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HP dvd840i won't read blank media.

Discussion in 'DVD / Blu-ray drives' started by RaveGamer, Mar 15, 2007.

  1. RaveGamer

    RaveGamer Member

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    Today I tried to burn an ISO of Ubuntu Edgy with my HP dvd840i drive.

    I opened up Nero, and tried to burn an image to disc.

    It got to the part when it burns the image and popped up "Please insert media."

    Of course the disc was already in there and Nero popped the tray out. I just popped it back in, expecting it to run.

    I waited for a good 10 minutes before I quit and decided: I screwed another DVD drive.

    I tried everything. I updated the firmware, followed countless tutorials, searched Google for a few hours. Nothing worked.

    The Windows Hardware Manager detects it fine, it says there's no problems.

    Even in my computer the drive just comes up as "DVD-RAM Drive (D:)" and when I pop in a disc it comes up as "CD Drive", no disc label or anything.

    Can someone help me?
     
  2. Ripper

    Ripper Active member

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    Go to hardware manager and uninstall the IDE controllers. Reboot, and then let windows reinstall them.

    Now try to burn. Btw, I reccomend you use IMGBurn to burn your ISO files.

    See if that helps.
     
  3. RaveGamer

    RaveGamer Member

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    It got DVDs to burn, but the CDs are still not working.
     
  4. Ripper

    Ripper Active member

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    So now you can burn dvds but not cds?

    Have you tried another brand of CD?
     
  5. RaveGamer

    RaveGamer Member

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    I normally use Imation discs, which have been working fine for when my drive was working. I also had a couple of TDKs but those didn't really make a difference.

    But yeah, I tried different brands and none of them were recognized by the drive.
     
  6. Ripper

    Ripper Active member

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    Those are all poor brands. I reccomend you get some Verbatim or Taiyo Yuden Dvds/Cds.

    Also, your dvd drive's laser may be dieing, as when they get older/weaker, the laser gets pickier about what media it reads etc. Especially so for CDs.
     
    Last edited: Mar 16, 2007
  7. RaveGamer

    RaveGamer Member

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    But my drive is only a few months old.
     
  8. Ripper

    Ripper Active member

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    And..?

    1) Your drive isn't very good in the first place

    2) Bad media, like you have been using, can cause your drive's laser to fail.

     
  9. Betak

    Betak Member

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    Hey I have the same problem with my HP 840b. It reads and writes DVDs but doesn't recognize blank CDs. And I use ONLY Verbatim.
     
  10. Ripper

    Ripper Active member

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    Try cleaning the laser. You can use a laser cleaning disc or a cottun bud with rubbing alcohol on it (like ethanol etc)

     
  11. Betak

    Betak Member

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    to ripper

    Thanks for the tip. but i tried that 2 days back. used a Q tip and some rubbing alcohol. even tried re-installing the IDE channel. just to see if i'll get lucky. i bought a whole bunch of lightscibe Verbatim DVD and CDs. the DVDs work but the CDs don't. and my laser couldn't have burned out because i've not burned more than a couple of 100 DVDs. checked for firmware updates and according to the HP site, it's up to date. checked out a couple of other threads which had later firmware updates for the 840b but they were for fixing problems on specific HP desktop models. not the one i have. so i don't think it would work on my Pavilion a1320in. is there something else i can try. thanks again for your help.
     
  12. Ponyboy

    Ponyboy Guest

    I feel your pain.

    XP Pro SP2
    I have a HP 940I.
    I had this same issue with mine.
    I bought it January. Started out fine.

    I did all the normal stuff.

    Checked DMA/PIO settings. Tried both.
    Un-installed IDE controller.
    Set unit to master on secondary IDE.
    Set unit to slave on primary IDE.
    System restore.
    System repair.
    Registry filter changes.
    Firmware is up to date.
    Apply hotfix from MS

    I finally got into an email discussion with MS.
    I determined that since it started out ok I had to find out what changed.
    It comes down to a critical update. I do not know which one.
    MS will not acknowledge the problem.
    I did a clean install of XP prior to the new DVD drive.
    I did not install the critical updates at the time.
    A few weeks later when I did is when I started having problems.

