After writing a dvd-rw or +r, mant timesthe computer drive can't read the disk

hi.
many times, either after curning files to a dvd rw or dvd +/-r all write well. Then there are times when the same burne disk previously written will not be detectable as a "eindows readable disk" wheh placed in the same drive that wrote to it!!! Other times it will and many times I have to take it to a different computer to have it read. I use quality disks, pentium cpu 3.0 ghz, 512 mb ram, burn with various programs slow, empty tsr programs, including AV programs.
Is there some obvious feature I am missing or settings that I should check before having a dvd read, even if nothing was changed and it is placed in the same DVD drive that successfully wrote to it before?


Any help on this really frustrating and intermittent annoyance; I never know for sure whether a good dvd , even a movie backed up or data will be recognized when replaced in the drive that wrote to it earlier. Disks and drives are cleaned regularly and the computer is cleaned of malware, viruses, etc., regularly. I have Win XP home sp2 with all updates.

Thanks for any help or links to programs that solve these issues

Miles

 

What brand of discs are you using?

 

VERBATIM + RW, SONY +RW, never generic ones. Also there are times when a rental dvd will not play in the dvd drive, as the light never goes out after inserting the dvd!!However, the same dvd will play in a different dvd drive and vica versa. Even when there are no scratches and both drives are clean!!!
There must be a common setting problem that is set right when it runs and gets changed after playing or burning a dvd. Then the next movie or blank dvd is not recognized by windows and/or the light stays on after inserting the disk??

Thanks for any help

 

what programs are you using when you write to disk?

 

backups movies: 1clickdvdcopy and xcopydvd express

copying to dvd: ashampoo burning suite 6, several others free and shareware, nero.....it does the same intermittently with all programs, sometimes it will read the disk, other times it will not recognize the same disk!!

thanks for help

mesmd

 

How do you "clean your drive regularly"? I hope you are not touching the laser lens or its carriage. Even the slightest amount of pressure can knock it out of alignment. When your drive's lights stay lit but the drive cannot play a disc, that is a sign of the drive's struggle to find the disc's tracking information and start following the track from the beginning. A misaligned laser pick-up head is going to have problems getting a good reading from any disc.

 

JOE,
What simple ways for a novice do you recommend to clean a burner or dvd rom.?I had been using the Maxell cd disk that runs in the drive and cleans the read and write heads and also allegedly clarifies both the audio and video quality playing of the drive.

Thanks,

Miles

 

There is seldom any reason to clean a drive unless it is in an environment where airborne grease (kitchens, for example) can get on the laser lens. This can happen to optical disc players, but recorders should be in a cleaner, more stable environment.

As for cleaning discs, I use the type of eyeglass cleaner designed for plastic lenses. The same optical grade polycarbonate is used for both substrates and glass lenses; and in a discount drug store, the cleaner is inexpensive. Spray the disc, then wipe gently from the inside ring to the outside edge with a lint-free cloth. If any debris gets caught in the cloth, it can only scratch perpendicularly across a track that way. Wiping around the disc as you would to dry a dish would extend any potential scratches ALONG a track, causing the maximum damage.

There are some mechanical cleaners/fixers on the market that use alcohol to clean and jeweler's rouge to polish a disc. Avoid the kind that run on batteries: they have inconsistent pressure as the batteries quickly wear down. The AC power versions I have tested do reduce severe errors significantly and introduce no new errors. They can't work miracles, but they polished discs well enough that I could recover files I could not otherwise access.

 

Thanks JOE,

I have used your methods for cleaning the dvd disks when they were burned and then later not readable or recignized by the drive that wote them. Sometimes this resolved the the problem and other times the disk the disk, after cleaning, was still not readable or recognized! Therefore, I believed that the drive may need cleaning or adjustment that the Maxell cleaning disk claimed to do by running it in the same drive?

I have copied over 2 hundred personally owned movie Dvds on 2 different burners and this type of problem still occurs, however, < than 5 % of the time, both with movies and data DVDs. I still have no exact idea of why? The problem is made more confusing when a DVD is sometimes recognized by a different drive than the original one used to burn it!! Also the problem is intermittent and will work one time and not on a later time in the same drive??

Thanks anyway for your help and suggestions.

Miles

 

Well I always just use regular isopropyl alcohol, the 99% type has worked fine on thousands of DVD's.

A problem like yours has occured to many who've used Princo and CMC discs, work fine at first then appear blank after a time. But you say you are using good blanks. If you are in fact using RW's (rewriteables) this may be part of your problem as these aren't the most stable choice.

You may want to look towards hardware problems, reseat all cables etc. You could also fire up Nero InfoTool and look for any anomalies under the various tabs, Configuration for DMA, ASPI etc. You also haven't mentioned if your firmware is up to date. What is the model of your burner?