GSA-H30L is only reading a 'few' discs.

Hi,

I currently have a HP DVD-RW 16X HL-DT-ST DVDRRW GSA-H30L that came with the HP computer running Vista Home Premium OS. Also the DVD drive is lightscribe type.

The problem I am having is that the drive is only reading a 'few' discs. By that I mean it will not read/recognise a lot of disc either blank or already with data on them. I have tried DVD-RW, DVD+RW etc and used TDK and Verbatim for the blank discs.

I have uninstalled the drivers then rebooted and the driver reinstalled automatically. This did not fix the problem.

I have downloaded the latest firmware from HP and installed, again no difference.

I have run out of ideas and am thinking possibly the optical drive is not reading the disc or is on the way out, that is why it some discs.

thanks all

 

MP you've covered a lot of things that I would look at.. Have you made sure that your cable is in good working order? How bout PIO mode, it should be in DMA mode. How old is the drive and how many reads, burns, and scans (if it can?) have you done? Up front the prognosis looks a little dim but it could just be a simple cable issue.

I'm NOT familiar with Vista so I'm working on XP knowledge.

You might go into the the "device manager" and see what it says about the mode of your ODD.

There's only a couple of things we (you) can do to see if you have a good or bad ODD. good luck.

...gm

 

Thanks greensman.

I am not familar with a few things you mentioned such as:

'You might go into the the "device manager" and see what it says about the mode of your ODD'.

Can you explain what the 'mode of ODD'...if I guessed correctly you mean Optical Disk Drive, but I don't know about mode?. and How bout PIO mode, it should be in DMA mode'

Sorry if I sound a bit like a Newbie but still learning.

Also the whole system is only 1 year old but the DVD burner a DVD-RW 16X HL-DT-ST DVDRRW GSA-H30L has been used a bit for reading/burning.

Thanks

 

It's a junk drive. If you check the other topics you will see we have been down this road with these lumps of rubbish before. TBH you have been lucky it has lasted a whole year. (I can buy these drives in batches of 100 for £35.. a sure sign of quality.. NOT..hehehe) HL-DT ST are rebranded OEM quality control rejects by the look of them.. They seem to be all types and makes.. I think yours might be a samsung by the GSA in the model code.

It seems that the OEM builders have come up with a third way to attempt to stop people doing anything with bought dvd's.. first you have the pointless protection put on the disks, then they add fista and all it's drm features.. then they top it off with a completely rubbish dvd burner.

Go buy a decent burner. I would get a pioneer 112 or similar. Dirt cheap, and should last a few years of quality burning.

 

varnull strait to the point. lol.

She's right MP, I just didn't want to say it. lol. There's plenty of GOOD drives out there and the Pioneer 112 is one of them. I have 2 btw.

Device Manager (in XP) can be reached by Right clicking MY computer, properties, hardware, "expand" IDE controllers, then right clicking Primary and Secondary devices then clicking the advanced tab in that window... remember this is all XP OS NOT Vista.

btw your ODD (Optical Disc Drive) is a Samsung and crap to boot. Sorry..

NOW if you would like some suggestions beyond the Pioneer 112 then ask away but it's a VERY good drive.

...gm

 

Varnull and Greensman,

Thanks for the replies. I appreciate the direct comments. I believe you are right as I bought this as a bundled system from a company and they would have put the cheapest junk around in it......but at the time I was 'blinded' by the sale price (teach me to be a cheap skate).

Since I bought an extended warranty I will see about getting it replaced with a decent drive. Probably doe snot help I run Vista as an OS....another good choice by myself ):

 

Your dvd drive isnt bad , just the firmware that hp put on the update page !!! i did alot or research on this and the drive is actually ok . whoever did the driver update did a major screwup .

 

Wow, you seem to be the source of all knowledge - let me bask in your presence. /sarcasm

Pretty sure this is an LG drive though guys. Either way, it's still useless.

I still have my guide stickied in this forum (at the top), so take a look-see (granted it hasn't been updated for a while - especially the IDE/SATA bit - so if anyone wants bits changing, PM me. I'm now a somewhat retired DVD boff).