Hello, i'm new here and have started having problems with my cd/ dvd drive. it'll read discs with media on them, but whenever i put a blank one in, it tells me to insert a blank disc...and i've tried several different fresh blanks... any help?
The disc is the medium. More than one disc are media. What is on the disc are files. The carrier is called the "medium" because it is in the middle between the information and the audience. (It's a Latin second declension neuter; that's why the plural is "media," as in all second declension neuter plurals.) When a drive asks for a blank disc even when one is in it, it is often because the drive does not recognize the disc's identification code and doesn't know what to do with it. (Some drives simply attempt to write with a default strategy and often ruin the disc while other drives may call an unrecognized disc an "invalid" disc or a "dirty disc.") What is the model number of your drive and its firmware version? (The firmware version will appear in utilities such as Nero InfoTool. The firmware is the set of instructions that includes the recognition of the disc codes, and the number of the version indicates how recent it is.) What type of discs are you using? With this information it will be easier to identify the problem and find a fix for it.
i'm sorry, i dont quite understand...i'm using iTunes (maybe my first mistake..) but i dont know where to find utilities, or the drive model number....
iTunes will not have the utilities to identify your drive and its firmware. I am not familiar with recording discs using iTunes. To find out your drive, right click on My Computer, open Device Manager under the Hardware tab, double-click DVD/CD-ROM drives, double-click your drive, and open the Details tab. That will identify the drive (known as an "ID string"), and the last three to four digits will be the firmware version.
Your drive has a firmware update available at the following link: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareList?os=228&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&product=502021&lang=en Your firmware version is ED24, and in March 2006 HP released firmware version HJ24. Firmware is the set of instructions contained in a programmable memory chip in the drive. The instructions tell the drive how to recognize a disc and what laser power to use on it. It is possible that the discs you are trying to use are not recognized by your drive, and it is refusing to even attempt to write to them rather than waste them (and have you write about how they are "poor quality" discs.) Updating the firmware may--or may not--help in this regard, but it won't hurt. Updating firmware is not any trickier than plugging a device into an electrical wall socket, but doing either one wrong can produce painful results. The main concern about updating firmware is to be sure that the drive's power source is not interrupted as its memory chip is being updated. A scrambled memory chip renders the drive usesless. There are other possibilities that can account for the symptoms your drive is showing, but incompatible firmware is the most likely cause. If an update does not work, we can try other things.
aaaargg!! I am having the same problem but worse. My DVDRW/CDRW drive has stopped reading or writing to CD'S!!!!! I have updated firmware, tried different media but when I put in a blank CD it says "Insert Blank Media" even when I put in a CD ROM game it wont read it @ all. Now heres the kicker...I hooked up a USB CD writer that I know works and guess what...It wouldnt recognize the CD's either???? Any Help???
