80-wires in the cable Go my friend, it's only a couple of bucks - Pete
Are you sure your cable isn't a 80 Wire cable? Easy way to tell is three different color end's Blue, Black, and Gray. Other way is to physically count the wire's. All cables are 40 Pin it's the wires that are different. The 80 wire IDE cable's just have an extra wire between the original 40 wires to keep them shielded..
Yeah good point Mayo. I was talking about pins when I mentioned 40. I need to verify this. I have a feeling mine could be an 80 wire cable. Moreover, even if it were not I am guessing it would not be the cause of the DVD drive not recognizing DVD disks. But I will verify the cable count anyway.
@VIBRNT1, This puzzles me a little? It looks like you have your CD/DVD ROM drives set up on the 0 IDE channel and your HD's on the 1 IDE channel. In other words your HD's are on the secondary IDE channel and your ROM's are on the Primary... That can't be to good. You should try switching that around and plug your Hard Drives into the 0 IDE port and your HD with the operating system on it needs to be your master... This could help your situation out If not at least your drives will be set up correctly for a smoother system
Actually it was VIBRNT1 who posted that drive configuration info. Not me. VIBRNT1 may want to heed your advice on the matter. But certainly good of you to notice that. [Garfield the Cat Rocks]
have you got nero INCD installed by any chance?if so remove it have you tried other media?(other than cmc mag's) (ignore the manufacturers compatibilty list) try using tdk's or sony your dma should be in ultra dma mode 4 for this burner if not,you need to edit the registry for this regards hursty
whoa, I alot of technical advice. Thanks. I will definitely look into having the HD on the 0 IDE channel. Also, note that I don't have the INCD installed. And I tried one other media than CMC Mag. I forgot what it was, but it still didn't work. However, thank you all for the advice. I am definitely learning alot, even if I can't get this dumb burner working
Dumb burner is right. But Vibrnt1 - tell me are you able to watch DVD movies on your MicroAdvantage drive? Or is it just that you have problems burning DVDs?
Well, I fixed the hard drive issue. Thanks everyone. However, I still can't burn movies and the burner doesn't recognize dvd movies. I don't know if I have mentioned that this, but I have been able to burn data cd's and music cd's on this burner, but I can't burn movies. Now about the 80 wire vs. 40 wire cable. I just looked at mine and I am using the 40 pin/40 wire cable. I guess I can go out and buy the 80 wire to see if that would solve the problem. Thanks again.
As I said in my post - the pin configuration remains the same, it's the wire that changes - Let us know when you've upgraded to the 80-wire cable - Thanks, Pete
Seems like either the issue is with the firmware or a possible hardware fault. Update with the latest firmware - A080 now available at http://www.microadvantage.net/consumer/?class=2&product_id=83&view=support ) Because the Micro Advantage 16DDVDRW-A13, is working perfectly most of the time the blame goes to the firmware. If the firmware is upgraded to the latest and still it does not work, then it would be worth dumping it on the vendor, if not in a junk yard. Another check would be to install the drive on another brand of computer (say Intel or AMD or even MAC). This step could be considered as the last rites before dumping. Hopefully upgrading it to the firmware should set everything right, if not at least on another computer should.
