My DVD drive is failing to recognise blank DVD's and this has happened now with 3 seperate brands in the last week. When I open Explorer the d:\ drive reads as DVDRAM Drive D But when I place in a blank DVD it converts to read CD Drive (D)! When I check the properties out the general tab reads CD Drive (D) Properties there is a logo of a DVD-R disc but it then reads Type CD Drive File system RAW Used Space 0 bytes Free space 0 bytes capacity 0 bytes when I check the properties it says the the device is enabled and working properly Please can you help me ASAP as I wanted to send some family DVD with the Xmas cards Thanks in advance Seasonal Greetings Graham
That is EXACTLY what my drive says, i have a LG DVD RAM drive. when i insert a dvd drive, it shows CD Drive, but it works if u wanna burn stuff to dvd, mine shows free space is 4.7 GB, but it says CD Drive, i don't know what kinda problem it is, besides, what kind of DVD RAM drive do u have?
if it sayse cd drive its no problem because you can still write to dvd its only playback if it says cd drive that it should be considered a problem...
U might to uninstall and reinstall the IDE cables. You can also try a "system restore" and set the cpu back to the last time that everything functioned the way it is supposed to. I had that same problem just last night and the system restore ended up doing the trick.
I've got this same problem with a Pioneer DVR-K14L drive; it'll play dvd's, cd's etc, but it won't recognise blank DVD's! All the details that Surferg posted above apply to my problem. It was fine until I moved house and then it suddenly stoped working. I've tried uninstralling and reinstalling the driver and I've done a system restore, but nothing's working. Anyone got any idea where I can get an updated driver from? Pioneer and Sony (it's a Vaio machine I have) are no use at all... Cheers, Ex.
Exinferis, have you tried uninstalling the IDE cables and then letting the computer recognize and install them on restart?
Hi Btitus. Well, you see, the problem I have is that it's a Sony Vaio Desktop and getting to the drive means practicly taking the whole thing apart! It is still under warrenty, but to get such a simple thing sorted means sending the whole computer back to Sony so they can fiddle with it! Thought I'd see if I could sort it myself before letting them at it! I might attempt getting to it if I can get away with it! Thanks for your advice, I'll be back with an update!
You don't have to physically uninstall the IDE cables or the drive. You can go to control panel, system, hardware, device manager, IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers. You should see a primary and secondary channels. Right click and drop down to "uninstall" click on uninstall and then restart the computer. The computer should detect and re-install on startup...
Ah, I've already done that (one of the first things I did!); I thought you ment physicly unplug and then reinstall. Anyway, I've had a look and there's no way I can get into it without voiding the warrenty, so I couldn't have done it anyway! I've tried all the software fixes I can think of, but this has got me stumped...
I really wish some of the more seasoned members would chime in and give you some better instructions.....
Yeah, it would be nice if I could get this fixed. You kow what it's like this time of year; if I try and get Sony to collect it, it'll be after the new year. Anyway, I appreciate your help Btitus!
ok im going to attempt to help... is your firmware up to date... if you do not know pm creaky and ask hime, find out your drive name and firmware version through nero info tool... i highly doubt that there would be an actual physical problem in you cabling itself... try going to the device manager through going to control panel, system, hardware tab, device manager + under DVD/CDROM drives right click your drive and select uninstall, once this has happened, restart your computer see if it works... if it does not, try running the windows troubleshooter that may be able to help... if nothing i have said works then try going to Accessories under the start menu, system utilities, then system restore, restore your computer back to an earlier time when the drive was working properly (this will not delete any of your files)... if this does not work (any of it) then i have to say backup your documents and files and run a system recovery (erase everything, reinstall everything) then after doing this see if it works if so create a restore point and create a hard drive backup... hope this helps...
Hi Phantom, Thanks for trying to help me out! I've actually done everything you've suggested, bar checking the firmware. I did think of that, but because the Vaio's not connected to the internet right now (I'm using my laptop to write this) I've not had the oppotunity to do that. Think I'll run an extension cable to the Vaio and give that a go as I'd really rather not do a full recovery! I'll report back later!
Hi Thanks for all the tips I will try them out I had not noticed if it read it like this until recently Nero used to burn no issues But now if sorts out the files etc - but then simply freezes when it comes to burning the DVD - I have left if over night and still nothing !! Thanks again Any other tips very gratefully recieved Seasonal greetings
Nope, it's no good. There are no updates from Sony for the Pioneer drive, only firmware for a different drive installed on most V2M's. Off to search for an alternative before I give in and restore my system...
Oh, that's interesting; in My Computer the disc is still being read as 0 bytes and the drive is reverting to CD-Rom again, but it's reading in Nero as "The disc is empty" and showing 4,483mb. Weird! Guess the Bios update sorted it out? Will try for a burn and see how it goes!