    The following is one email I got from MS.
    Maybe something will help you.

    After installing some update, one DVD RW drive cannot read discs. Issue persists after performing the steps below:

    1. System Restore
    2. Reinstalled the drive
    3. Reinstalled the secondary IDE
    4. Moving suspect drive to Master on secondary IDE.
    5. Install another drive

    If I am not accurate in my understanding of this case, please feel free to correct me.

    As I understand, you have been working with Linda and the following steps were suggested:

    1. Apply hotfix KB899527
    2. Insert another CD to see if it can be read on your computer
    3. Use this CD on another computer to see if it can be read properly
    4. Change the Transfer Mode
    5. Modify the Registry

    Based on the troubleshooting results, the issue can be caused by the following factors.

    1. Hardware conflicts.
    2. Corrupted system files.

    To continue troubleshooting this issue, let’s performing the following suggestions:

    1. Click "Start", click "Run", type in "regedit" (without quotation marks) and click "OK".



    2. Navigate to the following key:



    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}



    3. Right click the {4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318} entry , choose "Export" and save it as a backup.

    Note: In case we need to undo the modification, we can double click this RegBackup.reg file to restore the registry key.

    4. Highlight this key ({4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}), on the right pane, and then check if Upperfilters and Lowerfilters value are present. If so, please right click on the values and select "Delete" to remove them.



    5. Restart your computer.


    Step 1: Unplug all other CD/DVD drives and only plug the suspect one

    Step 2: Chang the suspect CD drive to Primary IDE channel
    ============
    If you have two or more drives installed on the primary IDE channel, we may need to temporarily remove one of them.

    Step 3: System Repair
    ============
    1. Make sure you have set your CD-ROM as the first priority boot device. You may refer to your computer manual for information on how to do this.
    2. Insert the Windows XP CD into your CD-ROM and reboot your computer.
    3. When you see "Press any key to boot from CD…" on the screen, press a key to let your computer boot from the Windows XP CD.
    4. When the computer boots from the CD-ROM, it will check your hardware and then prompt you the following options.

    * To set up Windows XP now, press Enter.
    * To repair a Windows XP installation using Recovery Console, press R.
    * To quit Setup without installing Windows XP, press F3.

    Please press Enter. (Note: please do not press R at this step)

    5. Press the F8 key to agree the Licensing Agreement.
    6. You will see your current Windows XP installation listed in a box and get the following options:

    * To repair the selected Windows XP installation, press R.
    * To continue installing a fresh copy of Windows XP without repairing, press Esc.

    Please press "R".

    7. Then the setup program will repair Windows XP automatically.

    After repairing Windows XP, you may need to re-activate it. You can call the following number to activate Windows XP:



    I ended up doing a system repair which among other things completely strips your system of updates.
    After the repair, I got my drive back. I have not re-installed any critical updates.

    Last weekend I did an upgrade for a guy I work with on his computer which included a fresh install of windows.
    Did all the critical updates and guess what. His DVD drive quit reading. It's a Dell puter, not sure the brand burner.

    I did a re-format, clean install of XP and no updates.
    Works perfect.

    Sorry for the long post.
    I just thought I could share a bit of my pain.
    I have many, many hour in troubleshooting this issue.

    Good luck.
     
  13. Betak

    Betak Member

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    thanks for the reply. so it comes down to a system repair. will try it out. thanks again for the taking the time.

    P.S. i hope RaveGamer is following this thread.
     
  14. Ponyboy

    Ponyboy Guest

    System repair was my last resort.
    I'm the kind of person that needs find the root cause of the problem.
    In this case I really have no clue why a critical update caused this issue, only that it did in fact cause it.

    Try these fixes first and anything anyone else may have to offer.

    You might get lucky.

    Let us know.
     

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